Unable to digest it, they had taken refuge in anger at Einstein. Their refuge had been a dead end; all that inflexible old guard could do was die and let younger minds take over.
I didn’t like Martians. I did not fancy having a thing that looks like a tree trunk topped off by a sun helmet claiming the privileges of a man. I did not like the way they grew pseudo limbs; it reminded me of snakes crawling out of their holes. I did not like the fact that they could look all directions at once without turning their heads – if they had had heads, which of course they don’t. And I could not stand their smell!
But things were not money, any more than water shared was growing-closer. Money was an idea, as abstract as an Old One’s thoughts – money was a great structured symbol for balancing and healing and growing closer.
A doctorate is a union card to get a tenured job. It does not mean that the holder thereof is wise or learned.
At first I thought it was a fur cap; now I see it’s alive.” Castor pointed to the furry heap on the counter. It was slowly slithering toward the edge. The shopkeeper reached out and headed it back to the middle. “That?
There are things which cannot be taught in ten easy lessons, nor popularized for the masses; they take years of skull sweat. This be treason in an age when ignorance has come into its own and one man’s opinion is as good as another’s.
I like to feel that I’ve paid rent on the piece of earth I’m using.
For myself, I long since came to the firm conclusion that a man can do more productive work, and make more money if that is his object, by sitting down with his hands in his pockets than by any form of physical activity. Do you happen to know the average yearly income of a meteor miner?” “Well, no, but – ” “Less than six hundred a year.” “But some of them get rich!
If you’re going to be businessmen, don’t confuse the vocation with larceny.
I don’t know when I became aware that the Mother Thing was not, or wasn’t quite, a female. But it didn’t matter; being a mother is an attitude, not a biological relation.
Why? Why does anybody want to go anywhere? Why did the bear go round the mountain? To see what he could see! I’ve never seen the Rings. That’s reason enough to go anywhere. The race has been doing it for all time. The dull ones stay home – and the bright ones stir around and try to see what trouble they can dig up. It’s the human pattern. It doesn’t need a reason, any more than a flat cat needs a reason to buzz. Why anything?
What are you smiling about?” “And five! And four!” chanted Meade. “Nothing much. After we get to Titan we might – ” The blast cut off her words; the Stone trembled and threw herself outward bound, toward Saturn.
Her frail body, although still agile as a cricket under the Moon’s weak pull, was not up to heavy work with a wrench, but her eyes were sharper – and much more experienced – than those of the twins.
Presently they came out. “Excuse us, folks. Uh, Hazel?” “What is it, Cas?” “You said your fee was two-thirds of our net.” “Huh? Did your leg come away in my hand, chum? I wouldn’t – ” “Oh, no, we’d rather pay it.” He reached out, dropped half a dozen small coins in her hand. “There it is.” She looked at it. “This is two-thirds of all you made on the deal?” “After taxes.” “Of course,” added Pollux, “it wasn’t a total loss. We had the use of the bicycles for a couple of hundred million miles.
Why were you on that frequency? Because you were wearing a space suit. Why were you wearing it? Because you were determined to space. When a space ship called, you answered. If that is luck, then it is luck every time a batter hits a ball. Kip, ‘good luck’ follows careful preparation; ‘bad luck’ comes from sloppiness. You convinced a court older than Man himself that you and your kind were worth saving. Was that mere chance?
I knew that the stupidest students, the silliest professors, and the worst bull courses are concentrated in schools of education.
Pluto is so far out that they can’t get decent photographs even at Luna Observatory. I had read articles in the Scientific American and seen pictures in LIFE, Bonestelled to look like photographs, and remembered that it was approaching its summer – if “summer” is the word for warm enough to melt air. I recalled that because they had announced that Pluto was showing an atmosphere as it got closer to the Sun.
We don’t begrudge money spent on roads and public health and national defense and truly useful things. But we’ve quit paying for parasites wherever we can identify them.
But it is a great and wonderful age, the most wonderful this giddy planet has yet seen. It is sometimes comic, too often tragic, and always wonderful. Our wildest dreams of the future will be surpassed by what lies in front of us. Come bad, come good, I want to take part in the show as long as possible.
I opened the small blade of my knife and handed it to Peewee, “With your shield or on it, soldier.” “You take it.” “I won’t need it. ‘Two-Fisted Death,’ they call me around dark alleys.” This was propaganda, but why worry her? Sans peur et sans reproche – maiden-rescuing done cheaply, special rates for parties.