140 Quotes by Larry Niven

Anything you don't understand is dangerous until you do understand it.

The Unexpected always comes at the most awkward times.

I love superconductors.

The best advice I was ever given was on my twenty-first birthday when my father said, Son, here's a million dollars. Don't lose it.

If one must explain a magic trick, one should do so after the show is over.

Never be embarrassed or ashamed by anything you choose to write.

For each human being there is an optimum ratio between change and stasis. Too little change, he grows bored. Too little stability, he panics and loses his ability to adapt. One who marries six times in ten years won't change jobs. One who moves often to serve his company will maintain a stable marriage. A woman chained to one home and family may redecorate frantically or take a lover or go to many costume parties.

Anything beats an expensive stack of paper.

Consider the true picture. Think of myriads of tiny bubbles, very sparsely scattered, rising through a vast black sea. We rule some of the bubbles. Of the waters we know nothing...