82 Quotes by Poul Anderson

How much of what we dismiss today may have been based on fragmentary observation, centuries ago, before the very existence of a scientific framework began to condition what facts we would and would not discover?

Our species is gifted where it comes to interpreting doctrine so as to justify whatever one wants to do.

This business of Chaos versus Law, for example, turned out to be more than religious dogma. It was a practical fact of existence, here.

Cynicism is boringly fashionable. I didn’t think you would be afraid to say mankind is worth fighting for.

I’ll have to jump around like sodium in the rain.

I must have first read The High Crusade in my early teens, and in memory, the book is fun, with the English villagers and nobles conquering the galaxy after they’ve taken over an alien space ship that landed in their village. The Baron, Sir Roger, merely intended to catch a quick ride to the wars in France, then go on to the Crusades in Jerusalem, but one thing led to another.

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.

You’re right,’ I’d say. ‘The planet is grossly overpopulated and we’d better do something about it. Do you want to machine-gun the surplus yourself, or shall we start with you?

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