Irvin D. Yalom
Sometimes I simply remind patients that sooner or later they will have to relinquish the goal of having a better past. If you make a mistake, admit it. Any attempt at cover-up will ultimately backfire.
J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
"And so I did," said Dumbledore placidly. "I told you everything I know. From this point forth, we shall be leaving the firm foundation of fact and journeying together through the murky marches of memory into the thickets of wildest guesswork. From here on in, Harry, I may be as woefully wrong as Humphrey Belcher, who believed the time was ripe for a cheese cauldron.
The Expanse, season 4
- Sibola Burn
He is bitter about our lot in life, and searching for a way to vent his rage. He is smart. He is brave, yes, very brave, but also very naive because he believes that violence is the only way to get what he feels his dues. Violence is indiscriminate. If you use it as a tool it will do more than just kill your enemies. Sometimes it will kill the ones you love most.
Alastair Reynolds
- Bone Silence
Adrana vowed to herself that she would think only of making it back to the intersection, and not permit herself to dwell on the likelihood of the other route being similarly obstructed. Survive the present moment, then the next, then the next and sooner or later all those next moments added up to a life. That was how people like Prozor dealt with the many hazards of their profession. To worry about anything other than the immediate problem was to divert some vital energy from the task at hand.
Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman
- Time of Twins
Dusting himself off, Tas turned eagerly to Caramon. "I have it figured out! You see - it used to be Fistandantilus becoming Raistlin becoming Fistandantilus. Only now it's Fistandantilus becoming Raistlin becoming Fistandantilus, then becoming Raistlin again. See?" No, Caramon did not.
Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman
- Time of Twins
Dusting himself off, he turned eagerly to Caramon. "I have it figured out! You see - it used to be Fistandantilus becoming Raistlin becoming Fistandantilus. Only now it's Fistandantilus becoming Raistlin becoming Fistandantilus, then becoming Raistlin again. See?" No, Caramon did not.
Isaac Asimov
I believe that scientific knowledge has fractal properties, that no matter how much we learn, whatever is left, however small it may seem, is just as infinitely complex as the whole was to start with. That, I think, is the secret of the Universe.
Ivars Peterson
- Islands of Truth
Although mathematicians sometimes belittle a colleague's work by calling it "recreational" mathematics, much serious mathematics has come out of recreational problems, which test mathematical logic and reveal mathematical truths.
Niels Bohr
We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct. My own feeling is that it is not crazy enough.
Alastair Reynolds
- Absolution Gap
Not even that, he corrected himself. It was a sign of cosmic obliviousness. The universe didn't know what was happening here. It didn't know and it didn't care. It didn't even know that it didn't know.
Alastair Reynolds
- Absolution Gap
But, by the same token, this realisation was also strangely liberating: if an individual human existence meant so little, if one's actions were so cosmically irrelevant, then the notion of some absolute moral framework made about as much sense as the universal ether. Measured against the infinite, therefore, people were no more capable of meaningful sin - or meaningful good - than ants, or dust.
Isaac Azimov
- The Foundation and The Empire
Naturally, your ability is recognized. The Mule is not of those who fear the ability of his enemies; at least as long as he can convert it into the ability of a new friend.
Frank Herbert
- Children of Dune, Chapter 35
In the Bene Gesserit Way, he opened his mind to Jacurutu, seeking to know nothing about it. Knowing was a barrier which prevented learning. For a few moments he allowed himself merely to resonate, making no demands, asking no questions.
Frank Herbert
- Children of Dune, Charter 18
The old ways (My ways! he admitted) had forced his people to ignore all history except that which turned inward onto their own travail. The old Fremen had read history out of their own terrible migrations, their flights from persecution into persecution. They had suppressed creativity and all sense of progress, of evolution. Prosperity had been dangerous to the old Imperium and its holders of power.
Frank Herbert
- Children of Dune, Chapter 3
Alia saw nothing strange in loving and hating her mother simultaneously. It was a necessity, a required balance without room for guilt or blame. Where could loving or hating stop? The Sisterhood had only been seeking to breed a Kwisatz Haderach, a human of superior sensitivity and awareness, and Jessica was a mere pawn in this greater game.
Dan Abnett
- Straight Silver - Ibram Gaunt's Ghosts
Many believe that the Imperium is so vast in scale, so huge in scope, that the actions of one man could not affect it. This isn't true. If everyone thought that way, the Imperium would simply collapse in upon itself overnight. Each and every human soul determine their part of the Imperial culture. This is the only thing the Emperor asks of a man. Be true to yourself, and all those myriad tiny contributions would combine to build a culture that could endure until the stars went out.
Frank Herbert
- Dune Messiah, Chapter Four
I owned a crysknife, water rings to ten liters, my own lance which had been my father's, a coffee service, a bottle made of red glass older than any memory in my sietch. I had my own share of our spice, but no money. I was rich and did not know it. Two wives I had: one plain and dear to me, the other stupid and obstinate, but with form and face of an angel. I was a Fremen Naib, a rider of worms, master of the leviathan and of the sand.
Frank Herbert
- Dune Messiah, Chapter One
Let us not bandy philosophical nonsense. Every question can be boiled down to the one: 'Why is there anything?' Every religious, business and governmental question has the single derivative: 'Who will exercise the power?' Alliances, combines, complexes, they all chase mirages unless they go for the power. All else is nonsense, as most thinking beings come to realize.
H.P. Lovecraft
- A Color Out Of Space
There was no vegetation of any kind on that broad expanse, but only a fine grey dust or ash which no wind seemed ever to blow about. The trees near it were sickly and stunted, and many dead trunks stood or lay rotting at the rim. Even the long, dark woodland climb beyond seemed welcome in contrast. There had been no house or ruin near; even in the old days the place must have been lonely and remote. And at twilight, dreading to repass that ominous spot, I walked circuitously back to the town.
