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369f9a1
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Creative people see Prometheus in a mirror, never Pandora.
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David Brin |
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53b4aa2
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Where subtlety fails us we must simply make do with cream pies.
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David Brin |
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92cb548
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Prison for the crime of puberty -- that was how secondary school had seemed.
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puberty
teenage
school
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David Brin |
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c7cedd4
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Only people with full stomachs become environmentalists.
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people
environmentalists
logistics
environmentalism
practicality
realism
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David Brin |
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d48dee5
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The village is coming back, like it or not.
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David Brin |
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71dff70
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Self-awareness is probably overrated. A complex, self-regulating system doesn't need it in order to be successful, or even smart.
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self-awareness
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David Brin |
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b185d1d
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where were answers to the truly deep questions? Religion promised those, though always in vague terms, while retreating from one line in the sand to the next. Don't look past this boundary, they told Galileo, then Hutton, Darwin, Von Neumann, and Crick, always retreating with great dignity before the latest scientific advance, then drawing the next holy perimeter at the shadowy rim of knowledge.
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religion
science
scientists
questions
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David Brin |
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47157d5
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science demands a terrible price - that we accept what experiments tell us about the universe, whether we like it or not.
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science
philosophy
superstition
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David Brin |
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47bc3e8
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We aren't a curse upon the world. We are her new eyes. Her brain, testes, ovaries . . . her ambition and her heart. Her voice. So sing. (556)
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David Brin |
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bdb4dfd
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While I have the floor, here's a question that's been bothering me for some time. Why do so few writers of heroic or epic fantasy ever deal with the fundamental quandary of their novels . . . that so many of them take place in cultures that are rigid, hierarchical, stratified, and in essence oppressive? What is so appealing about feudalism, that so many free citizens of an educated commonwealth like ours love reading about and picturing lif..
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writing
feudalism
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David Brin |
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95d4fbc
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It's said that 'power corrupts,' but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power. When they do act, they think of it as service, which has limits. The tyrant, though, seeks mastery, for which he is insatiable, implacable.
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David Brin |
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01785f1
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Cultural contamination that is directed outward is always seen as 'enlightenment.
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enlightenment
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David Brin |
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b4cca1f
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Information is not like money or any other commodity. The cracks that it can slip through are almost infinitely small, and it can be duplicated at almost zero cost. Soon information will be like air, like the weather, and as easy to control.
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David Brin |
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9046be6
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True brilliance has a well-known positive correlation with decency, much of the time--a fact the rest of us rely on, more than we ever know. The real world doesn't roil with as many crazed artists, psychotic generals, dyspeptic writers, maniacal statesmen, insatiable tycoons, or mad scientists as you see in dramas.
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David Brin |
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f1870c0
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The species greatest harvest -- words.
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words
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David Brin |
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b800ada
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Generalization is a natural human mental process, and many generalizations are true--in average. What often does promote evil behavior is the lazy, nasty habit of believing that generalizations have anything at all to do with individuals.
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stereotypes
generalizations
individual
individuals
evil
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David Brin |
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bb93e1a
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The greedy and the power-hungry will always look for ways to break the rules, or twist them to their advantage.
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David Brin |
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1ad63e3
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The three basic material rights -- continuity, mutual obligation, and the pursuit of happiness.
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law
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David Brin |
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729270e
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The measure of (mental) health is flexibility (not comparison to some 'norm'), the freedom to learn from experience ... to be influenced by reasonable arguments ... and the appeal to the emotions ... and especially the freedom to cease when sated. The essence of illness is the freezing of behavior into unalterable and insatiable patterns. Lawrence Kubie
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David Brin |
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71f9dc8
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Men can be brilliant and strong, they whispered to one another. But men can be mad, as well. And the mad ones can ruin the world. Women, you must judge them . . . Never again can things be allowed to reach this pass, they said to one another as they thought of the sacrifice the Scouts had made. Never again can we let the age-old fight go on between good and bad men alone. Women, you must share responsibility . . . and bring your own tal..
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David Brin |
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836d613
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How can we set up a system which encourages individuals to strive and excel, and yet which shows some compassion to the weak, and weeds out madmen and tyrants?
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David Brin |
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3e7d966
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Freedom was wonderful beyond relief. But with it came that bitch, Duty.
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David Brin |
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8950946
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The best means to an end are not always those that appear most direct.
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David Brin |
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ea4bb54
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It was a strange trek -- the sullen leading the apathetic, followed by the confused, all tailed by the inveterately amused.
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travel
imagination
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David Brin |
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d803817
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Men can be brilliant and strong, they whispered to one another. But men can be mad, as well. And the mad ones can ruin the world.
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David Brin |
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eef9148
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In good times, pessimism is a luxury; but in bad times, pessimism is a self-fulfilling and fatal prophecy.
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David Brin |
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94d26e8
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Other generations perceived a plethora of swords hanging over their heads. But generally what they feared were shadows, for neither they nor their gods could actually end the world. Fate might reap an individual, a family, or even a whole nation, but not the entire world. Not then. We, in the mid-twenty-first century, are the first to look up at a sword we ourselves forged, and know, with absolute certainty, it is real...
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David Brin |
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4e6b7c4
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It was called 'the Big Lie' technique, Johnny. Just sound like you know what you're talking about--as if you're citing real facts. Talk very fast. Weave your lies into the shape of a conspiracy theory and repeat your assertions over and over again. Those who want an excuse to hate or blame--those with big but weak egos--will leap at a simple, neat explanation for the way the world is. Those types will never call you on the facts.
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David Brin |
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b09ba68
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Alex felt the words wash over him. He had the strange fantasy the things were seeking places within him to lay their young.
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words
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David Brin |
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010d756
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Deep down, most humans prefer living out their lives surrounded by comfortable certainties, guided by warm myths and metaphors, knowing that they'll understand their children, and their children will understand them.
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David Brin |
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081f7a8
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Snow and soot covered the ancient tree's broken branches and seared bark. It wasn't dead, not quite yet. Here and there tiny shoots of green struggled to emerge, but they weren't doing well. The end was near. A shadow loomed, and a creature settled into the drifts, and old, wounded thing of the skies, as near death as the tree. Pinions drooping, it laboriously began building a nest--a place of dying. Stick by stick, it pecked among the ru..
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David Brin |
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c946ab9
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Every time humans discovered a new resource, or technique for using mass and energy, one side effect has always been pollution. Why should the information age be any different from those of coal, petroleum, or the atom?
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David Brin |
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3bb65e0
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He approached the great glass barrier dividing the room, and the speaker at the end of the table. "Cyclops?" he whispered, stepping closer, clearing his tight throat, "Cyclops, it's me, Gordon." The glow in the pearly lens was subdued. But the row of little lights still flashed--a complex pattern that repeated over and over like an urgent message from a distant ship in some lost code--ever, hypnotically, the same. Gordon felt a frantic dr..
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David Brin |
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2618113
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Where is it written that one should only care about big things? I fought for big things, long ago... for issues, principles, a country. Where are all of them now?... I found out something, you know. I discovered that the big things don't love you back. They take and take, and never give in return. They'll drain your blood, your soul, if you let them, and never let go.
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David Brin |
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96efb5f
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Today you meet more folks than your ancestors could imagine ... some in passing. Some for a crucial instant. Others for tangled decades. Biology can't keep up. Our overworked temporal lobes cannot "know" the face-name-reps of ten billion people!"
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David Brin |
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8935ed7
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The propensity of Earthlings to get into trouble, and to learn thereby, was the reason my owners agreed to this mad venture - although no one expected such a chain of unusual calamities as befell this ship. Your talents were underrated.
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humanity
humor
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David Brin |
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8165262
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But there is one more reason to protect other species. One seldom if ever mentioned. Perhaps we are the first to talk and think and build and aspire, but we may not be the last. Others may follow us in this adventure. Some day we may be judged by just how well we served, when alone we were Earth's caretakers.
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David Brin |
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a1cee09
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Even in dying, a Thennanin ship was reputed to be not worth putting out of its misery. In battle they were slow, unmaneuverable--and as hard to disable permanently as a cockroach.
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simile
irony
life
space
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David Brin |
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af8e4d3
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Does the universe hate us? How many pitfalls lie ahead, waiting to shred our conceited molecule-clusters back into unthinking dust? Shall we count them?
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David Brin |
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a608027
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Someone once said that one measure of sentience was how much energy a sophont spent on matters other than survival. Fiben
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David Brin |
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2270fd5
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Of course we can establish constitutional checks and balances, but those won't mean a thing unless citizens make sure the safeguards are taken seriously. The greedy and the power-hungry will always look for ways to break the rules, or twist them to their advantage.
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David Brin |
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11936c9
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Science gives man what he needs, but magic gives man what he wants.
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David Brin |
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3882fc3
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The conflict is an old one. George Washington and other followers of the Enlightenment Movement wrote of their belief in an imminent maturity of humankind. The ancient and cruel feudal ways were splitting asunder at last; therefore, how could truth and freedom not prevail? In fact, the Enlightenment changed humanity forever. Yet its followers forgot something important -- that each generation is invaded by a new wave of barbarians... its ch..
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David Brin |
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8ea2521
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A new legend swept Oregon, from Roseburg all the way north to the Columbia, from the mountains to the sea. It traveled by letter and by word of mouth, growing with each telling. It was a sadder story than the two that had come before it--those speaking of a wise, benevolent machine and of a reborn nation. It was more disturbing than those. And yet this new fable had one important element its predecessors lacked. It was true. The story to..
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David Brin |