14 Quotes by John W. Campbell

History does not always repeat itself. Sometimes it just yells, ‘Can’t you remember anything I told you?’ and lets fly with a club.

Immunity corrupts; absolute immunity corrupts absolutely.

Man studied birds for centuries, trying to learn how to make a machine to fly like them. He never did do the trick; his final success came when he broke away entirely and tried new methods.

Science is not a sacred cow-but there are a large number of would-be sacred cowherds busily devoting quantities of time, energy and effort to the task of making it one, so they can be sacred cowherds.

Write me a creature that thinks as well as a man or better than a man, but not like a man.

There’s nothing quite so stultifying as having someone around who has all the answers-and gives them to you.

Pioneering basically amounts to finding new and more horrible ways to die.

We presuppose two things: that there is yet to be learned infinitely more than is now known, and that man can learn it.

Generally, a desirable, practically attainable idea, suggested in prophecy, has a chance of forcing itself into reality by its very existence.