Quotes from Jack McDevitt

Love is all that matters, All else is decoration.

It's common to maintain that trying a repetitive tactic in the face of ongoing failure defines insanity, but sometimes it is all we have.

But, come to think of it, there was no need to wait. Time travelers don't have to wait for anybody.

wanted.' Hutch knew better. 'I'm serious. All you'd need is a little training. And, of

Stupidity is always expensive

Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven, Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels. —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline

made up Southern Hope. The snowfields rolled out flat in all directions. The sky was hard and clear, the sun beginning to sink toward

Fear the assassin who waits in the lonely passages of the heart. —Teri Kilborn, Broken Fences           She

The universe, he'd come to realize, evaded human understanding. And probably always would. Humans might know the rules, have a grip on physical law, and even make the math work, but the senses that had evolved on Earth would never grasp the realities.

An ocean with a single shore gets little traffic.

Money bought access. But the Second American Revolution had happened, people began taking the Constitution seriously again, and the practice of renting and buying congressmen had been stopped by the simple expedient of getting money out of the campaigns. Contributions of all types became illegal. Campaigns were funded by the voters. You gave money to a politician, it constituted bribery, and you could go to jail.

The individual human life span is brief and, in the long view, inconsequential,' he said. 'We are children one day and signing out the next. Therefore, in the brief moment we are allotted, live reasonably, be compassionate, and when your hour comes, accept it without histrionics. Never forget that your handful of hours is a supreme gift. Use them wisely, do not fritter them away, and remember that your life is not an entitlement.

Home. It is the place where once we lived and laughed, where we grew up with the assumption that all would be well, where we met our first love, where life stretched endlessly ahead. This is the place that now becomes a desert of the heart. —Kory Tyler, Musings, 1412           Gabe

You wander around near Independence Park and the Hall of the People, and you get a sense that they will be there forever. But forever is a long time. The people who lived in Washington before the waters came probably thought that about their city. But it's all temporary, baby. Perpetuity is an illusion.

Show me a man of unflinching rectitude and I'll show you a man who hasn't been offered his price.

but loss is the one constant we all have to deal with. It's the price of living. We lose parents, friends, relatives. We lose the place we grew up in, and we lose the whole circle of our acquaintances. We spend ungodly amounts of time wondering whatever happened to former teachers and lovers and scoutmasters.

He's so obsessed with trying to analyze the architecture

When your people come together as a group, they do not perform well.

Doesn't matter, does it?" said George. "They're just as dead. Their blood is on your hands." "They don't have blood." "Humans are only literal when they're ashamed of something.

Cape Canaveral. The ultimate historic site. And it's underwater. How could they not have noticed what was going on? They went to the Moon, and they couldn't see that the glaciers were melting?" "I'm sure they did," said Alex. "But you know how people are. They're going to resist changing a lifestyle unless the danger is looking them directly in the eye. The glaciers must have seemed like somebody else's problem.

I had never realized that so much communication was non-verbal. That language was a kind of refinement of information passed by other means. We discovered that, with the most limited vocabulary, a half dozen words, you could still cover a lot of ground. And eventually, Belle came back.

Faith has its price. When misfortune strikes the true believer, he assumes he has done something to deserve punishment, but isn't quite certain what. The realist, recognizing that he lives in a Darwinian universe, is simply grateful to have made it to another sunset.

But the reality is that sometimes a good lie may be what we really need. Provided we can make it sound like truth.

The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family. —Thomas Jefferson, Letters, 1790