S. M. Stirling Quotes

United States, Author
September 30, 1953

Stephen Michael Stirling (born September 30, 1953) is a French-born Canadian-American science-fiction and fantasy author. Stirling is probably best known for his Draka series of alternate history novels and his later time travel/alternate history Nantucket series and Emberverse series.

Words mean what they're generally believed to mean. When Charles II saw Christopher Wren's St. Paul's Cathedral for the first time, he called it "awful, pompous, and artificial." Meaning roughly: Awesome, majestic, and ingenious.

S. M. Stirling
- Time
- Words
- Mean
Love isn't like money – the more you give away the more you get back, and the more you have to give.

S. M. Stirling
- Money
- Love
- For Her

You can learn by listening, or by getting whacked between the eyes with a two-by-four. I always found listening easier.

S. M. Stirling
- Eyes
- Listening
- Eye
I'm always diplomatic when heavily outnumbered by armed strangers.

S. M. Stirling
A libertarian is someone who can believe that the police are no more than a gang of thugs without realizing that in the absence of police, thugs will gather into gangs.

S. M. Stirling
- Believe
- Police
- Gang
Bad writers have influences. Good writers steal.

S. M. Stirling
- Good
- Bad
- Influence
Strange, isn't it, that it's always more difficult to talk people out of killing each other than into it?

S. M. Stirling
Nothing's free and only the cheaper things can be bought with money.

S. M. Stirling
- Money
- Free
- Cheaper

To take life was to understand your own death--that the Hour of the Huntsman also came for you.

S. M. Stirling
- Life
- Death
- Hours
The heart has its reasons that the mind knows not?

S. M. Stirling
- Mind
- Heart
- Reason
And the first king was a lucky soldier.

S. M. Stirling
- King
- Lucky
- Soldier
Many are the marvels of God's Creation, but none so marvelous as man. Or so cunning, for good and ill.

S. M. Stirling
- Good
- God
- Men
A fighter should not think only of his shete, just because he has a shete in his hand. Everything is a weapon in the warrior's mind.

S. M. Stirling
- Thinking
- Mind
- War
Sacredness grew like a pearl, sometimes around the most unlikely bits of grit.

S. M. Stirling
- Sometimes
- Grit
- Pearls

There is a technical term for someone who confuses the opinions of a character in a book with those of the author. That term is idiot.

S. M. Stirling
- Character
- Book
- Opinion
Sometimes the harshest lessons were the most valuable.

S. M. Stirling
Leading means running fast enough to keep ahead of your people.

S. M. Stirling
- People
- Running
- Mean