Quotes from Poul Anderson

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

Eventually, no doubt, increased intelligence would affect the total personality, but right now you're not removing anyone's weaknesses, ignorances, prejudices, blind spots, or ambitions; you're just giving him more power, of energy and intelligence, to indulge them—which is one reason why civilization is cracking up.

What had he been fighting when he fought the Nazis but a resurgence of archaic horrors that civilized men had once believed were safely dead? In

Please, mister, could I have a cracker for my oontatherium?

Evolution is cut-and-try.

Your existence cannot be a mere stochastic accident.

Skafloc looked at him out of weary eyes. 'Have the Sidhe that many ears?' he asked. 'No,' said Gulban, 'but they know when something of great portent nears

An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications. Or else a mouse is a transistorized elephant.

And then, the world is so full of old hate and superstition, and so many people are nice and tolerant and practical about it, that it's a wonder hell hasn't boiled over more often throughout history.

Istoria omului reprezinta o lupta continua intre instinct si inteligenta, intre ritmul involuntar al organismului si modelele autocreate ale constiintei.

You've taken millions—hundreds of millions—of people who've never had an original thought in their lives and suddenly thrown their brains into high gear. They start thinking—but what basis have they got? They still retain the old superstitions, prejudices, hates and fears and greeds, and most of their new mental energy goes to elaborate rationalization of these.

You are shameless! Will go far indeed, if no one shoots you first.

Knowledge has a trick of paying off in unexpected ways.

Dood ok ondergang!" Rupert panted.

And the Milky Way belted heaven with ice and silver, and the Magellanic Clouds were not vague shimmers but roiling and glowing; and the Andromeda galaxy gleamed sharp across more than a million light-years; and you felt your soul drowning in those depths and hastily pulled your vision back to the snug cabin that held you.

You know," he said, "ever since Akhnaton ruled in Egypt, probably since before then, a school of thought has held we ought to lay down our weapons and rely on love. That, if love doesn't work, at least we'll die guiltless. Usually even its opponents have said this is a noble idea. I say it stinks. I say it's not just unrealistic, not just infantile, it's evil.

Hey, take it easy, lover boy. Sex and mathematics don't mix. Or hadn't you heard?

To sit in judgment on what people do is a fool's game.

Tiempo atrás los hombres buscaban la iluminación para escapar del espejismo del mundo. Hoy sostenían que sólo existía el espejismo.

he said, and wondered if the engineers would ever be able to find the breaking strength of the human spirit. He felt very near to giving way.

You'll still need leaders, and stimulus, and a world symbol." (That's the basic emptiness in us today: we haven't found a symbol. We have no myth, no dream. 'Man is the measure of all things'—well, when the measure is bigger than everything else, what good is it?) "We're still pretty small potatoes." Mandelbaum gestured at the window and the bluely glimmering sky.

He aprendido mucho en dos mil años, pero nada sobre ningún Dios, excepto que surgen, cambian, envejecen y mueren. Si hay algo más allá del universo, dudo que se interese por nosotros.

Once you've mastered your thoughts, you'll be glad of this power," he said gently. "I wish they would bring back the old world," she said. "It was a cruel world," he answered. "We're well off without it.

By oak and ash and springtime-whitened thorn, through ages gone and ages to be born, by earth below, by air arising higher, by ringing waters, and by living fire, by life and death, I charge that ye say true if ye do now give faith for faith.