Larry Niven Quotes
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A ramrobot had been the first to see Mount Lookitthat. Ramrobots had been first visitors to all the settled worlds. The interstellar ramscoop robots, with an unrestricted fuel supply culled from interstellar hydrogen, could travel between stars at speeds approaching that of light.
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In hindsight it may even seem inevitable that a socialist society will starve when it runs out of capitalists.
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Peace isn’t a stable condition, not for us. Maybe not for anything that lives.
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The human species really could have faced global thermonuclear war. During seventy years of Cold War we grew used to it.
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I love superconductors.
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Think of it as evolution in action.
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Jesus Pietro was worried. The Sons of Earth, if they got this far, would go straight to the vivarium to free their compatriots. But if Matthew Keller was his own agent... If the ghost of Alpha Plateau was not a rebel, but a thing with its own unpredictable purpose... Jesus Pietro worried.
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Putting a monkey wrench in machinery is often the only way to force somebody to repair, replace, or redesign the machinery. Especially legal or social machinery.
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Fear is the brother of hate.
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The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn't have a space program.
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'You look like a girl with a secret,' Matt said. 'I think it must be the smile.' She moved closer to him, which was very close, and lowered her voice. 'Can you keep a secret?' Matt smiled with one side of his mouth to show that he knew what was coming. She said it anyway. 'So can I.'
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A machine has no mind to read; you never know when it’s going to betray you-
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2) Never fire a laser at a mirror.
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We're looking as far ahead as we can, and we don't get penalized for mistakes.
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We learn only to ask more questions.
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There’s always another problem behind the one you just solved. Does that mean that you should stop solving problems?
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'Do you play games of chance?''Emphatically yes. The process of living is a game of chance. To avoid chance is insanity.'
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17) No technique works if it isn't used.
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Treat your life like something to be sculpted.
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The Gods do not protect fools. Fools are protected by more capable fools.
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6) Everybody talks first draft.
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1a) Never throw shit at an armed man. 1b) Never stand next to someone who is throwing shit at an armed man.
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It does not destroy matter, which is reassuring. Rewriting one law of physics is worse than trying to eat one peanut.
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10) Anarchy is the least stable of social structures.