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.

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.

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

...we find our vocations not by focusing on ourselves, but by focusing on others.

In retrospect, the pace of change in the arts and industry in the nineteenth century seems pretty glacial. Painting, music, the novel, architecture were all evolving, but at a pretty observable pace.

I'm in favor of anything that promotes greener solutions.

The trick is not how much pain you feel--but how much joy you feel. Any idiot can feel pain. Life is full of excuses to feel pain, excuses not to live, excuses, excuses, excuses.

I don't call magazines and let them know about things so they can write stories.

I am just a person who is human, down to earth enjoying life.. whatever god blesses you with. Enjoying life for me is just normal.

Robert Louis Stevenson...was a storyteller, that's what I'd like to be, that's what I'm trying to be

We are surrounded by curtains. We only perceive the world behind a curtain of semblance. At the same time, an object needs to be covered in order to be recognized at all.

Barack Obama wants to be the power figure, he wants to be the face of the Democrat Party going forward.

I'm someone who doesn't believe in making my problems other people's problems.