100 Quotes by Vernor Vinge

Intelligence is the handmaiden of flexibility and change.

Sometimes terror and pain are not the best levers; deception, when it works, is the most elegant and the least expensive manipulation of all.

So even in hell, there are clowns.

All evil and good is petty before Nature. Personally, we take comfort from this, that there is a universe to admire that cannot be twisted to villainy or good, but which simply is.

Les enfants sont des créatures extraordinaires, quand ils ne sont pas simplement chiants.

Though his invention worked superbly [...] his theory was a crock of sewage from beginning to end.

He claimed that nearby gun thunder cleared the mind - but most everybody else agreed it made you daft.

The illusion of self-awareness. Happy automatons, running on trivial programs. I'll bet you never guess. From the inside, how can you?

Funny how Underhill could get along with almost anyone, tuning down his manias to whatever the traffic would bear.