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At night the sea is very loud,And voices ride the tide.At another time, in another place,Beneath the silent moon,We laughed together.
Jack McDevitt -
'If some of the current politicians had been around a few thousand years ago,' she’d said, 'we never would have gotten out of Africa. Boats cost too much.'
Jack McDevitt
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'I'm not optimistic,' he said. 'The issue clearly flies in the face of the First Amendment. People have a right to tell kids whatever they want about religion.''Do they have a right to push human sacrifice?''Of course not, Mac. But this isn’t human sacrifice. It’s just a church school.''I'm not sure the effect isn’t similar.'
Jack McDevitt -
Truth is slippery, not because it is difficult to grasp, but because we prefer our preconceptions, our beliefs, our myths.
Jack McDevitt -
'We are not a debating club,' Franklin said. 'Our goal is to get at the truth, where that is possible.'
Jack McDevitt -
Technological civilizations don’t last long. You're all right until you get a printing press. Then a race starts between technology and common sense. And maybe technology always wins.
Jack McDevitt -
Henry had been around long enough to know better than to disagree. But he forgot to implement.
Jack McDevitt -
Lasker mouthed, 'Trust him,' and Max sighed. Trust a lawyer? It flew in the face of his most cherished principles.
Jack McDevitt
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When do we reach a point where people become responsible for their own actions?
Jack McDevitt -
There are few professions whose primary objective is to advance the cause of humanity rather than simply to make money or accrue power. Among this limited group of humanitarians I would number teachers, nurses, bookstore owners, and bartenders.
Jack McDevitt -
There is no justice. There are occasional acts of vengeance, or regret, but there’s no real justice. In the natural scheme of things, it is not possible.
Jack McDevitt -
Yes, it was not journalism’s finest hour. But, MacAllister often argued, it never had been.
Jack McDevitt -
The beginning of wisdom is to admit to being inept. We’re all a bit slow. We have our moments, but in the end, we have to resort to bumbling through. It is what makes conviction so egregious.
Jack McDevitt -
Talking with most people usually involves a search for truth. Talking with congressmen is strictly special effects.
Jack McDevitt
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Tides are like politics. They come and go with a great deal of fuss and noise, but inevitably they leave the beach just as they found it. On those few occasions when major change does occur, it is rarely good news.
Jack McDevitt -
The kids were both adolescents, at that happy stage where they could simultaneously make him confident about the future while they were sabotaging the present.
Jack McDevitt -
Mac continued to write scathing commentary on assorted hypocrisies in high places and low, without which hypocrisies, he cheerfully conceded, civilized life would be impossible.
Jack McDevitt -
'I suspect we would be wise,' he said without looking up, 'to avoid declaring what God will or will not allow.'
Jack McDevitt -
Sometimes the cost of integrity is the loss of a friend.
Jack McDevitt -
MacAllister commented recently that Plato was right, that democracy is mob rule, that the voters can be counted on consistently to find the candidate with the fewest scruples and put him in office.
Jack McDevitt
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But the old man had provided his kids with one priceless gift: He’d encouraged them to read, and he didn’t bother too much about the content, subscribing to the theory that good books ultimately speak for themselves.
Jack McDevitt -
The problem is that too often the only people who can act don’t want change. Power doesn’t so much corrupt as it breeds conservatism.
Jack McDevitt -
'The media have gone berserk.''The media always go berserk. A kid falls off a bike in Montana, they’re all over it. Until something else happens.'
Jack McDevitt -
What would happen is that people like Geroge and Alyx would grow old and die chasing a dream. Although there were probably worse things to do with one’s life.
Jack McDevitt