Quotes of Note: H. Beam Piper, "Little Fuzzy" III

Quotes of note from Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper:

(Page numbers gleaned from the 1983 eighth printing of the Ace mass-market paperback.)

"You never get anywhere by arguing religion with a priest." (p. 95) 

"You [don't] have to believe a thing to prove it. It helps, but it isn't necessary." (p. 96)

"People who have been charged with crimes ought to have public vindication if they are innocent." (p. 117) 

"In colonial law, you can find a precedent for almost anything." (p. 118)

"[O]nly one-tenth, never more than one-eighth, of our mental activity occurs above the level of consciousness." (p. 123) 

"[N]onsapient beings think, but only subconsciously... ." (p. 123) 

"[I]f you're innocent you're better off before a court-martial and if you're guilty you're better off in a civil court." (p. 149) 

"[O]nly the sapient mind thinks and knows that it is thinking." (p. 159) 

"The nonsapient animal is conscious only of what is immediately present to the senses and responds automatically." (p. 159) 

"The sapient mind ... is conscious of thinking about these sense stimuli, and makes descriptive statements about them, and then make statements about those statements, in a connected chain." (p. 159) 

"[T]he sapient mind can generalize. To the nonsapient animal, every experience is either totally novel or identical with some remembered experience." (p. 159) 

"The sapient being can conceive of something which has no existence whatever in the sense-available world of reality, and then he can work in plan toward making it a part of reality. He can not only imagine, but he can also create." (p. 168)

Quotes of Note: "Comfort Me with Apples" by Catherynne M. Valente

Quotes of note from Comfort Me with Apples by Catherynne M. Valente:

(I read this on my iPad via Kindle, so page numbers are suspect. Thank you, public library!)

"Silver hair ... is the medal won by wisdom." (19 percent)

"A surprise, even a little one, means a change in the world... ." (22 percent)

"When he thuds, the world listens and gets out of his way. That is her whole understanding of men." (26 percent)

"There is nothing better in the afternoon than a meal and a bit of music." (27 percent)

"It is always a blessing and a relief to be spoken for." (28 percent)

"I am happy... . How could I be otherwise? I am fed, I am housed, I am busy, I am loved." (29 percent)

"It is such a wonderful thing in this world, to have friends." (31 percent)

"Holidays are therefore superfluous." (31 percent)

"Suffering of any kind is and shall be considered contraband." (31 percent)

"A freelancer knows not the meaning of the words day shift or night shift!" (32 percent)

"Honest work banishes bad memories with such efficiency!" (33 percent)

"[S]he is not lying. Not yet." (42 percent)

"Be a good neighbor and you will have good neighbors!" (47 percent)

"You are the life, but I am the party." (72 percent)

"[I]t feels so good to be held, it feels so good to be spoken to like she is capable and wise, to hear her life gain weight, fed by [another]. Fed by being seen." (72 percent)

"Solidarity is a hell of a thing." (75 percent)

"You are beautiful and convincing too... ." (77 percent)

"The truth hurts so much better." (79 percent)

"[N]o one should have to live without the things they love." (81 percent)

"If I do not deserve happiness, who does?" (84 percent)

"Your Father is my Father too. He made me too." (85 percent)

"This is the beginning of the universe and I make the rules." (89 percent)

Quotes of Note: "The Andre Norton Megapack" by Andre Norton

Quotes of note from The Andre Norton Megapack by Andre Norton:

(I'm reading this collection of short stories on my Kindle, so page numbers are suspect.)

"Much could be forgiven a man who allowed one to eat regularly again." (1 percent)

"While we can pass, let us." (2 percent)

"Men forget knowledge in time." (3 percent)

"Different worlds, different customs... ." (4 percent)

"[O]ne adjusted to the customs of aliens or one didn’t trade... ." (4 percent)

"[O]fttimes contact with an alien race did require long and patient handling." (5 percent)

"[B]etween study and experiencing the situation himself there was a gulf... ." (5 percent)

"There were no short cuts which endangered others... ." (5 percent)

"We all off-fire our tubes at times... ." (5 percent)

"[T]he wisest part of valor was not to sample alien strong drinks, [but] ceremony often required that they break bread (or its other world equivalent) on strange planets." (6 percent)

"[I]t was always better to nibble and live, than to gorge and die." (6 percent)

Quotes of Note: "The Murray Leinster Megapack" by Murray Leinster

Quotes of note from The Murray Leinster Megapack by Murray Leinster:

(I'm reading this collection of short stories on my Kindle, so page numbers are suspect.)

"Only a man attempting to advance in the scale of civilization tries to explain everything that he sees." (6 percent)

"[E]ducation is simply training in thought, in efficient and effective thinking." (7 percent)

"Even in the high civilization of ages before, few men had really used their brains. The great majority of people had depended upon machines and their leaders to think for them." (7 percent)

"What was near was important, and what was distant could be ignored. Only the imminent required attention... ." (7 percent)

"[M]ost strange things meant danger." (7 percent)

"[T]he advancement of a people from a state of savagery and continual warfare to civilization and continual peace is not made by the elimination of the causes of strife, but by the addition of new objects and ideals, in defense of which people will offer battle." (11 percent)

"Always, to a savage, the unexplained is dangerous." (13 percent)

Quotes of Note: H. Beam Piper, "Little Fuzzy" II

Quotes of note from Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper:

(Page numbers gleaned from the 1983 eighth printing of the Ace mass-market paperback.)

"Anything that talks and builds a fire is a sapient being, yes. That's the law. But that doesn't mean that anything that doesn't isn't." (p. 36) 

"The less he had to do with the government, the better... ." (p. 71) 

Quotes of Note: H. Beam Piper, "Little Fuzzy" I

Quotes of note from Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper:

(Page numbers gleaned from the 1983 eighth printing of the Ace mass-market paperback.)

"Was a time, not so long ago, when he took his abilities for granted. Now he was getting old enough to have to verify them." (p. 7) 

"If you don't like the facts, you ignore them, and if you need facts, dream up some you do like... ." (p. 15) 

"Take a drink because you pity yourself, and then the drink pities you and has a drink, and then two good drinks get together and that calls for drinks all around." (p. 28)

Quotes of Note: Lloyd Biggle, Jr., "The Light That Never Was" III

Quotes of note from The Light That Never Was by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.:

(Page numbers gleaned from the 1973 DAW mass-market paperback.)

"Being an artist is something else. It's kind of like a state of mind. The moment an artist stops trying to do his best work in every painting, the moment he takes a shortcut because the painting is only going to be sold to or tourist who doesn't know any better, he stops being an artist. The moment he tries to please his customers instead of himself. he starts being a fraud." (p. 84) 

"[M]y reputation as an artist was more a guarantee of quality than his reputation as a dealer was a guarantee of sales... ." (p. 84) 

"[A] large number of artists would borrow a man's toenails right off his feet if they thought of a use for them." (p. 86) 

"Isn't it funny the way things look different from what they really are?" (p. 86) 

"Artists beg and borrow, but no matter how broke they are, they don't steal." (p. 87) 

"[P]overty was tolerable only when one was unaccustomed to anything else." (p. 89) 

"Rumors can start about anything... ." (p. 92) 

"Rumors are usually slanted to someone's disadvantage, and the reverse of the slant will point unerringly at the author. A rumor that's true, though, is a rumor with a devilishly awkward kink in it. It points everywhere and nowhere." (p. 93) 

"There's more mold than greatness in ... traditions." (p. 94) 

"Even a great mathematician feels the need of some physical labor for his health's sake... ." (p. 100) 

"A person who performs all kinds of contortions is highly conspicuous." (p. 106) 

"Serious artists judge other artists only on the basis of how well they paint... ." (p. 109) 

"Everything was perfect, and ... that could only mean that something was very, very wrong." (p. 110) 

"We are all guilty." (p. 115) 

"Every life is a monument to all life... . ... Every life is a destroyer of life. Each race, each species, must answer to those it has tormented before it accuses its own tormentors." (p. 115) 

"[E]very life, no matter how minute, how humble, how loathsome in appearance or habits, every life is a monument to all life." (p. 115) 

"Artists create, and those who devote their lives to creation are slower to destroy." (p. 115) 

"If there's no warning, a dozen men with explosives could do a horrible amount of damage." (p. 126) 

"Artists aren't thieves. ... [B]ut there's nothing to prevent thieves from dressing like artists... ." (p. 131) 

"I am suspicious of obvious conclusions." (p. 134) 

"Those who read the message remember it long after the display has been removed." (p. 134) 

"The correct question was why men hate, because someone assuredly had hated enough to wantonly destroy, but the answer to that lay in the provinces of medicine and philosophy." (p. 135) 

"[C]rises sometimes jolted the most prosaic painter into heroic leaps of imagination." (p. 137) 

"When people are dwarfed to insignificance, isn't it better to omit them?" (p. 146) 

"Few artists are men of action... ." (p. 149) 

"A plausible lie can be much more convincing than the truth." (p. 149) 

"Maybe that's what's wrong with this world... . ... Everyone is suspect." (p. 150) 

"[A]ll ... art needs a collision with reality." (p. 157) 

"[O]ne art lesson she had learned well concerned the inutility of arguments about art... ." (p. 159) 

"[T]he artists said I painted almost as ineptly as a critic." (p. 159) 

"Every life is a monument to all life... ." (p. 162) 

"It's the market place that determines value... ." (p. 169) 

"My valuations aren't based upon what someone else paid, but upon what I'm willing to pay." (p. 169) 

Quotes of Note: Lloyd Biggle, Jr., "The Light That Never Was" II

Quotes of note from The Light That Never Was by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.:

(Page numbers gleaned from the 1973 DAW mass-market paperback.)

"[T]he word 'efficiently' is used in many contexts, but in none of them does it actually mean 'efficiently.'" (p. 52) 

"The likes of us aren't safe unless we go where everyone else is at least as disreputable as we are." (p. 55) 

"[N]ever willingly credit... anyone with stupidity." (p. 63) 

"The Sornorians are badly underestimating what's required to take something away from a household of artists." (pp. 65-66) 

"[A]n attorney ... [will] participate in illegal activities. ... All they ask is some advance notice so they can figure out ways of doing illegal things legally." (p. 68) 

"Age does not corrupt the spirit... ." (p. 69) 

"Knowledge of the law has unexpected uses and applications throughout one's life." (p. 70) 

"If you offer an artist money, he doesn't consider that he's doing you a favor." (p. 72-73) 

"For a non-artist, an artist's costume would be a rather good disguise." (p. 77) 

"[F]ew of the young people cared to inherit the laborious poverty of their parents." (p. 78) 

"[A] thriving tourist world attracted operators dedicated to instant profits... ." (p. 79) 

"[T]here was no better investment in the galaxy than a painting by a young artist who would become great. The problem was to select the right young artist... ." (p. 80)

Quotes of Note: Lloyd Biggle, Jr., "The Light That Never Was" I

Quotes of note from The Light That Never Was by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.:

(Page numbers gleaned from the 1973 DAW mass-market paperback.)

"[T]here would be little good art without the striving of a great many artists to become great... ." (pp. 6-7)

"The galaxy doesn't produce a dozen really great artists in a generation." (p. 9)

"Ex-artists must eat." (p. 12)

"[B]eauty, shared, doesn't diminish or depreciate." (p. 17)

"[M]ost social phenomena have patterns... ." (p. 20)

"Is hatred a social phenomenon?" (p. 20)

"At our ages ... any kind of emotion is a luxury." (p. 20)

"We design [computers] exclusively for the digital or vocal capabilities of humans, and then we call the animaloids inferior because they're physically incapable of using them." (p. 20)

"[W]hat we unjustly consider inferior, we hate." (p. 20)

"Why can't those who aren't vicious receive justice?" (p. 20)

"We humans have developed so many divergent types of our own ... that we should have been more tolerant of other species." (p. 20)

"Most artists were wanderers... ." (p. 22)

"Just because we're artists doesn't mean we like art... ." (p. 24)

"Beauty in the eye of the beholder, ugliness likewise." (p. 26)

"Music has an unfortunate tendency to cover up conversation." (p. 30)

"[P]eople who relax tend to become careless... ." (p. 31)

"[M]ost of the confidential talk takes place along walls or in corners." (p. 31)

"Why is it that if I stay at home and fritter away my time I'm considered respectable if not actually meritorious, and if I try to learn something that will enrich my outlook on life I'm a wanton?" (p. 33)

"[T]he most pathetic figure in modern society is the person who neglects his talents while trying to exercise talents he does not have." (p. 34)

"The saddest words of tongue or pen[:] ... It used to be or it might have been." (p. 34)

"[I]n times of trouble people tend to stay home and look after their own interests... ." (p. 35)

"[M]adness finds its own object... ." (p. 35)

"He could not reach decisions without information, ideas, opinions... ." (p. 40)

"One [name] is all an honest man needs... ." (p. 41)

"I've learned to speak for no man's compassion except my own... ." (p. 42)

"Refugees rarely return to their original homes, even if they're permitted to do so." (p. 43)

"An elaborate spy organization is amusing to watch, not to mention educational." (p. 45)

"The young really can't appreciate man's capacity for hatred." (p. 45)

"[H]atred is as susceptible to manipulation as any other emotion." (p. 45)

"The occasional visitor is an object of curiosity rather than animosity." (p. 45)

"[F]ear can lead to hatred for no reason at all." (p. 45)

"Are artists more tolerant than other humans?" (p. 45)

"When art falls short of perfection, ... the artist either should have stopped sooner or continued until he accomplished whatever it was he was trying to do. A great painting is finished. Nothing that doesn't belong, nothing left out. It simply is." (p. 46)

"A tourist's costume excuses anything." (p. 47)

"A successful tourist trade was not without its price... ." (p. 49)

Quotes of Note: Isaac Asimov, "Foundation and Empire" II

Quotes of note from Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov:

(Page numbers gleaned from the 32nd printing of the 1966 Avon mass-market paperback.)

"[T]here were three classes. first, there were the many who knew little and we're very confident... ... Then there were those who knew a little more and were less confident. ... Lastly, there were the very few who knew considerable and we're not confident at all." (pp. 128, 129, and 131) 

"It isn't a gut-beating when you stay where you fought, and the gut-beater leaves in a hurry." (p. 128) 

"Wars don't just start by themselves... ." (p. 129) 

"[S]o far there's been more drinking than thinking, and more wooing than doing... ." (p. 133) 

"More often than not, good players are idiots otherwise." (p. 138) 

"Divided action plays into the hands of the enemy." (p. 146) 

"What isn't dangerous?" (p. 155) 

"You're all the stirring my mother-complex can stand." (p. 155) 

"Beliefs can't be shaken short of a major shock... ." (p. 157) 

"My profession has resulted in just a bit of independent thinking." (p. 158) 

"The plutocrats have always been against us." (p. 160) 

"A thorough alarm system outside meant few guards within." (p. 168) 

"[L]eave heroics for the fools who are impressed by it." (p. 169) 

"Visitors ... are a convenient thing to have." (p. 184) 

"[T]he mistiness of distance hides the truth." (p. 184) 

"Nothing you ask is idle... ." (p. 184) 

"[T]he friend of a conqueror is but the last victim... ." (p. 185) 

"[B]oasts are wind and deeds are hard." (p. 185) 

"[S]omehow I thought emperors were greater and wiser than ordinary men." (p. 187)

"[I]n war or disaster, when industry breaks down, the people starve." (p. 196) 

"[H]uman reaction to stimuli would remain constant." (p. 206) 

"I forget sometimes ... who my friends are." (p. 211) 

"[P]sycho-history worked best where the individual working units -- human beings -- had no knowledge of what was coming, and could therefore react naturally to all situations." (p. 211-212) 

[P]sycho-history could predict only probabilities, and not certainties. There was always a margin of error, and as time passed that margin increases in geometric progression." (p. 212) 

"If a strong man can lift five hundred pounds, it does not mean that he is eager to do so continuously." (p. 220) 

"Intuition or insight for hunch-tendency ... can be treated as an emotion." (p. 221) 

"The human mind works at low efficiency. Twenty per cent is the figure usually given." (p. 221) 

Quotes of Note: Isaac Asimov, "Foundation and Empire" I

Quotes of note from Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov:

(Page numbers gleaned from the 32nd printing of the 1966 Avon mass-market paperback.)

"[A]n uninformed public tends to confuse scholarship with magicianry... ." (p. 13)

"I connect scholarship with nothing but the means of answering difficult questions." (p. 13)

"[W]here is the stagnant planet that does not claim to have been a land of overflowing wealth in older days?" (p. 17)

"Circulation ceases first at the outer edges." (p. 17)

"Does it matter who speaks first?" (p. 20)

"[T]he essential in running a risk is that the returns justify it." (p. 20)

"If a man comes with ships and wealth, with overtures of friendliness, and with offers of trade, it is only sensible to refrain from antagonizing him, until we are certain that the profitable mask is not a face after all." (p. 21)

"Patriotism be damned... ." (p. 23)

"[L]aws help those who help themselves." (p. 24)

"The times make the man... ." (p. 24)

"[T]he mere act of not being a traitor is ... a long way from agreeing to be an active helper." (p. 26)

"I always find it difficult to penetrate another person's mysticism." (p. 28)

"[W]e stand clasped tightly in the forcing hand of the Goddess of [Psycho-]Historical Necessity." (p. 29)

"[T]he dead hand of the mathematics of human behavior ... can neither be stopped, swerved, nor delayed." (p. 30)

"There have been a wearisomely large number of precedents in history." (p. 31)

"[T]here is not a biped extant who can study a disease before his eyes with those same eyes." (p. 32)

"He is a dreamer of ancients times, or rather, of the myths of what ancient times used to be. Such men are harmless in themselves, but their queer lack of realism makes them fools for others." (p. 34) 

"I would not wish to be served entirely by incompetents." (p. 34) 

"An incompetent traitor is no danger. It is rather the capable men who must be watched." (p. 34) 

 "[E]ven a romantic idiot can be a deadly weapon when an unromantic rebel uses him as a tool." (p. 35) 

"You'll find [extraneous authority] inconvenient... ." (p. 40) 

"Good treatment is what I mostly crave... ." (p. 42) 

"I'm a man of business. If it adds up to a plus mark, I'm for it." (p. 44) 

"[T]here is a difference between boldness and blindness." (p. 49) 

"[I]t was the ... yoke and not the villain that mattered." (p. 54) 

"There are sources of power greater than the atoms." (p. 59) 

"I crave to be on the winning side... ." (p. 61) 

"Because you don't hear the wheels turning and the gongs beating doesn't mean it's any the less certain." (p. 67) 

"A trader has to be something of everything." (p. 68) 

"Words are a pretty fuzzy substitute for mathematical equations." (p. 80) 

"A courtier who becomes too rich, or a general who becomes too popular is dangerous." (p. 81) 

"You can always tell a woman's weight by her upper arm... ." (p. 87) 

"[I]t was falling apart of the triple disease of inertia, despotism, and maldistribution of the goods of the universe." (p. 89) 

"The laws of history are as absolute as the laws of physics, and if the probabilities of error are greater, it is only because history does not deal with as many humans as physics does atoms, so that individual variations count for more." (p. 90) 

"'[I]ntelligence,' 'espionage,' and 'spy stuff' are at best a sordid business of routine betrayed and bad faith." (p. 95) 

"[S]ociety is much more easily soothed than one's own conscience... ." (p. 95) 

"[M]y duty is primarily to the state, and not to my superior." (p. 99) 

"[H]e serves most faithfully who serves Truth." (p. 100) 

"The owners sell ... at ample profits. The government collects huge taxes. Everyone has fun. Nobody loses. Simple!" (p. 111) 

"Gratitude is best and most effective when it does not evaporate itself in empty phrases." (p. 113)

"In our business it is better to overdo suspicion than the opposite." (p. 116) 

"[T]he element known as 'pure science' was the freest form of life... ." (p. 120)

Quotes of Note: Margaret Atwood, "The Handmaid's Tale" II

Quotes of note from The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood:

(Page numbers gleaned from the 1998 Anchor Books trade paperback.)

"It's the possible that's the catch." (p. 117)

"[S]omeone should just give them the technology and get on with it." (p. 118)

"A man is just a woman's strategy for making other women." (p. 121)

"[W]ho can remember pain, once it's over?" (p. 125)

"[T]here will always be alliances, of one kind or another." (p. 129)

"For every rule there is always an exception: this too can be depended upon." (p. 129)

"It takes a while to get the wrinkles out, of anything new." (p. 130)

"It's impossible to say a thing exactly the way it was, because what you say can never be exact, you always have to leave something out... ." (p. 134)

"[I]f you happen to be a man, ... please remember: you will never be subjected to the temptation or feeling you must forgive, a man, as a woman." (p. 134)

"[F]orgiveness too is a power. To beg for it is a power, and to withhold or bestow it is a power, perhaps the greatest." (pp. 134-135)

"We are two-legged wombs, that's all: sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices." (p. 136)

"There's no doubt about who holds the real power." (p. 136)

"To want is to have a weakness." (p. 136)

"[A]fter a request like that there's always a next time, whether you say yes or no." (p. 139)

"You can think clearly only with your clothes on." (p. 143)

"Men are sex machines ... and not much more. They only want one thing. You must learn to manipulate them, for your own good." (p. 144)

"She was thinking about how not to think." (p. 145)

"How easy it is to invent a humanity, for anyone at all. What an available temptation." (p. 146)

"Judgment: emotion inappropriate to the occasion." (p. 146)

"Whatever is silenced will clamor to be heard, though silently." (p. 153)

"Goddesses are possible now... ." (p. 153)

"What was in [magazines] was promise. They dealt in transformations; they suggested an endless series of possibilities... . They suggested one adventure after another... . ... The real promise in them was immortality." (p. 157)

"What's dangerous in the hands of the multitudes, ... is safe enough for those whose motives are ... [b]eyond reproach... ." (p. 158)

"You can only be jealous of someone who has something you think you ought to have yourself." (p. 161)

"Men at the top have always had mistresses... ." (p. 163)

"A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze." (p. 165)

"Do you think God listens ... to these machines?" (p. 168)

"[T]here was more than one way of living with your head in the sand... ." (p. 172)

"Keep calm... . Everything is under control." (p. 174)

"Ours is not to reason why... ." (p. 179)

"You can't stick your hand through a glass window without getting cut... ." (p. 180)

"Adolescents are always such prudes." (p. 180)

"No mother is ever, completely, a child's idea of what a mother should be, and I suppose it works the other way around as well." (p. 181)

"Don't let the bastards grind you down." (p. 187)

"You can't help what you feel ... but you can help how you behave." (p. 192)

"This is what you have to do before you kill... . You have to create an it, where none was before." (pp. 192-193)

"That's one of the things they do. They force you to kill, within yourself." (p. 193)

"[A] little pain cleans out the mind... ." (p. 194)

"What we prayed for was emptiness... ." (p. 194)

"I don't believe for an instant that what's going on out there is what You meant." (p. 194)

"[K]eep the others safe, if they are safe. Don't let them suffer too much. If they have to die, let it be fast. You might even provide a Heaven for them. We need You for that. Hell we can make for ourselves." (p. 195)

"Maybe you appreciate things more when you don't have much time left." (p. 200)

"I like to do things right, is all... . No sense otherwise." (p. 208)

"There's hardly any point to my thinking, is there? ... What I think doesn't matter." (p. 211)

"You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs... ." (p. 211)

"Better never means better for everyone... . It always means worse, for some." (p. 211)

"Draw a circle, step into it, it will protect you." (p. 211)

"God Is a National Resource." (p. 213)

"[P]eople will do anything rather than admit that their lives have no meaning." (p. 215)

"There's always something to occupy the inquiring mind." (p. 221)

"There is something powerful in the whispering of obscenities, about those in power." (p. 222)

"If you worked out enough, maybe the man would too." (p. 226)

"All you have to do ... is keep your mouth shut and look stupid." (p. 236)

"Abstinence makes the heart grow fonder." (p. 262)

"I would like to be without shame. I would like to be shameless. I would like to be ignorant. Then I would not know how ignorant I was." (p. 263)

"[I]t is never too late... ." (p. 269)

"I should have taken things into my own hands while I had the chance." (p. 293)

"[T]he world is full of weapons if you're looking for them. I should have paid attention." (p. 293)

"Our job is not to censure but to understand." (p. 302)

"As all historians know, the past is a great darkness, and filled with echoes." (p. 311)

Quotes of Note: Margaret Atwood, "The Handmaid's Tale" I

Quotes of note from The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood:

(Page numbers gleaned from the 1998 Anchor Books trade paperback.)

"It's good to have small goals that can be easily attained." (p. 13)

"The threshold of a new house is a lonely place." (p. 14)

"I'm ravenous for news, any kind of news; even if it's false news, it must mean something." (p. 20)

"The young ones are often the most dangerous... . They haven't yet learned about existence through time." (p. 20)

"Everything is meant." (p. 21)

"There are no lawyers anymore, and the university is closed." (p. 23)

"There is more than one kind of freedom... . Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from." (p. 24)

"We were a society dying ... of too much choice." (p. 25)

"All children are wanted now, but not by everyone." (p. 26)

"What I feel is that I must not feel." (p. 33)

"Those who can believe that ... stories are only stories have a better chance. If it's a story I'm telling, then I have control over the ending." (p. 39)

"How furious she must be, now that she's been taken at her word." (p. 46)

"The future is in your hands... ." (p. 47)

"Nolite te bastardes carborundorum." (p. 52)

"Ignoring isn't the same as ignorance, you have to work at it." (p. 56)

"Nothing changes instantaneously." (p. 56)

"[M]aybe boredom is erotic, when women do it, for men." (p. 69)

"[M]inor discomforts are instructive." (p. 79)

"[F]lowers ... [a]re the genital organs of plants." (p. 82)

"Any news, now, is better than none." (p. 82)

"[Y]our name is like your telephone number, useful only to others... ." (p. 84)

"You can't expect a child to lie convincingly." (p. 85)

"For our purposes your feet and your hands are not essential." (p. 91)

"Arousal and orgasm are no longer thought necessary; they would be a symptom of frivolity merely, like jazz garters or beauty spots: superfluous distractions for the light-minded." (p. 94)

"[N]obody dies from lack of sex. It's lack of love we die from." (p. 103)

"[T]here must be a resistance, a government in exile. Someone must be out there, taking care of things." (p. 105)

"Maybe the life I think I'm living is a paranoid delusion." (p. 109)

"The greater the risk the greater the glory." (p. 113)

"A thing is valued ... only if it is rare and hard to get." (p. 114)

Quotes of Note: Isaac Asimov, "Foundation" II

Quotes of note from Foundation by Isaac Asimov:

(Page numbers gleaned from the March 1983 Ballantine mass-market paperback.)

"Religion is one of the great civilizing influences of history... ." (p. 106)

"You don't question a god." (p. 109)

"[Y]ou must expect to be bored, when you refuse to announce your identity." (p. 115)

"I have always believed in direct action. I have believed in carving a straight path to my objective and following that path." (p. 117)

"You might find it advisable ... to avoid certain subjects." (p. 117)

"[D]ifficulties vanish when faced boldly... ." (p. 117)

"The divine king himself may not maintain his kingship without the consent of the Spirit." (p. 124)

"[I]t is the chief characteristic of the religion of science that it works... ." (p. 125)

"A fire eater must eat fire even if her has to kindle it himself." (p. 131)

"The terms I use are at best mere approximations." (p. 132)

"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right!" (p. 137)

"I am in the hands of the Galactic Spirit and walk cheerfully in the way he points out." (p. 139)

"Death ... is so absolute and irrevocable a phenomenon that certainly there must be some alternative." (p. 142)

"A trader has to know a little of everything." (p. 143)

"A rose can grow from the mud... ." (p. 149)

"As a general rule, politicians start shouting '... Crisis' at every ... campaign." (p. 161)

"Any fool can tell a crisis when it arrives. The real service to the state is to detect it in embryo." (p. 166)

"To succeed, planning is insufficient. One must improvise as well." (pp. 169-170)

"[N]o trader would hit space if he couldn't pick his own crew." (p. 170)

"Thou shalt not stand idly by to the hurt of thy fellowman. ... Even as thou dealest with the humble and defenseless, thus shalt thou be dealth with." (p. 176)

"Cursed be the traitor who abandons his fellowman to evil and to death. Deafened be the ears that are deaf to the pleadings of the helpless. Blind be the eyes that are blind to innocence. Blackened forever be the soul that consorts with blackness... ." (p. 177)

"The true wealth is the love of one's people." (p. 182)

"Fighting and scars are part of a trader's overhead. But fighting is only useful when there's money at the end, and if I can get it without, so much the sweeter." (p. 196)

"Memories sting when they come suddenly." (p. 197)

"It's out of fashion in these decaying times to be a scholar." (p. 199)

"The less you speak, the less suspicion you will draw upon yourself." (p. 201)

"Eternity is a long time." (p. 206)

"[A]ny dogma, primarily based on faith and emotionalism, is a dangerous weapon to use on others, since it is almost impossible to guarantee that the weapon will never be turned on the user." (p. 213)

"Custom is higher than law, at times." (p. 214)

"A known enemy is relatively safe." (p. 218)

"People endure a good deal in war." (p. 231)

"What business of mine is the future?" (p. 235)

Quotes of Note: Isaac Asimov, "Foundation" I

Quotes of note from Foundation by Isaac Asimov:

(Page numbers gleaned from the March 1983 Ballantine mass-market paperback.)

"[C]hildishness comes almost as naturally to a man as to a child." (p. 5)

"[P]sychohistory [is] that branch of mathematics which deals with the reactions of human conglomerates to fixed social and economic stimuli... ." (p. 14)

"A further necessary assumption is that the human conglomerate be itself unaware of psychohistoric analysis in order that its reactions be truly random... ." (p. 14)

"[P]sychohistory is a statistical science and cannot predict the future of a single man with any accuracy." (p. 21)

"Calculations upon one man mean nothing." (p. 21)

"Scientific truth is beyond loyalty and disloyalty." (p. 23)

"[T]he overall history of the human race [can] be changed ... with great difficulty." (pp. 24-25)

"The psychohistoric trend of a planet-full of people contains a huge inertia. To be changed it must be met with something possessing a similar inertia. Either as many people must be concerned, or if the number of people be relatively small, enormous time for change must be allowed." (p. 25)

"The fall of Empire ... is a massive thing, however, and not easily fought. It is dictated by a rising bureaucracy, a receding initiative, a freezing of caste, a damming of curiosity—a hundred other factors. It has been going on ... for centuries, and it is too majestic and massive a movement to be stopped." (p, 27)

"The sum of human knowing is beyond any one man; any thousand men." (p. 28)

"We're all scholars more or less." (p. 43)

"Encyclopedias don't win wars." (p. 47)

"[W]hat ... made physical scientists such poor administrators ... might be merely that they were too used to inflexible fact and far too unused to pliable people." (p. 50)

"A great psychologist ... could unravel human emotions and human reactions sufficiently to be able to predict broadly the historical sweep of the future." (p. 55)

Things were different in the old great days. We aren't the men we used to be. (p. 60, paraphrased)

"Violence ... is the last refuge of the incompetent." (p. 65)

"[P]ure deduction is found wanting. ... [W]hat is needed is a little sprinkling of common sense." (p. 67)

"We cannot stop the Fall. We do not wish to, for ... culture has lost whatever virility and worth it once had." (p. 74)

"It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for sublety." (p. 89)

"Courtiers don't take wagers against the king's skill. There is the deadly danger of winning." (p. 97)

Quotes of Note: A.E. van Vogt, "Mission: Interplanetary" II

Quotes of Note from Mission: Interplanetary by A.E. van Vogt:

"You live in a universe; and within you, you form pictures of the universe as it seems to you. And of that universe, you know nothing and can know nothing except for the pictures. But the pictures within you of the universe are not the universe... ." (p. 81)

"How could you influence another's mind? By changing his assumptions. How could you alter another's actions? By changing his basic beliefs, his emotional certainties." (p. 81)

"[T]he pictures with you do not show all about the universe, for there are many things which you cannot know directly, not having senses to know. Within the universe there is an order. And if the order of the pictures within you is not the order of the universe, then you are deceived... ." (p. 81)

"In the history of life, few thinking beings had done anything illogical—within their frame of reference. If the frame was falsely based, if the assumptions were untrue to reality, then the individual's automatic logic could lead him to disastrous conclusions." (p. 81)

"[L]iving organisms can have satisfactions that do not require machines: food and drink, association with friends and loved ones." (p. 83)

"Everything must be investigated." (p. 92)

"[M]ilitary men have not properly appreciated scientists in the past." (p. 97)

"[S]cientists can find trouble where it never existed before." (p. 97)

"There is a reason why intelligent beings make mistakes... ." (p. 98)

"[L]ife proceeds upward—whatever we mean by upward—by a series of cycles." (p. 99)

"It is expected that grown men know their own minds. The whole idea of democracy is based on that supposition." (p. 115)

"In dealing with human beings, I've noticed there is usually not only a problem to be solved but the matter of tension among those who have to solve it. ... During danger, hard work. During work, relaxation in every practicable form." (p. 115)

"[T]he will to survive was built-in in the nervous system." (p. 118)

"In a crisis, a man protected himself. He couldn't help it. Like an animal, he fought blindly for his life." (p. 120)

"Only an event would change the minds of some people." (p. 121)

"It was not enough to have information and knowledge, not enough to be right. Men had to be persuaded and convinced. Sometimes that might take more time than could safely be spared." (p. 122)

"[S]cientists are constantly on the defensive about their alleged unfeeling intellectualism. So they like to have someone fronting for them who is emotional but whose scientific qualifications cannot be questioned." (p. 144)

"It's not their devotion to the scientific method that defeats the technologists. It's their integrity. The average trained man often understands the tactics that are used against him better than the person who uses them, but he cannot bring himself to retaliate in kind without feeling tarnished." (p. 144)

"[P]eople who are wrapped up in pleasure, excitement, or ambition are easily controlled." (p. 164)

"We must make men skeptical." (p. 164)

"On every level of understanding, the skeptic partly makes up for his lack of specific knowledge by his attitude of 'Show me! I've got an open mind, but what you say cannot by itself convince me.'" (p. 164)

"You can't expect to condition the whole human race." (p. 167)

"People think a thing ethical or unethical depending on the associations that come to their minds at the moment, or while they're considering the problem in retrospect." (pp. 168-169)

"[O]ur ethical measuring rod should be that which benefits the greatest number, provided that it doesn't include extermination or torture of, or denial of rights to, individuals who do not conform." (p. 169)

"When I firmly believe ... that any actions are justified, there is no internal nervous or emotional problem." (p. 169)

"Man has divided life and matter into separate compartments of knowledge and being. And, even though he sometimes uses words which indicate his awareness of that wholeness of nature, he continues to behave as if the one, changing universe has many separately functioning parts." (p. 174-175)

Quotes of Note: A.E. van Vogt, "Mission: Interplanetary" I

 Quotes of Note from Mission: Interplanetary by A.E. van Vogt:

"There are at least two reasons why a territory becomes uninhabited. One is lack of food. The other is war." (p. 12)

"[T]he first step is a merciless questioning of all that was once held sacred." (p. 16)

"Space madness ... was a meaningless phrase... . The fact that men had gone insane in space from loneliness, fear, and tension did not make a special sickness of it." (p. 26)

"[T]he end result might well be death for people who had inflexible ways of dealing with unusual danger." (p. 37)

"[B]ehind the grosser aspects of any science there is an intricate tie-up with other sciences." (pp. 39-40)

"Nexialism is the science of joining in an orderly fashion the knowledge of one field of learning with that of other fields." (p. 46)

"I've been laboring for years under the delusion that mathematicians were scientists." (p. 48)

"[A] man who is right often enough gets a hearing in a crisis." (p. 50)

"[F]rom the beginning of time, the unthinking majority has paid the price of obeying without question the commands of leaders whose motivations they didn't trouble themselves to inquire into." (p. 59)

"[C]ivilizations ... seem to be born, grow older, and die of old age." (p. 60)

"[R]ight now we are making the mistakes that lead to decay." (p. 60)

"The outstanding common denominator of the 'winter' periods of civilization is the growing comprehension on the part of millions of individuals of how things work." (p. 60)

"For better or worse, the fight usually takes place within the framework of a legal system that tends to protect the entrenched minority." (p. 61)

"The human mind normally balanced innumerable opposing impulses so that the average individual might live his life span without letting one feeling gain important ascendance over the others." (p. 65)

"There's only one sure protection against hypnosis, and that is to be trained in it exactly the right way." (p. 70)

"Mind reading would stultify the development of any race... ." (p. 70)

Quotes of Note: Jack L. Chalker, "Midnight at the Well of Souls"

Quotes of Note from Midnight at the Well of Souls by Jack L. Chalker:

“[R]eality [is] the stabilized, transmuted primal energy.” (p. 283)

“[E]ven perfection is imperfect… .” (p. 283)

“[N]ot merely to love others, but to be loved as well … is the ultimate point of life… .” (p. 284)

“When love is meaningless, or abstract, or misunderstood, then is that person or race also meaningless.” (p. 284)

“There’s hope. And despair, too.” (pp. 285-286)

“[T]he religious prophets who made it were the ones who thought in … political terms… .” (p. 286)

“[P]eople who love people no matter what their form or looks.” (p. 295)

“Monsters aren’t racial, they’re in the mind.” (p. 296)

“Nothing equals anything, really; the equal sign is strictly for the imposed structure of the universe. Rather, everything is relative to everything else.” (p. 320)

“Utopia wasn’t fulfillment, it was stagnation.” (p. 320)

“We are the sum of our past, good as well as bad.” (p. 332)

“Don’t … run away from your fears. Face them! Stand up to them! Fight them with goodness, mercy, charity, compassion! Lick them!” (p. 334)

“When the end justifies any means, you are no better, perhaps worse, than those you despise.” (p. 335)

Recommended Reading: Rules for Radicals

 

Script below...

Dissecting the Times

While I'm pretty sure I stop shy of being obsessive compulsive, I do like to put things in order. I like alphabetizing my records. When catching up on reading back issues of magazines, I read them in date order. And, if this morning's read of the New York Times is any indication, I like to read my Sunday newspaper in a specific order.

Struck by that observation this morning, I took note of how I organized the various sections of the newspaper before reading it. Half of the paper is delivered on Sunday. I don't know how the following list falls out in terms of what section was delivered when, because I don't read the Sunday Times on Saturday. It's the Sunday Times.

Regardless, before reading the paper, I unbag both days' deliveries and arrange them in the order I plan to attack the sections. Here is that order:

• Book Review
  
• The City -- I'm especially fond of the FYI Q&A column
  
• The Metro Section
  
• Magazine -- I look for Rob Walker, Dan Clowes, and I save the Acrostic for Caitlin
  
• Sunday Styles
  
• Arts & Leisure
  
• Real Estate -- the first section. The second is all listings and less interesting
  
• Week in Review
  
• Business
  
• Automobiles -- a quick flip
  
• The front section
  
• Sports
  
• Travel -- usually my least favorite section, and therefore, the last to be read
  

I don't know how consistent I am Sunday to Sunday -- I'd imagine there's some variance -- but I found this interesting.

What Sunday newspaper do you read -- and how do you do so?