Poul Anderson Quotes

Anybody can find infinite Mandelbrot figures in his navel.

I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated.

We live with our archetypes, but can we live in them?

The single definition of government I've ever seen that makes sense is that it's the organization which claims the right to kill people who won't do what it wants.

A man isn't really alive till he has something bigger than himself and his own little happiness, for which he'd gladly die.

Timidity can be as dangerous as rashness.

A fanatic is a man who, when he's lost sight of his purpose, redoubles his effort.

He had seen too much of the cosmos to have any great faith in man's ability to understand it.

What five books would I like to be remembered for? Well... Tau Zero, I like that one especially. It was somewhat of a tour de force, and I think it got across what I was trying for.

If we knew exactly what to expect throughout the Solar System, we would have no reason to explore it.

There are some ideas so stupid that only intellectuals can believe in them, particularly left-wing intellectuals.

Machines can only find what ignorant men have programmed them to find.

Heaven is not as narrowly literal-minded as hell.

You know what they say about bold spacemen never becoming old spacemen.

A fanatic's willingness to kill or be killed in the service of a cause cannot prove the rightness of that cause.

Better a life like a falling star, brief bright across the dark, than the long, long waiting of the immortals, loveless and cheerlessly wise.

At each stage...entirely new laws, concepts and generalizations are necessary, requiring inspiration and creativity to just as great a degree as in the previous one.

My knowledge of the human psyche is as yet imperfect. Certain areas won't yield to computation.

Let us settle down to the serious business of getting drunk.

Will none wipe the sneer off the face of the cosmos?

In Harvest of Stars, there is this notion, not original with me of course, that it will become possible to download at least the basic aspects of a human personality into a machine program.

Two lives met across death and centuries. To ask what it meant is meaningless. There is no destiny. But sometimes there is bravery

These lands are not always calm. We may well have more adventures ahead of us. But we shall meet them with high hearts.

The fish that first ventured ashore had considerable practical problems.

Give fear no hold on you. Keep sinews loose and senses open, ready at every instant to flow with the rush of action.

Why do people in this age think their own impoverished lives must be the norm of the universe?

I’ve yet to see any problem, however complicated, which when you looked at it the right way didn’t become still more complicated.

Magic!' cried an old man. 'Tis sorcery, and we are undone!' 'Not so, ' I told him, 'Sorcery cannot harm good Christians.' 'But I am a miserable sinner, ' he wailed.