Larry Niven Quotes
-
A thrint was master over every intelligent beast. This was the Powergiver’s primal decree, made before he made the stars. So said all of the twelve thrintun religions, though they fought insanely over other matters.
-
The perversity of the universe tends towards a maximum. The universe is hostile.
-
Matthew Leiah Keller sat beneath a watershed tree and brooded. Other children played all around him, but they ignored Matt. So did two teachers on monitor duty. People usually ignored Matt when he wanted to be alone. Uncle Matt was gone. Gone to a fate so horrible that the adults wouldn't even talk about it.
-
The majority is always sane.
-
1a) Never throw shit at an armed man. 1b) Never stand next to someone who is throwing shit at an armed man.
-
Species evolve to meet the environment. An intelligent species changes the environment to suit itself. As soon as a species becomes intelligent, it should stop evolving.
-
10) Anarchy is the least stable of social structures.
-
It had been a long dull evening, with only the thought of leaving the party early to look forward to.
-
I sometimes wonder why the aristocracy isn’t extinct, the lot of you seem so stupid sometimes.
-
The Unexpected always comes at the most awkward times.
-
The morning was blacker than the inside of a smoker’s lungs.
-
Drugs: 'There’s no way to keep them from getting in. Anyone who wants drugs can get them. We make arrests where we can, and so what? Me, I’m betting on Darwin.''How do you mean?''The next generation won’t use drugs because they’ll be descended from people who had better sense.'
-
Rod privately suspected the Scots studied their speech off duty so they’d be unintelligible to the rest of humanity.
-
11) There is a time and place for tact. And there are times when tact is entirely misplaced.
-
Seen through the glow of a building orgasm, a woman seems to blaze with angelic glory.
-
The bleeding-heart symbol does not represent any known revolutionary organization. … Yes, the bleeding heart was something else again. A gruesome symbol on a vivarium floor. Fingers that broke without their owner noticing. An ink drawing appearing from nowhere on a dossier cover, like a signature. A signature.
-
1) Writers who write for other writers should write letters.
-
7) Any damn fool can predict the past.
-
Gambling was safer than war. More fun, too. Best of all, it gave him better odds.
-
He liked everything about the university except the students.
-
2) Never be embarrased or ashamed about anything you choose to write. (Think of this before you send it to a market)
-
In a universe the size of ours almost anything that can happen, will.
-
Anything you don't understand is dangerous until you do understand it.
-
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.