Human judges can show mercy. But against the laws of nature, there is no appeal.
The best measure of a man’s honesty isn’t his income tax return. It’s the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.
Every revolutionary idea seems to evoke three stages of reaction. They may be summed up by the phrases: 1- It’s completely impossible. 2- It’s possible, but it’s not worth doing. 3- I said it was a good idea all along.
What was more, they had taken the first step toward genuine friendship. They had exchanged vulnerabilities.
It must be wonderful to be seventeen, and to know everything.
After their encounter on the approach to Jupiter, there would aways be a secret bond between them – not of love, but of tenderness, which is often more enduring.
Humor was the enemy of desire.
The more wonderful the means of communication, the more trivial, tawdry, or depressing its contents seemed to be.
As his body became more and more defenseless, so his means of offense became steadily more frightful.
Now times had changed, and the inherited wisdom of the past had become folly.
I don’t believe in God but I’m very interested in her.
If I didn’t exist, I would have invented myself.
I sometimes think that the universe is a machine designed for the perpetual astonishment of astronomers.
My objection to organized religion is the premature conclusion to ultimate truth that it represents...
It is vital to remember that information – in the sense of raw data – is not knowledge, that knowledge is not wisdom, and that wisdom is not foresight. But information is the first essential step to all of these.
Science fiction seldom attempts to predict the future. More often than not, it tries to prevent the future.
Absolutely no religious rites of any kind, relating to any religious faith, should be associated with my funeral.
Death focuses the mind on the things that really matter: why are we here, and what should we do?
No trilogy should have more than four books.
No communication technology has ever disappeared, but instead becomes increasingly less important as the technological horizon widens.