Larry Niven Quotes
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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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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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Peace isn’t a stable condition, not for us. Maybe not for anything that lives.
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I love superconductors.
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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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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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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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Fear is the brother of hate.
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2) Never fire a laser at a mirror.
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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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5) Psi and/or magical powers, if real, are nearly useless.
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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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Treat your life like something to be sculpted.
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We learn only to ask more questions.
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17) No technique works if it isn't used.
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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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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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'Perhaps I was expecting too much.''Perhaps. We’re all waiting as fast as we can.'
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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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One mark of a good officer, he remembered, was the ability to make quick decisions. If they happen to be right, so much the better.