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Larry Niven
216 quotes
“Massive success and massive inertia are two sides of a coin.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mankind had come so far in some ways, and in others remained up in the trees, chittering and throwing rocks at each other. If only the trees weren’t so close together. If only the rocks were smaller.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We go and pray! Gods must help,” Alura said almost calmly. “Have they ever helped before?” Max asked hopefully. “No.” Her shaggy blond head gave a mournful wag. Then she smiled ingenuously. “But maybe we pray wrong!”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She may look like a flake, but there’s somebody home in that head.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Perhaps the lines of nationalism and factionalism and every other goddamn “ism” in the world had reduced the chances for this weary planet. Or not. Nuclear devices had existed for over a century, and only four of them had ever been used in anger. This could be interpreted as proof of divine intervention, good luck, a sign that the human race was growing up, or ominous portent, depending upon one’s standing in the “half-empty, half-full” school of cocktail-party philosophy.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ah…if it’s not a glitch, and Welles seems certain that it’s not a glitch, then…what is it?” “A glitch. People who say that they have all the bugs usually haven’t turned over enough rocks.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Two thousand years of civilization does not undo a million years of genetics.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I want a scotch and water. If I can’t have that, leave out the water.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Last coffee I had was on the tube out from Denver.” He made a face. Hippogryph was willing. “That bad?” “Let’s put it this way. I had the concierge send it out to a lab. Got a call back saying ‘Congratulations, your moose is pregnant.’”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What’s it like being dead?” Hebert asked. “Not bad, really,” Wood Owl answered after a moment’s consideration. “Like waiting for a tax refund, only slower.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That’s pretty minor. What kind of Gods are these?” “Petty, like all Gods. On the other hand, there’s no penalty at all for masturbation.” “I’m changing religions,” Kevin said positively.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One bad, stupid decision could twist a life completely out of true.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Isn’t the history of human interaction the conversion of neighbors into enemies? Or into nonhumans, that we might deprive them of said chattels, or life itself?”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We don’t break rules, but we bend the hell out of them.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was a bad omen. Glitches were a lot like cockroaches. If you didn’t catch them in time, they’d scuttle off into someplace dark and warm and begin to breed.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whatever benefits voodoo conferred, intellectual agility was not among them.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nice to know that he had the gods on his side. Better make sure the lawyers were there, too.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In certain video games, it is impossible to win. All you can do is survive as long as you can, piling up points, until you are eventually dragged down and killed. Much like life itself?”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What the hell is this?” Acacia asked. Tammi examined a necklace of human teeth. “Looks like a cross between a santería minimart and a head shop.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As I said before, Mr. Fleming, we understand terrorists. There are two things to remember in dealing with them. First: we must never accede to their demands. Second: those of us who abhor their actions must be prepared to stand together against them.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everybody was talking and nobody was communicating.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You think that you are the great man because you know all of these things.” He waved his arms at the panels and the dials surrounding them, and out the windows to the stars beyond. He shook his head. “Poor foolish man. Do you really think that these things matter? No, you are nothing but a driver, a highly-paid, educated servant. The real decisions, the real power will always be with the men who understand money. And we will always own men like you.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sometimes you just have to be satisfied with what you are.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Turning into a tradition, isn’t it?” “Around here, anything that happens twice is a tradition.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They should give medals for this, Martinez.” “By the time the paperwork goes through, we’ll both be dead and gone.” “Too true.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of cause.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Avalon was neutral. The children of Earth might die, they might thrive. Avalon would embrace their bones or the progeny with equal warmth.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Cooking was creation itself; It seemed to put the universe in perspective.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I copied it.” “Sure you did, joker, but they drew what they thought you wanted and you copied what you thought you saw—”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sex was a game nobody lost.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What’s intelligence for if not for seeking knowledge?”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It’s a joy,” she said, “watching you keep your mouth shut.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We follow the scientists around and look over their shoulders. They're watching their feet: provable mistakes are bad for them. We're looking as far ahead as we can, and we don't get penalized for mistakes.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The wealth of the universe is all over your head. We need to take command of the solar system to gain that wealth, and to escape the sea of paper our government is becoming, and for some decent chance of stopping a Dinosaur Killer asteroid.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We've fallen way behind. Building one space station for everyone was and is insane: we should have built a dozen.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Cheap superconductors imply maglev trains everywhere. Computers could get big again, with RAM/ROM rising by powers of forty and fifty, if superconductors shed the heat. Laser handguns against superconducting armor. I'm not predicting; I just love playing with superconductors.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here is where the predictions failed: We didn't take Cargo Cult mentality into account: "if somebody has something I don't, he must have stolen it." We didn't understand how good we could get at communication — when you have something that someone else doesn't, the whole damn planet knows it.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“1a) Never throw shit at an armed man. 1b) Never stand next to someone who is throwing shit at an armed man.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“2) Never fire a laser at a mirror.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“3) Mother Nature doesn't care if you're having fun.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“4) Giving up freedom for security has begun to look naive. Even to me. Many of you were ahead of me on this — Three out of four hijacked airplanes destroyed the World Trade Center and a piece of the Pentagon in 2001. How is it possible that those planes were taken using only five perps armed with knives? It was possible because all those hundreds of passengers had been carefully stripped of every possible weapon. We may want to reconsider this approach. It doesn't work in high schools either.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“5) Psi and/or magical powers, if real, are nearly useless.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“6) It is easier to destroy than create. Bin Laden tore down the World Trade Center? Let's see him build one. If human beings didn't have a strong preference for creation, nothing would get built, ever.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“7) Any damn fool can predict the past.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“8) History never repeats itself.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“9) Ethics change with technology.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“10) Anarchy is the least stable of social structures.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“11) There is a time and place for tact. And there are times when tact is entirely misplaced.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“16) There is no cause so right that one cannot find a fool following it. To prove a point, one may seek out a foolish Socialist, thirteenth century Liberal, Scientologist, High Frontier advocate, Mensa member, science fiction fan, Jim Bakker acolyte, Christian, witch, or fanatical devotee of Special Interest Lib. It doesn't really reflect on the cause itself. Ad hominem argument saves time, but it's still a fallacy.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Also in Fallen Angels (Baen Books, 1992) as: "Niven's Law: No cause is so noble that it won't attract fuggheads.
“17) No technique works if it isn't used.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source