Great Throughts Treasury

"Peace is a condition in which no civilian pays any attention to military casualties which do not achieve page-one, lead-story-- unless that civilian is a close relative of one of the casualties. But, if there ever was a time in history when "peace" meant that there was no fighting going on, I have been unable to find out about it."

"Peewee! I said sharply. You're not listening. What were you doing talking, she answered reasonably, when I wasn?t listening?"

"People don?t really want change, any change at all ? and xenophobia is very deep-rooted. But we progress, as we must ? if we are to go out to the stars."

"People simplify 'Apollonian' into 'mild', and 'calm', and 'cool'. But 'Apollonian' and 'Dionysian' are two sides of one coin--a nun kneeling in her cell, holding perfectly still, can be in ecstasy more frenzied than any priestess of Pan Priapus celebrating the vernal equinox."

"People usually believe anything that they are told early and often."

"People who are busy and happy don't write diaries; they are too busy living."

"People who go broke in a big way never miss any meals. It is the poor jerk who is shy a half slug who must tighten his belt."

"Place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark."

"Political tags -- such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth -- are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire."

"Political tags ? such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth ? are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort."

"Premenstrual Syndrome: Just before their periods women behave the way men do all the time."

"Private, he said firmly. Family matter. Go have a drink."

"Progress doesn't come from early risers - progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things."

"Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things."

"Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something."

"Property is not the natural and obvious and inevitable concept that most people think it is."

"Radical and conservative are terms for emotional attitudes, not sociological opinions."

"Random chance was not a sufficient explanation of the Universe---in fact, random chance was not sufficient to explain random chance; the pot could not hold itself."

"Rarest of all is the man who can and does reason at all times, quickly, accurately, inclusively, despite hope or fear or bodily distress, without egocentric bias or thalmic disturbance, with correct memory, with clear distinction between fact, assumption, and non-fact."

"Real beauty is likely to scare a man off, or else make him quite unmanageable, whereas prettiness, properly handled, is an asset."

"Reason is poor propaganda when opposed by the yammering, unceasing lies of shrewd and evil and self-serving men."

"Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help."

"Remember though, your best weapon is between your ears and under your scalp -provided it's loaded."

"Remind me to write an article on the compulsive reading of news. The theme will be that most neuroses can be traced to the unhealthy habit of wallowing in the troubles of five billion strangers."

"Remind me, Jubal said to her, to write a popular article on the compulsive reading of news. The theme will be that most neuroses and some psychoses can be traced to the unnecessary and unhealthy habit of daily wallowing in the troubles and sins of five billion strangers. The title is 'Gossip Unlimited' - no, make that 'Gossip Gone Wild.'"

"Revolution is an art that I pursue rather than a goal I expect to achieve. Nor is this a source of dismay; a lost cause can be as spiritually satisfying as a victory."

"Say, Jubal...how do you feel about astrology?"

"Scientific research, no matter how 'pure' and useless it may seem, has an annoying habit of paying for itself many times, in the long run, in the form of greatly increased productivity."

"Secrecy begets tyranny."

"Secrecy is the keystone to all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy and censorship. When any government or church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, This you may not read, this you must not know, the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man who has been hoodwinked in this fashion; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, whose mind is free. No, not the rack nor the atomic bomb, not anything. You can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him."

"See what I mean? She doesn't have the right attitude."

"Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny."

"Seems to be a deep instinct in human beings for making everything compulsory that isn't forbidden."

"Selfishness is the bedrock on which all moral behavior starts and it can be immoral only when it conflicts with a higher moral imperative. An animal so poor in spirit that he won't even fight on his own behalf is already an evolutionary dead end; the best he can do for his breed is to crawl off and die, and not pass on his defective genes."

"Sense is never common."

"Sex should be friendly. Otherwise stick to mechanical toys; it's more sanitary."

"Sex without love is merely healthy exercise."

"Sex, whatever else it is, is an athletic skill. The more you practice, the more you can, the more you want to, the more you enjoy it, the less it tires you."

"She might say: This mess will clear up if you take that troublemaker there ? What?s your name? You, with the goatee ? out and shoot him. Do it now."

"She taught me to love by loving me, and I learned?rather slowly; I wasn?t too good a pupil, being set in my ways and lacking her natural talent. But I did learn. Learned that supreme happiness lies in wanting to keep another person safe and warm and happy, and being privileged to try."

"Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms such as you have named...but a dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot."

"Sin is hardly ever concerned with real wrongness?but sin is what the sinner groks as sin."

"Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not a sin - just stupid.)"

"Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other sins are invented nonsense."

"Since when was an emotional argument won by logic?"

"So far as I know, every such story has alien intelligences which treat humans as approximate equals, either as friends or foes. It is assumed that A-I will either be friends, anxious to communicate and trade, or enemies who will fight and kill, or possibly enslave, the human race. There is another and more humiliating possibility - alien intelligences so superior to us and so indifferent to us as to be almost unaware of us. They do not even covet the surface of the planet where we live - they live in the stratosphere. We do not know whether they evolved here or elsewhere - will never know. Our mightiest engineering formations they regard as coral formations, i.e., seldom noticed and considered of no importance. We aren't even nuisances to them. And they are no threat to us, except that their engineering might occasionally disturb our habitat, as the grading done for a highway disturbs gopher holes. Some few of them might study us casually - or might not."

"So learn to say No - and to be rude about it when necessary."

"So what difference is there between our voters and wielders of franchise in the past? Under our system every voter and officeholder is a man who has demonstrated through voluntary and difficult service that he places the welfare of the group ahead of personal advantage."

"Social responsibility above the level of family, or at most of tribe, requires imagination-- devotion, loyalty, all the higher virtues -- which a man must develop himself; if he has them forced down him, he will vomit them out."

"Solipsism and Pantheism. Teamed together they can explain anything. Cancel out any inconvenient fact, reconcile all theories, and include any facts or delusions you care to name. Trouble is, it?s just cotton candy, all taste and no substance."