Jack McDevitt Quotes
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Secrecy is a compulsive reflex in this country. It strangles thought, delays scientific progress, and destroys integrity.
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Show me what a people admire, and I will tell you everything about them that matters.
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The Reverend Pullman sat on the opposite side of the bench, wearing clerical garb and one of those unctuous smiles that proclaims a monopoly on truth.
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'I can’t imagine,' said Dupre, 'a better way to unnerve people than to tell them there’s no cause for alarm.'
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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.
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The only people he knew of who would have leveled material advantage so that no one had any were of course those who had none to start with.
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And because she so desperately wanted it to be true, she knew she could not manage an objective judgment.
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Cities have a social utility, if only as places to get away from.
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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.
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'Alyx,' she said, 'you're going to be a legend.''I already am, Captain,' she said.
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Prudence, and experience, suggested she expect the worst.
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One could not always put safety up front as the prime goal. Do that, and who would ever achieve anything of note?
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'Sometimes,' he said, 'I think life is just one long series of blown opportunities.'
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We’re talking about something we all want very much to find. And that automatically makes Ed’s conclusions suspect.
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Well, kids are never much on history. Nor for that matter was anybody else. It had been MacAllister’s experience that most people think anything that happened before they were born didn’t count for a whole lot.
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(He was) tall and lean, an aristocrat by inclination, born into money and influence and never recovered.
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The queen of virtues is the recognition of one’s own flaws.
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The cultures we can look at had already grasped the essential unity of nature. No board of gods can survive that knowledge.