A wall is happy when it is well designed, when it rests firmly on its foundation, when its symmetry balances its part and produces no unpleasant stresses. Good design can be worked out on the mathematical principles of mechanics.
Now any dogma, based primarily 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.
Economics is on the side of humanity now.
Naturally, there’s got to be a limit for I don’t expect to live forever, but I do intend to hang on as long as possible.
Author’s Notes: This story starts with section 6. This is not a mistake. I have my own subtle reasoning. So, just read, and enjoy.
Courtiers don’t take wagers against the king’s skill. There is the deadly danger of winning.
Love life seems to be that factor which requires the largest quantity of magical tinkering.
The tyranny that now exists is actual. That which may exist in the future is potential. If we are always to draw back from change with the thought that the change may be for the worse, then there is no hope at all of ever escaping injustice.
Mathematicians deal with large numbers sometimes, but never in their income.
Nothing has to be true, but everything has to sound true.
Intuition is the art, peculiar to the human mind, of working out the correct answer from data that is, in itself, incomplete or even, perhaps, misleading.
It is change continuing change, inevitable change that is the dominant factor in society today.
You wait for the war to happen like vultures. If you want to help, prevent the war. Don’t save the remnants. Save them all.
The history of science is full of revolutionary advances that required small insights that anyone might have had, but that, in fact, only one person did.
We’re forever teetering on the brink of the unknowable, and trying to understand what can’t be understood.
To any who know the star field well from one certain reference point, stars are as individual as people. Jump ten parsecs, however, and not even your own sun is recognizable.
There was this superstitious fear on the part of the pygmies of the present for the relics of the giants of the past.
Do not forget that a traitor within our ranks, known to us, can do more harm to the enemy than a loyal man can do good to us.
Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today – but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.
All sorts of computer errors are now turning up. You’d be surprised to know the number of doctors who claim they are treating pregnant men.
They don’t want equal time – they want all the time there is.