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So long as you believe in some truth you do not believe in yourself. You are a servant. A man of faith.
Jack McDevitt -
Somewhere we taught ourselves that our opinions are more significant than the facts. And somehow we get our egos and our opinions and Truth all mixed up in a single package, so that when something does challenge one of the notions to which we subscribe, we react as if it challenges us.
Jack McDevitt
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Freedom and idiots make a volatile mix. And the sad truth is that the idiocy quotient in the general population is alarmingly high.
Jack McDevitt -
Plato is correct about democracy. It is essentially mob rule. And once the mob gets an idea into its collective head, it’s almost impossible to get it out, or modify it in any way. In an era of mass communication and irresponsible media, it can be a deadly characteristic.
Jack McDevitt -
A man without money is a bow without an arrow.
Jack McDevitt -
He’d grown a mustache since Randall had last seen him. It was hard to understand why: He looked devious enough without it.
Jack McDevitt -
If you want creative and successful children, resign yourself to jousting with rebels.
Jack McDevitt -
Secrecy is a compulsive reflex in this country. It strangles thought, delays scientific progress, and destroys integrity.
Jack McDevitt
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When things go wrong, the standard management strategy is to decide who takes the blame. This should be an underling, as far down the chain as possible, but preferably with some visibility so people know management means business.
Jack McDevitt -
We know that when change comes, no one is more adamant in holding on to the past than those in power. They know change is inevitable, but they would, if they could, parcel it out in measured pieces. Grain for chickens.
Jack McDevitt -
Of course, they (i. e., demons) had always been observed with some regularity, but that could usually be ascribed to an overabundance of piety or wine or imagination. Take your pick.
Jack McDevitt -
A man is entitled to only one great passion in a lifetime. Whether it’s music or a profession or a woman, everything else pales in its afterglow. The searing shock so changes one’s chemistry that if the object is lost, the experience can never be repeated. Only anticlimax remains.
Jack McDevitt -
And because she so desperately wanted it to be true, she knew she could not manage an objective judgment.
Jack McDevitt -
Embrace your life, find what it is that you love, and pursue it with all your soul. For if you do not, when you come to die, you will find that you have not lived.
Jack McDevitt
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The idiots always rose to the top and made policy.It explained a lot of things.
Jack McDevitt -
The notion that we need a higher power, that’s more a human failing than a reflection of reality. The universe pays no attention to what we need. Truth is what it is, and the inconveniences it might cause us don’t change anything.
Jack McDevitt -
'Alyx,' she said, 'you're going to be a legend.''I already am, Captain,' she said.
Jack McDevitt -
If you're paying attention to your wardrobe, Rudy believed, your mind isn’t sufficiently occupied.
Jack McDevitt -
The stars are silent.Voyager among dark harbors, I listen, but the midnight wind carries only the sound of trees and water lapping against the gunwale and the solitary cry of the night swallow.There is no dawn. No searing sun rises in east or west. The rocks over Calumal do not silver, and the great round world slides through the void.
Jack McDevitt -
Ev was a careful man, a model of caution. He took pride in not committing to a view until all the facts were in. Which meant, of course, that he was never quite on board. Or in opposition.
Jack McDevitt
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'Organized mayhem,' Nick commented, 'seems to be the chief preoccupation of intelligent species everywhere.'
Jack McDevitt -
It had been his experience that the worst cynics all started out as idealists.
Jack McDevitt -
Prudence, and experience, suggested she expect the worst.
Jack McDevitt -
New worlds are always hard on old ideas.
Jack McDevitt