Favorite Quotes
Tony
sources?
Dorothy J Heydt
Tony <to...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction
>and other sources?
Oh, I have several. Here's one from Heinlein's "Life-line":
"There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country
the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit
out of the public for a number of years, the government and the
courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in
the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and
contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not
supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor
corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the
clock of history be stopped, or turned back, for their private
benefit."
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at hotmail dot com
Should you wish to email me, you'd better use the hotmail edress.
Kithrup is getting too damn much spam, even with the sysop's filters.
Mike Schilling
> What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction
> and other sources?
"You're generalizing from one example."
"Everyone generalizes from one example. Anyway, I do."
Tina Hall
> What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science
> fiction and other sources?
--------
"But that's no fun at all. How can we subjugate the alien races --
or fight against the monstrous alien hordes -- if there aren't any
aliens?"
-- Sea Wasp on rec.arts.sf.composition
>> Why not an alien race that truly is alien?
> Like the Teletubbies?
No, those are demons from hell.
-- seen in rec.arts.sf.tv
"Hello me. Meet the real you."
-- Evil Lex, Smallville 4:17
"Of course bananas are far more interesting."
-- Ianto, Torchwood 1:10
"Taking his feet off, unscrewed his head, eyes bobbing about in
a bowl of lens-cleaner, he's having the time of his life."
-- Red Dwarf, Back to Earth
--------
Oh, you said literary. But that's incompatible with science fiction.
If you mean written, there's only my own. A number of those short
enough to squeeze into a sig is right there.
--
(Shareahn) "The Lords are much more interesting. I want to see Vires
faint." She grinned at Thay. "Jodra said that he might just."
(Rhaevan) "Magic Lords don't faint."
"What if he does and we miss that?" -- Seasons & Elements III
Peter Huebner
to...@hotmail.com says...
> What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction and other
> sources?
>
From a non-sf book by one of my favourite sf authors:
"It was the day my grandmother exploded."
-P.
RandyL AT DOT
are certainly coming to a middle."
-Malcom Reynolds - Captain of 'Serenity'
Randy L.
--
Remember: Any landing that you can walk away from,
is a landing that you can be fined, sued, or prosecuted for.
"Tony" <to...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:GcadnaSZHYdK5p7X...@giganews.com...
Butch Malahide
> What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction and other
> sources?
1. The Muties have a proverb: Two heads are better than none.
2. "You misunderstand," the mighty robot had said. "I am the master."
3. "So," Claude said without emotion, "your Esper Muties would rule
the world, yet they cannot spell tyranny."
4. Tension, apprehension, and dissention have begun.
5. "Peek-a-boo," said Mink.
6. Monumental task, painting a world, for creatures half an inch tall.
7. Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.
8. Two months ago in Camden, New Jersey, a forty-three year old man
was found turned to stone staring at a position on a chessboard.
9. "Time," he said, "is what keeps everything from happening at once."
10. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of
knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the
highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out
the useful ones.
11. I identified panda bones and dingo bones and capybara bones, but
there were also some big thick bones which I could not identify, and I
pointed them out to Ruiz.
12. Up there--God? In a dirty bathrobe?
13. They nod together, sad and glitter-eyed, and The Century of Flame
begins.
14. On his next voyage he changed his name to Blaze Bolt and ruled for
ninety-seven days as king of a sweet sea island in M-81, but that is
another and much more unpleasant story.
15. The doorknob opened a blue eye and looked at him.
16. The universe and its contents appeared.
17. "Let's take it point by point. Do you remember by any chance where
you were when you first noticed that your body was missing?"
18. "When our minds have grown tired, when our lives have expired,
when our troubles no longer can weary us, let our ashes return, neatly
packed in an urn, to the bright purple swamps of our Sirius."
19. One by one the blue mutants crawled away, spitting out the torn,
bloody fragments.
20. "Do stars hiss and sizzle when rain comes by night?"
21. THE RIGHT TO BUY WEAPONS IS THE RIGHT TO BE FREE
22. Following the death of Jesus Christ, there was a period of
readjustment that lasted for approximately one million years.
Joel Olson
> other sources?
An almost random sample:
You know Chad's definition of the New Poor? People who are too far behind
with time-payments on next year's model to make the down-payment on the one
for the year after. - John Brunner
The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words.
If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must
use the words. - P. Dick
"I don't have to look it up," Jimmy Poole told her as he hoisted his
backpack to his shoulder. "I already know the answer."
(He wants me to ask him what it is, but I won't) "Too bad," she said, not
knowing why she said it, except that Jimmy was really bugging her.
Jimmy looked puzzled. "Why?"
"Because if you already know the answer, you won't learn how to find it." -
Michael Flynn
We're too accustomed to rapid change, she thought. We celebrate every
ephemeral swing of fashion, while generational trends go unnoticed. -
Walter Jon Williams
The great achievements of the past were the adventures of the past. Only an
adventurous soul can understand the greatness of the past.--Proverbs of the
Rith, spoken by Alfred the White Head of the North, reputed to be the High
Philophone of the Round Table of Emporer Arthur of England. - Donald
Kingsbury
Ryan McCoskrie
> What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction and
> other sources?
From one of the Hitch Hikers' books (Life the, Universe and Everything?):
"The trick to flying is to throw yourself, with all of your weight at the
ground and miss".
And from Red Dwarf:
"Dogs' milk last longer than any other kind of milk"
"Why?"
"No bugger's going to drink it."
--
Quote of the login:
ASCII a stupid question, you get an EBCDIC answer.
Mike Dworetsky
> other sources?
>
"In five years, the penis will be obsolete," said the salesman.
(first line of _Steel Beach_, by John Varley)
Well, it gets your attention.
--
Mike Dworetsky
(Remove pants sp*mbl*ck to reply)
Dirk van den Boom
> 17. "Let's take it point by point. Do you remember by any chance where
> you were when you first noticed that your body was missing?"
Can you enlighten me with the source of this one and...
> 22. Following the death of Jesus Christ, there was a period of
> readjustment that lasted for approximately one million years.
... this one? Thank you!
Anthony Nance
> What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction and other
> sources?
So many, so many...I pick these two, for no particular reason:
"There aren't any good Plan B's, Tim. If they were any good they'd be
Plan A's!" - Wanda in "The Magic School Bus"
"Gail? Rinaldo's girlfriend? My Son was dating a demon?"
"Let's not be prejudiced. He'd done a lot worse his freshman year."
"You've got a point there," she admitted. "I'd forgotten Carol."
- Roger Zelazny, Knight of Shadows
Tony
Walter Bushell
na...@math.ohio-state.edu (Anthony Nance) wrote:
"You know, Michael", I said, "Just once today I'd like to fly away from
the scene of the disaster."
"I have considerable sympathy for this point of view.", he answered,
"However --"
"Yeah"
JimboCat
> What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction and other
> sources?
"Children are innocent, and so love Justice.
Adults prefer Mercy." -- W. K. Chesterton
"Where are they?"
-- Enrico Fermi, 1901-1954
"In the world of words the imagination is one of the forces of
nature." -- Wallace Stevens
"Being surprised at the fact that the universe
is fine tuned for life is akin to a puddle being
surprised at how well it fits its hole"
-- Douglas Adams
"For six days he had offered many kilowatts of prayer,
but the static kept him from being heard On High."
-- Roger Zelazny, _Lord of Light_
"But if theology and theosophy, then why not theography and theometry,
why not theognomy, theotrophy, theotomy, theogamy? Why not theophysics
and theo-chemistry? Why not that ingenious toy, the theotrope or wheel
of gods? Why not a monumental theodrome?" [Aldous Huxley, /Antic Hay/]
"The treacherous are ever distrustful." - Gandalf
We have met the enemy, and he is us. -- Pogo
"Hello. My name is Darth Vader. I am your father. Prepare to die."
- The Jedi Bride (etext edition)
"2B or N2B, that is the FAQ." -- H4mL37
Jim Deutch (JimboCat)
--
"Beam me up again, Sam". - Capt. Rick
Remus Shepherd
> What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction and other
> sources?
Heh. I have a Quote file. However, looking through it, most of them
are from real people, not from fiction. Here are a few, though:
***
"I have seen the universe yawning
Where the black planets roll without aim -
Where they roll in their horror unheeded,
Without knowledge or luster or name."
- H.P. Lovecraft.
"Your reality, sir, is lies and balderdash and I'm delighted to say that
I have no grasp of it whatsoever!"
- _Baron Munchausen_
"There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea's
asleep and the rivers dream, people made of smoke and cities made of
song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, and
somewhere else the tea is getting cold. Come on, Ace, we've got work
to do."
- The Doctor
The nature of evil may be epitomized, therefore, in two simple but
horrible and holy propositions: 'Things fade' and 'Alternatives exclude.'
Such is His mystery: that beauty requires contrast, and that discord is
fundamental to the creation of new intensities of feeling.
Ultimate wisdom, I have come to perceive, lies in the perception that the
solemnity and grandeur of the universe rise through the slow process of
unification in which the diversities of existence are utilized, and
nothing, /nothing/ is lost.
- John Gardner, _Grendel_.
... ...
Remus Shepherd <re...@panix.com>
Journal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/remus_shepherd/
Tim McDaniel
>and other sources?
It's not literary, so sew me.
"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back
home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here [in space].
It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires, both subtle and
gross. But it's *not* for the timid."
--
Tim McDaniel, tm...@panix.com
Robbie
> What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction and other
> sources?
A few that I like:
...I'm comming to think that lying is among the worst of all human
failings. Next to actual killing. And experience has made us almost
equally good at both of them.
-- John Brunner, "Stand on Zanzibar"
Science fiction is distinguished by its implicit assumption that man can
change himself and his environment. This alone sets it apart from all
other literary forms.
-- Damon Knight, "A Century of Science Fiction"
"Story of our species," Malcom said, laughing. "Everybody knows it's
coming, but not so soon."
-- Michael Crichton, "Jurassic Park"
When the artist rose high enough to achieve the beautiful, the symbol by
which he made it perceptible to mortal senses became of little value in
his eyes while his spirit possessed itself in the enjoyment of the
reality.
-- Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Artist of the Beautiful"
...We shall give up the things of childhood - gods and demons, planets
and suns, guilts and regrets.
-- Norman Spinrad, "Riding the Torch"
I've never read Startide Rising, so I don't have any context, but this
is amusing:
Fiery energy lanced out, but the beams struck an intangible wall between
the Gubru and the rapidly turning Earth ship.
"Water!" it shrieked as it read the spectral report. "A barrier of
water vapor! A civilized race could not have found such a trick in the
Library! A civilized race could not have stooped so low! A civilized
race would not have..."
It screamed as the Gubru ship hit a cloud of drifting snowflakes.
- Startide Rising, by David Brin
Wayne Throop
"Why not, Mike?"
"It's not there any longer."
Wayne Throop thr...@sheol.org http://sheol.org/throopw
Wayne Throop
When I caught up with him, he was riding like the
devil himself was after him. Which I was.
Greg Goss
>On May 7, 7:25�pm, "Tony" <t...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction and other
>> sources?
- "Debts MUST be paid." Colonel Richard Baslim.
- A massive collection of quotes from HHG2G, often used as in-group
markers among geeks. "You might think it's a long way to the
[pharmacy] but that's NOTHING to space.", "42?!?", "... where they
were accidentally swallowed by a small dog." "This must be Thursday.
I never could get the hang of Thursdays." and so on.
- A similar collection of quotes from The Princess Bride, used in the
same way as an in-group marker.
- A smaller collection of fond cliches from Bladerunner.
- "Live long and prosper." Used straight, not as a shibboleth.
- Shibboleths from Star Trek. "Intriguing/Fascinating". "Please
continue the pointless bickering." "Make it so". "It's DEAD, Jim."
"I'm a doctor, not an X".
There are many others, but they won't come to me till I file this.
--
Tomorrow is today already.
Greg Goss, 1989-01-27
Ulrich Elsner
> What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction
> and other sources?
Favorite is very much dependent, but recently I liked:
Understanding the scope of a problem is the first step on the path to
true panic.
Florence in Freefall (http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1400/fv01372.htm)
Ulrich
Greg Goss
>There are many others, but they won't come to me till I file this.
And even the ones that DID come to me got misplaced. I intended to
include Roy Batty's line from Bladerunner, but I see I didn't.
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off
the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the
Tannh�user Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in
rain. � Time to die.
Dorothy J Heydt
Robbie <nob...@example.invalid> wrote:
>
>I've never read Startide Rising, so I don't have any context, but this
>is amusing:
>
>Fiery energy lanced out, but the beams struck an intangible wall between
>the Gubru and the rapidly turning Earth ship.
>
>"Water!" it shrieked as it read the spectral report. "A barrier of
>water vapor! A civilized race could not have found such a trick in the
>Library! A civilized race could not have stooped so low! A civilized
>race would not have..."
>
>It screamed as the Gubru ship hit a cloud of drifting snowflakes.
>- Startide Rising, by David Brin
Yes. There are some good lines in that one, among them
"Library! Find out for me what the phrase 'nyah nyah!' means
in their wretched Wolfling language!"
P. Taine
>What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction and other
>sources?
>
And the room was full of petals from skylight and rafters, and all about them a
fragrance, and petals, flowers falling, broom, meadowsweet, falling, flowers of
the oak.
last line of "The Owl Service", Alan Garner
...when you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find
sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different
when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.
Somewhere in "Winnie the Pooh" or "The House and Pooh Corners"
Butch Malahide
Robert Sheckley, _Mindswap_, chapter 8; Kurt Vonnegut, _The Sirens of
Titan_, chapter 2.
lal_truckee
>
> - "Debts MUST be paid." Colonel Richard Baslim.
>
Not Baslim. IIRC, first used by Captain Krausa's mother, the Chief
Officer. I think variations are repeated by other Free Traders later.
> ...used as in-group markers among geeks...
Can I be in the "in-group?" Pretty please?
William George Ferguson
>What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction and other
>sources?
Someone is bound to have referenced F:IW/MYOB by now.
"The coroner's verdict of heart failure did not completely explain the
charred condition of the body."
"Oh, I feel just like Santa Claus, except thinner and younger and female
and, well, Jewish."
"I don't believe in tiny Jewish Santa anymore."
"I have been facing one fact for five years. If I give in at all, even one
inch, I shall go up like straw."
"That," said the Dean drily, "is moderately obvious."
"But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Eowyn I am, Eomund's
daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you be not
deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him."
Which also calls out for the inclusion of what I think is Tolkien's finest
chunk of prose:
"My friend," said Gandalf, "you had horses, and deeds of arms, and the free
fields; but she, born in the body of a maid, had a spirit and courage at
least the match of yours. Yet she was doomed to wait upon an old man, whom
she loved as a father, and watch him falling into a mean dishonoured
dotage; and her part seemed to her more ignoble than that of the staff he
leaned on."
"Think you that Wormtongue had poison only for Th�oden's ears? Dotard!
What is the house of Eorl but a thatched barn where brigands drink in the
reek, and their brats roll on the floor among their dogs? Have you not
heardthose words before? Saruman spoke them, the teacher of Wormtongue.
Though I do not doubt that Wormtongue at home wrapped their meaning in
terms more cunning. My lord, if your sister's love for you, and her will
still bent to her duty, had not restrained her lips; you might have heard
even such things as these escape them. But who knows what she spoke to the
darkness, alone, in the bitter watches of the night, when all her life
seemed shrinking, and the walls of her bower closing in about her, a hutch
to trammel some wild thing in?"
--
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
(Bene Gesserit)
Dorothy J Heydt
You are. Now calm down.
As an admonitory lesson, I suggest you read Lewis's _That
Hideous Strength_, which _inter alia_ is about a man who
wants so badly to be in the in-group, the inner circle, that
he falls in with a very bad lot indeed and is only rescued by
grace at the last minute.
Daniel Damouth
> An approxmate quote from faulty memory:
>
> When I caught up with him, he was riding like the
> devil himself was after him. Which I was.
Likewise:
I loved him like a brother, which is to say, not at all.
-Dan Damouth
Greg Goss
> "Man, I don't think we had better hit that mountain again."
> "Why not, Mike?"
> "It's not there any longer."
"Throwing rice". There's a number of quotes from that chapter that I
like.
Will in New Haven
> What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction and other
> sources?
-
Adron's last words
"Don't tell them that I meant well."
From _500 Years After_ by Brust
--
Will in New Haven
htn963
> What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction and other
> sources?
"What is all human conduct but the daily and hourly sale of our souls
for trifles?"
--G.B. Shaw, "Major Barbara"
"There are those who long for immortality who does not know what to do
on a wet Sunday afternoon."
--Benny Hill
--
Ht
Joel Olson
news:nobody-9CC781....@news.speakeasy.net...
> In article <GcadnaSZHYdK5p7X...@giganews.com>,
> "Tony" <to...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction and
>> other
>> sources?
>
> I've never read Startide Rising, so I don't have any context, but this
> is amusing:
>
> Fiery energy lanced out, but the beams struck an intangible wall between
> the Gubru and the rapidly turning Earth ship.
>
> "Water!" it shrieked as it read the spectral report. "A barrier of
> water vapor! A civilized race could not have found such a trick in the
> Library! A civilized race could not have stooped so low! A civilized
> race would not have..."
>
> It screamed as the Gubru ship hit a cloud of drifting snowflakes.
> - Startide Rising, by David Brin
>
And ...
To capture some of the drama of what happened next, I'm going to try my
narrative skill in PRESENT TENSE. I know it's not used in many of the Old
Earth stories I've read, but when it's done right, I think it lends a buff
sense of IMMEDIACY to a story. - D. Brin
One thing's clear, no starship will make it carrying only one racial group.
What'll be needed, frankly, are _mongrels_ ... people who've bred back and
forth with just about everybody and seem to enjoy it. You know ... like
Californians. - David Brin
From you, my boy, I expect no less than the completely preposterous and
utterly calamitous. - David Brin
Modern evidence notwithstanding, most people didn't _really_ believe their
personalities comprised many subselves. Dealing with stray thoughts was to
them a matter of control, and not, as Jen saw it, negotiation. - David Brin
The latest crop of millennial prophets might be asked, What do sheep owe the
shepherd of a cramped pasture, a cheap expendable world just six thousand
years old? - David Brin
I have always relied upon the competence of strangers. - D. Brin
Joel Olson
news:KJAwq...@kithrup.com...
> In article <GcadnaSZHYdK5p7X...@giganews.com>,
> Tony <to...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction
>>and other sources?
>
>
> "There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country
> the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit
> out of the public for a number of years, the government and the
> courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in
> the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and
> contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not
> supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor
> corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the
> clock of history be stopped, or turned back, for their private
> benefit."
>
> Dorothy J. Heydt
> Vallejo, California
> djheydt at hotmail dot com
> Should you wish to email me, you'd better use the hotmail edress.
> Kithrup is getting too damn much spam, even with the sysop's filters.
>
Always room for more Heinlein:
An armed society is a polite society. - R. Heinlein
No matter where or what, there are makers, takers, and fakers. - R.
Heinlein
Age does not bring wisdom. Often it merely changes simple stupidity into
arrogant conceit. - Robert A. Heinlein
Anyone who clings to the historically untrue--and thoroughly
immoral--doctrine that 'violence never solves anything' I would advise to
conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington and
let them debate it. The Ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might
well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked
force, has settled more disputes in history than has any other factor, and
the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget
this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms. -
R. Heinlein
Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a
tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make messes
in the house. - R. Heinlein
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a
hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build
a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate,
act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a
computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.
Specialization is for insects. - R. Heinlein
Dorothy J Heydt
htn963 <htn...@live.com> wrote:
>
>"There are those who long for immortality who does not know what to do
>on a wet Sunday afternoon."
>--Benny Hill
Okay, here's a quote that suggests an answer to that one.
A couple of them, actually.
"The best thing for disturbance of the spirit," replied
Merlyn, beginning to buff and blow, "is to learn. That is
the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and
trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night
listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your
only love and lose your moneys to a monster, you may see the
world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your
honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only
one thing for it then -- to learn. Learn why the world wags
and what wags it. That is the only thing which the poor mind
can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by,
never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting.
Learning is the thing for you. Look what a lot of things
there are to learn -- pure science, the only purity there is.
You can learn astronomy in a lifetime, natural history in
three, literature in six. And then, after you have exhausted
a milliard lifetimes in biology and medicine and
theo-criticism and geography and history and economics, why,
you can start to make a cartwheel out of the appropriate
wood, or spend fifty years learning to begin to learn to beat
your adversary at fencing. After that you can start again on
mathematics, until it is time to learn to plow."
Of course, Merlyn does not take into account that sometimes
one's brain expires before one's lifespan does, and one's
memory is so zonked that one can't learn anything much. But
I digress.
Later in the same chapter the Wart goes to talk to a badger,
who says to him, "Well, I can only teach you two things: to
dig, and to love your home. These are the true end of
philosophy." But after a bit of digression he finds another
topic.
"I am writing a treatise," said the badger, coughing
diffidently to show that he was absolutely set upon
explaining it, "which is to point out why Man has become the
master of all the animals...."
"People often ask as an idle question whether the process of
evolution began with the chicken or the egg. Was there an
egg out of which the first chicken came, or did a chicken lay
the first egg? I am in a position to state that the first
thing created was the egg.
"When God had manufactured all the eggs out of which the
fishes and the serpents and the birds and the mammals and
even the duck-billed platypus would eventually emerge, he
called the embryos before him, and saw that they were good.
"Perhaps I ought to explain," added the badger, lowering his
papers nervously and looking at the Wart over the top of
them, "that *all embryos look very much the same.* They are
what you are before you are born, and, whether you are going
to be a tadpole or a peacock or a camelopard or a man, when
you are an embryo you just look like a peculiarly repulsive
and helpless human being. I continue as follows:
"The embryos stood up in front of God, with their feeble
hands clasped politely over their stomachs and their heavy
heads hanging down respectively, and God addressed them.
"He said: 'Now, you embryos, here you are, all looking
exactly the same, and We are going to give you the choice of
what you are going to be. When you grow up you will get
bigger anyway, but We are pleased to give you another gift as
well. You may alter any parts of yourselves into anything
which you think would be useful to you in after life. For
instance, at the moment, you can't dig. Anybody who would
like to turn his hands into a pair of spades or garden forks
is allowed to do so. Or to put it another way, at present
you can only use your mouths for eating with. Anybody who
would like to use his mouth as an offensive weapon, can
change it by asking, and be a corkindrill or a saber-toothed
tiger. Now then, step up and choose your tools, but remember
that what you choose you will grow into, and will have to
stick to.'
"All the embryos thought the matter over politely, and then,
one by one, they stepped up before the eternal throne. They
were allowed two or three specializations, so that some chose
to use their arms as flying machines and their mouths as
weapons, or crackers, or spoons, while others selected to use
their bodies as boats and their hands as oars. We badgers
thought very hard and decided to ask three boons. We wanted
to change our skins for shields, our mouths for weapons, and
our arms for garden forks. These boons were granted to us.
Everybody specialized in one way or another, and some of us
in very queer ones. For instance, one of the lizards decided
to swap his whole body for blotting-paper, and one of the
toads who lived in the antipodes decided simply to be a
water-bottle.
"The asking and granting took up two long days -- they were
the fifth and sixth, so far as I remember -- and at the very
end of the sixth day, just before it was time to knock off
for Sunday, they had got through all the little embryos but
one. This embryo was Man.
"'Well, Our little man,' said God. 'You have waited till the
last, and slept on your decision, and We are sure you have
been thinking hard all the time. What can We do for you?'
"'Please, God,' said the embryo, 'I think that You made me in
the shape which I now have for reasons best known to
Yourselves, and that it would be rude to change. If I am to
have my choice I will stay just as I am. I will not alter
any of the parts which You gave to me, for other and
doubtless inferior tools, and I will stay a defenseless
embryo all my life, doing my best to make unto myself a few
feeble implements out of the wood, iron and other materials
which You have seen to put before me. If I want a boat I
will endeavor to construct it out of trees, and if I want to
fly I will put together a chariot to do it form me. Probably
I have been very silly in refusing to take advantage of Your
kind offer, but I have done my best to think it over
carefully, and now hope that the feeble decision of this
small innocent will find favor with Yourselves.'
"'Well done,' exclaimed the Creator in delighted tones.
'Here, all you embryos, come here with your beaks and
what-nots to look upon Our first Man. He is the only one who
has guessed Our riddle, out of all of you, and We have great
pleasure in conferring upon him the Order of Dominion over
the Fowls of the Air, and the Beasts of the Air, and the
Fishes of the Sea. Now let the rest of you get along and
love and multiply, for it is time to knock off for the
week-end. As for you, Man, you will be a naked tool all your
life, though a user of tools: you will look like an embryo
till they bury you; but all others will be embryos before
your might; eternally undeveloped, you will always remain
*potential* in Our image, able to see some of Our sorrows and
to feel some of Our joys. We are partly sorry for you, Man,
and partly happy, but always proud. Run along then, Man, and
do your best. And listen, Man, before you go ...'
"Well?' said Adam, turning back from his dismissal.
"'We were only going to say,' said God shyly testing Their
hands together. 'Well, We were just going to say, God bless
you.'"
Both excerpts from T. H. White, _The Sword in the Stone,
1939, chapter 21.
David DeLaney
>Yes. There are some good lines in that one, among them
>
>"Library! Find out for me what the phrase 'nyah nyah!' means
>in their wretched Wolfling language!"
D.K. Moran gets some good ones too.
[...]"You don't kill people and you don't have sex with boys." He examined
Trent curiously. "Honestly, you.re the craziest thing I ever saw."
Trent said, "You mean you never saw one of those guys who ties up balloons
into the shapes of animals?"
Trent had set off a breach alarm, thus sealing Level Five off from the upper
levels. Vance had a bare moment to admire the elegance of the solution and then
he struck the barrier at over fifty kilometers an hour.
"Faster, faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death."
"I am genetically perfect." Jimmy actually flinched and Trent continued with
barely a pause, "And it's not my fault."
"Denice?"
"Yes?"
"There is no problem so large it cannot be run away from."
She lifted a wet eyebrow. "Oh, really?"
"Do you want to hear a _good_ magic trick?"
Denice said cautiously, "Sure."
"Ask somebody to pick a number between one and ten." Denice nodded even more
warily. "Then," Trent said softly, "run away."
Carl stared at him. He said helplessly, "Trent?"
"I don't belong here." Carl was shaking his head no, not in negation but in
pained disbelief, and Trent said softly, "Let me go."
And Carl Castanaveras, for a brief, time-wrenching moment, saw the future
twisting itself about his son, and heard his voice say with the hollow echo of
prophecy, "I think you are right. You do not belong here. I think you will
never belong anywhere."
Trent felt himself turning to look at her, felt the individual movement of each
muscle in his neck. A channel at the edge of his awareness vibrated with
promise, with potential. In his mind Trent saw the channel grow, become a
tunnel that he flowed down at the speed of light, the edges of Realtime racing
by him, falling away from him as he expanded to encompass the Crystal Wind.
Dave "Catch me if you can." DeLaney
PS: Killing is _wrong_.
--
\/David DeLaney posting from d...@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.
Dirk van den Boom
Thanks!!
Matthew Malthouse
wrote:
On a par with
"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of
Congress. But I repeat myself."
- Mark Twain, a Biography
Which is not foction, unless one wishes to aurgue that a biography of
a nom de plume is somewhat fictive. :)
Matthew
--
Mail to this account goes to the bit bucket.
In the unlikely event you want to mail me replace usenet with my name
Jerry Brown
How about:
"Your Father calls you to His Court. You need not pack; you go garbed
in glory as you stand. He waits eagerly by His palace doors to welcome
you, and has prepared a place at His high table by His side, in the
company of the great-souled, honoured and best-beloved."
Bujold: Paladin of Souls
Jerry Brown
--
A cat may look at a king
(but probably won't bother)
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)
"And then, after walking all day through a golden haze of humid
warmth that gathered about him like fine wet fleece, Valentine came to
a great ridge of outcropping white stone overlooking the city of
Pidruid."
Robert Silverberg, Lord Valentine's Castle
He was one hundred and seventy days dying and not yet dead. He
fought for survival with the passion of a beast in a trap. He was
delirious and rotting, but occasionally his primitive mind emerged
from the burning nightmare of survival into something resembling
sanity. Then he lifted his mute face to Eternity and muttered:
"What's a matter, me? Help, you goddamned gods! Help, is all."
Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination
And as for Pham Nuwen? A tool made, and used, and now
discarded. A man who never was.
The surge was upon him then, plunging depths. Down from the
Transcendent light. Outside, the Tines' world sun would be shining
bright once more, but inside Pham's mind everything was closing down,
senses returning to what eyes can see and ears can hear.He felt
Countermeasure slough towards nonexistence, its task done without ever
a conscious thought. Old One's ghost hung on a little longer, huddling
and retreating as thought's potential ebbed. But it let Pham's
awareness be. For once it did not push him aside. For once it was
gentle, brushing at the surface of Pham's mind, as a human might pet a
loyal dog.
*More a brave wolf, you are, Pham Nuwen.* There were only seconds
left before they were fully in the depths, where the merged bodies of
Countermeasure and Pham Nuwen would die forever and all thought cease.
Memories shifted. The ghost of Old One stepped aside, revealing
certainties it had hidden all along. *Yes, I built you from several
bodies in the junkyard at Relay. But there was only one mind and one
set of memories I could revive. A strong, brave wolf -- so strong I
could never control you without first casting you into doubt...*
Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep
I believe that when we leave a place, part of it goes with us and part
of us remains. Go anywhere in the station when it is quiet, and just
listen. After a while, you will hear the echoes of all our
conversations, every thought and word we've exchanged. Long after we are
gone, our voices will linger in these walls for as long as this place
remains. But I will admit that the part of me that is going will very
much miss the part of you that is staying.
G'Kar, Babylon 5
The latter was especially touching when it was incorporated into a
magnificent tribute video for Andreas Katsulas, the actor who had played
G'Kar.
--
Sea Wasp
/^\
;;;
Live Journal: http://seawasp.livejournal.com
Jon Schild
Tony wrote:
> What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction and other
> sources?
>
"I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought,
wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things
that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So now I take
great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe."
-- Marcus, Babylon 5
------
The avalanche has already begun. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.
------
While all answers are responses, not all responses are answers.
--
Wanted dead and/or alive: Shroedinger's cat.
arch...@googlemail.com
> We have met the enemy, and he is us. -- Pogo
Feeling pedantic today, I note that this was Pogo creator Waly Kelly's
reworking of the famous opening line of a report by Commodore Oliver
Hazard Perry on the Battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812: "We have
met the enemy and he is ours."
Semi-literates of subsequent generations have amended the line to "We
have met the enemy and they are ours," which no educated gentleman of
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries would have voiced, and which
Kelly would have rendered as as "...and they are us."
Matt Hughes
http://www.archonate.com
Simon Edge
together:
> "Man, I don't think we had better hit that mountain again."
> "Why not, Mike?"
> "It's not there any longer."
I take it that's a paraphrase, as everyone's favourite search engine (and
NG archive) only references your post.
And it sounded so interesting too...
Dorothy J Heydt
I think the original was "I don't think it's there any more."
The context, if you are curious, is Heinlein's _The Moon is a
Harsh Mistress._ The rebellious Loonies have been bombarding
Terra with rocks, paying particular attention to Terra's primary
military HQ, the (already extant) base in the depths of
Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado. Mike is telling Manny that
there's no purpose in doing so any longer, because not only
the base but the mountain no longer exists.
Jonathan Schattke
Your Google-fu is weak, grasshopper.
http://www.transterrestrial.com/archives/009901.html quotes exactly this
passage, in one of the comments.
http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2008/08/20/tripwire/ likewise
I did a google on the partial "hit that mountain", and those were in the
top ten.
Wayne Throop
:: (and NG archive) only references your post.
So far as I know, it's a direct quote.
: Jonathan Schattke <wiz...@gmail.com>
: Your Google-fu is weak, grasshopper.
:
: http://www.transterrestrial.com/archives/009901.html quotes exactly
: this passage, in one of the comments.
It also turns up a few bootleg ecopies of the book itself.
Wayne Throop thr...@sheol.org http://sheol.org/throopw
Simon Edge
together:
I went for the whole first line and 'hit that mountain' (without quotes,
or so my history says...) originally.
I plead a lack of caffeine.
Thanks.
--
Understanding the scope of a problem is the first step on the path to true
panic. - F. Ambrose
William December Starr
d...@gatekeeper.vic.com (David DeLaney) said:
> D.K. Moran gets some good ones too.
"Sixty-two thousand years before the birth of Yeshua ha Notzri,
whom later humans knew as Jesus the Christ, the Time Wars ended,
for reasons which no sentient being now knows. With that ending,
the Continuing Time began."
-- wds
William December Starr
Butch Malahide <fred....@gmail.com> said:
[ 22 quotes. ]
I recognized some of these, but I think that politeness dictates
that you identify all of them for us.
-- wds
Butch Malahide
> In article <87ad7084-b011-4e05-9ebf-b10c8fac6...@e23g2000vbe.googlegroups.com>,
> Butch Malahide <fred.gal...@gmail.com> said:
>
> [ 22 quotes. ]
>
> I recognized some of these, but I think that politeness dictates
> that you identify all of them for us.
It does? All right, then: Ackerman, Bates, Beaumont & Oliver, Bester,
Bradbury, Brown, Clarke, Contoski, Cummings, Doyle, Finney, Hubbard,
Kornbluth, Lafferty, "Padgett", Schoenfeld, Sheckley, Smith, Sturgeon,
Vance, van Vogt, Vonnegut.
Udhay Shankar N
>What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction and other
>sources?
Lots and lots of stuff from Stephenson, among those I haven't yet seen
on this thread, but this one has the power to give me the giggles each
time:
"Amy glances out the window; her hair, skin, and clothes take on a
pronounced reddish tinge from Doppler effect as she drops out of the
conversation at relativistic velocity. "
Udhay
Udhay Shankar N
>What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction and other
>sources?
Another one:
"All right, you asked for it. First commandment. There ain't no such
thing as 'one true way,' and the way you find is only good for you,
not anybody else, because your interpretation of what you see and feel
and understand as the truth is never going to be the same as anyone
else's. Second commandment. The only answers worth having are the ones
you find for yourself. Third commandment. Leave the world better than
you found it. Fourth commandment. If it isn't true, going to do some
good, or spread a little love around, don't say it, do it or think it.
Fifth commandment. There are only three things worth living for; love
in all its manifestations, freedom, and the chance to keep humanity
going a little while longer. They're the same things worth dying for.
And if you aren't willing to die for the things worth living for, you
might as well turn in your membership in the human race. That's all
there is, so far as I know or care. The rest is just ruffles and
flourishes."
(one of Mercedes Lackey's books, don't remember which one, but this
quote has been sitting in my quotes file for ages)
Greg Goss
"Manny"
This newsgroup is "SF.Written", isn't it? He took a phrase from one
of my favourite Heinleins.
James Nicoll
Unfortunately if you do the math - and we can be pretty sure
Heinlein didn't - we soon see this scene while cool [1] is also implausible
because of the number of shots it would have taken [2] [3].
1: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfCool
2: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale
3: http://groups.google.ca/group/rec.arts.sf.fandom/msg/b5aea7310fa30647?hl=en
--
http://www.livejournal.com/users/james_nicoll
http://www.cafepress.com/jdnicoll (For all your "The problem with
defending the English language [...]" T-shirt, cup and tote-bag needs)
tu160
> What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction and other
> sources?
"It is the soldier, not the reporter who has given us the freedom of
the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us the
freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who
gives us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier who salutes the
flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the
flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag." ~Father Dennis
Edward O'Brien, Sergeant, USMC
"I began to sense faintly that secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny.
Not force, but secrecy... censorship. When any government, or any
church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, "This you
may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know,"
the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the
motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has
been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free
man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs,
not anything -- you can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is
kill him."
-Robert A. Heinlein, "If This Goes On --", ch.6
"Liberal democracy teaches that cultural tolerance is essential, but
you don't have to get far from liberal democracy for liberal democrats
to become very intolerant."
-Kim Stanley Robinson
" He was opposed to the use of force. Force, he believed, was the last
resort of incompetence; he had said so frequently enough since this
operation had begun. Of course, he was absolutely right, though not in
the way he meant. Only the incompetent wait until the last extremity
to use force, and by then, it is usually too late to use anything,
even prayer."
-H.Beam Piper, "A Slave Is A Slave", Empire
"I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die
for, he isn't fit to live. "
Martin Luther King Jr., Speech in
Detroit, June 23, 1963
.
“Be ashamed to die until you have done something good for
mankind.”
American pastor Dr. Vernon Johnson
during the Revolutionary War
"America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've gotta
want it bad, cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, "You
want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make
your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top
of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top
of yours." You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then
the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has
to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in
protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your
classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the
free."
"Everyone is in favor of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its
being extolled, but some people's idea of it is that they are free to
say what they like, but if anyone says anything back, that is an
outrage."
--Winston Churchill
"I believe in Karma, that means I can do bad things to people all day
long and I assume that they deserve it."
DOGBERT
"Wars are ultimately won by boots on the ground, there’s no getting
around this. The ultimate form of air superiority is your infantry
occupying enemy air bases, and the surest way to defeat an enemy fleet
is to have your tanks controlling their naval bases. Warplanes have to
eventually land, and warships must eventually return to a port. But
the infantry live on the land, and ultimately control it. "
Marcy : "When you go down there, and you've broken their spines and
snapped their arms like little twigs, and they're truly, truly
helpless, then I'll come in, yeah. I'll come in with just a mere old-
fashioned can opener. And I'll do things to them that'll make the
devil himself vomit."
Marcy Rhoades
Married with Children episode # 308: I'll See You in Court (June 18,
2002)
"Me? I'm dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be
dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for,
because you can never predict when they're going to do something
incredibly... stupid."
Capt. Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp)
Pirates of the Caribbean; The Curse of the
Black Pearl
"It's a strange sensation, dying. No matter how many times it happens
to you, you never get used to it." Ezri Dax; Afterimage, ST:DS9
I am offended; Therefore by the Politically Correct Rules of
Engagement anything you say is hereby rendered moot and your freedom
of speech is revoked.
Non-Sequitur
"Tis only a scratch, and I shall have to apologise to you bye and bye
for quitting the deck on so trivial an occasion."
Capt. James Wemyss, HMS Bellerophon, Trafalgar, October 21, 1805,
after being shot eight times and loosing his right arm
'We put poisons in our water and air to weed out the weak! We detonate
fission bombs in our only biosphere! We nailed our god to a stick!
Don't f**k with the human race!'
--attributed to General Nikolai Nikolai at a galactic summit
Greg Goss
>>>> "Man, I don't think we had better hit that mountain again."
>>>> "Why not, Mike?"
>>>> "It's not there any longer."
>
> Unfortunately if you do the math - and we can be pretty sure
>Heinlein didn't - we soon see this scene while cool [1] is also implausible
>because of the number of shots it would have taken [2] [3].
>
>3: http://groups.google.ca/group/rec.arts.sf.fandom/msg/b5aea7310fa30647?hl=en
A crater is pushing a hole into a (presumably) level plain. A
mountain is sticking up from the plain. Rock is pretty brittle.
I am not a geologist and don't know where to look up the energies
required, but I find it believable that if you hit it a few dozen
times in short succession, the mountain could well slump into a sand
dune shape, without actually being blasted away.
Dan Tilque
news:GcadnaSZHYdK5p7X...@giganews.com...
> What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction
> and other sources?
I am an atheist, myself. A simple faith, but a great comfort to me, in
these last days.
--
Dan Tilque
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)
> 'We put poisons in our water and air to weed out the weak! We detonate
> fission bombs in our only biosphere! We nailed our god to a stick!
> Don't f**k with the human race!'
I heard it slightly differently ("...detonate atomic weapons..." and
"...nailed our god to a TREE!"), but it's a good rant.
> --attributed to General Nikolai Nikolai at a galactic summit
Do you actually know the source of this quote? When I heard it, it was
being quoted in a context that sounded like it was said by a character
in a roleplaying game, but since then I found it mentioned in enough
places that I find it hard to believe that so many people had
connections with the player in question.
Greg Goss
Another reason why crater bulk removal may be a poor model for
excavating a mountain is that a crater's material only disappears if
it has a large upward component. Is the energy involved in removing
the top of Mount St. Helens available?
gort
> On May 7, 5:25 pm, "Tony" <t...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction and other
> > sources?
>
> "It is the soldier, not the reporter who has given us the freedom of
> the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us the
heads-up display. Poets are most useful in a world without literacy,
but literacy is not very useful in a world without poets. Apparently,
Father Dennis believes freedom of the press is all the news that's
allowed to be printed.
>~Father Dennis
> Edward O'Brien, Sergeant, USMC
>
> "I began to sense faintly that secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny.
> -Robert A. Heinlein, "If This Goes On --", ch.6
I disagree.
> "Wars are ultimately won by boots on the ground, there’s no getting
> around this. The ultimate form of air superiority is your infantry
> occupying enemy air bases, and the surest way to defeat an enemy fleet
> is to have your tanks controlling their naval bases. Warplanes have to
> eventually land, and warships must eventually return to a port. But
> the infantry live on the land, and ultimately control it. "
Not all war is "ultimate" war.
> Marcy : "When you go down there, and you've broken their spines and
> snapped their arms like little twigs, and they're truly, truly
> helpless, then I'll come in, yeah. I'll come in with just a mere old-
> fashioned can opener. And I'll do things to them that'll make the
> devil himself vomit."
> Marcy Rhoades
> Married with Children episode # 308: I'll See You in Court (June 18,
> 2002)
An example of non-"ultimate" war.
> "Me? I'm dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be
> dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for,
> because you can never predict when they're going to do something
> incredibly... stupid."
> Capt. Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp)
> Pirates of the Caribbean; The Curse of the
> Black Pearl
A truly dishonest man is almost as good as an honest man. If you
only need answers to yes and no questions, just as good. Of course
he will claim to be an honest man.
Greg Goss
>"I began to sense faintly that secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny.
>Not force, but secrecy... censorship. When any government, or any
>church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, "This you
>may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know,"
>the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the
>motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has
>been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free
>man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs,
>not anything -- you can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is
>kill him."
> -Robert A. Heinlein, "If This Goes On --", ch.6
Almost twenty years ago, I was pulling reports on a news item from
Usenet (this was before the web) and circulating printouts to my
peers. This publishing was in explicit "contempt of court" because I
felt contempt for the ruling of the court that nothing could be
published for a matter of YEARS in the case. The prosecution thought
that the wife in a murderous couple was a passive partner of a
dominant husband, and gave her a deal for testimony. By the time that
they discovered that the wife was the dominant partner, most of the
evidence was tainted by the deal. If they dumped the deal, the rest
of the case would fall apart. They got a publication ban on the
courtroom testimony to try to cover-up their "incompetence" in
allocating roles to the participants.
At about the same time, a stock promoter got a publication ban to
prevent publication of reports about the environmental devastation
from a previous mine he'd built until after the IPO. I never did
understand the reasoning of this one, and generally wonder if money
went to the judge. A bookstore in my hometown posted reports from an
American newspaper in their window, and the media reported on the
crowds reading about a story that could not be reported.
Canada's belief in freedom of the press is much weaker than the USA
version. I apply the paragraph you quote to this difference and
believe we're closer to tyrrany as a result.
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)
I've seen it estimated at ~400 hiroshimas? But that was overkill for
the simple removal; it blew a cubic kilometer of stuff so high that
parts of it were coming down 3,000 miles away.
Michael Stemper
>What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction and other
>sources?
Could you tell us what *you* mean by "literary"?
Pending that definition, I'll tentatively put forth, "You are trapped in
that birght moment where you learned your doom."
--
Michael F. Stemper
#include <Standard_Disclaimer>
Reunite Gondwanaland!
Mike Van Pelt
Emperor Ezri (I think ...) in one of the Vorkosigan books.
Gregor's grandfather, anyway.
Yeah... He had reason to *hope* there's no ultimate day of
accounting. Though he was, in his own blood-soaked way,
trying to turn his civilization in a less nasty direction.
Mike Schilling
> In article <AqSNl.487$5F2...@nwrddc01.gnilink.net>,
> Dan Tilque <dti...@verizon.net> wrote:
>> "Tony" <to...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:GcadnaSZHYdK5p7X...@giganews.com...
>>> What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction
>>> and other sources?
>>
>> I am an atheist, myself. A simple faith, but a great comfort to me,
>> in these last days.
>
> Emperor Ezri (I think ...) in one of the Vorkosigan books.
> Gregor's grandfather, anyway.
Nitpick: Ezar.
Michael Stemper
>"There are those who long for immortality who does not know what to do
>on a wet Sunday afternoon."
>--Benny Hill
I'm sure that was from a book, since I've never seen[1] Benny Hill.
[1] Well, I *saw* part of it, across a noisy bar, back in 1982. But, I
never understood a single word they said.
--
Michael F. Stemper
#include <Standard_Disclaimer>
Why doesn't anybody care about apathy?
Mike Schilling
> In article
> <bbe59e0d-eb32-4d8e...@s38g2000prg.googlegroups.com>,
> htn963 <htn...@live.com> writes:
>
>> "There are those who long for immortality who does not know what to
>> do on a wet Sunday afternoon."
>> --Benny Hill
>
> I'm sure that was from a book, since I've never seen[1] Benny Hill.
>
> [1] Well, I *saw* part of it, across a noisy bar, back in 1982. But, I
> never understood a single word they said.
But you helped them a-drink their wine?
ncw...@hotmail.com
> What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction and other
> sources?
"I was with the Filipino Army in the assault on Reykjavik"
"She kissed me passionately ... in the torpedo bay"
Cheers,
Nigel
Remus Shepherd
I also have this quote saved in my files, but I have it unattributed.
Sure would like to know where it's from. Never heard of this Nikolai
character, and google isn't helping me learn anything about him or this
quote.
... ...
Remus Shepherd <re...@panix.com>
Journal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/remus_shepherd/
Remus Shepherd
> > What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction and other
> > sources?
> "There are those who long for immortality who does not know what to do
> on a wet Sunday afternoon."
> --Benny Hill
Well, if you're going to quote Benny Hill in a sci-fi context...
"They thought that it could not be done.
Some even said they _knew_ it.
But he _dared_ to _attempt_ what they said _could not be done_...
...AND HE COULDN'T BLOODY DO IT!"
- Benny Hill.
Dorothy J Heydt
You are getting more obscure, not less so.
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at hotmail dot com
Should you wish to email me, you'd better use the hotmail edress.
Kithrup is getting too damn much spam, even with the sysop's filters.
Kurt Busiek
> In article <Bi_Nl.29764$YU2....@nlpi066.nbdc.sbc.com>,
> Mike Schilling <mscotts...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> Michael Stemper wrote:
>>> In article
>>> <bbe59e0d-eb32-4d8e...@s38g2000prg.googlegroups.com>,
>>> htn963 <htn...@live.com> writes:
>>>
>>>> "There are those who long for immortality who does not know what to
>>>> do on a wet Sunday afternoon."
>>>> --Benny Hill
>>>
>>> I'm sure that was from a book, since I've never seen[1] Benny Hill.
>>>
>>> [1] Well, I *saw* part of it, across a noisy bar, back in 1982. But, I
>>> never understood a single word they said.
>>
>> But you helped them a-drink their wine?
>
> You are getting more obscure, not less so.
Not to most, I expect.
kdb
Default User
> In article <Bi_Nl.29764$YU2....@nlpi066.nbdc.sbc.com>,
> Mike Schilling <mscotts...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > Michael Stemper wrote:
> >> [1] Well, I saw part of it, across a noisy bar, back in 1982. But,
> I >> never understood a single word they said.
> >
> > But you helped them a-drink their wine?
>
> You are getting more obscure, not less so.
<http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/forrestgump/joytotheworld.htm>
Brian
--
Day 98 of the "no grouchy usenet posts" project
Wayne Throop
::: But you helped them a-drink their wine?
:: You are getting more obscure, not less so.
: Not to most, I expect.
Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea.
I note that changing the pronouns obscures it from google.
http://www.google.com/#&q="never+understood+a+single+word+he+said"+"drink+his+wine"
Mine is a direct quote, though.
http://www.google.com/#&q="joy+to+the+fishes+in+the+deep+blue+sea"
"Jeremiah was a bullfrog." --- Three Dog Night
"Froggy went a courtin' and he did ride, crambone." --- Pecos Pest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt3mXGlaGjw
Wayne Throop thr...@sheol.org http://sheol.org/throopw
Mike Schilling
> In article <Bi_Nl.29764$YU2....@nlpi066.nbdc.sbc.com>,
> Mike Schilling <mscotts...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> Michael Stemper wrote:
>>> In article
>>> <bbe59e0d-eb32-4d8e...@s38g2000prg.googlegroups.com>,
>>> htn963 <htn...@live.com> writes:
>>>
>>>> "There are those who long for immortality who does not know what to
>>>> do on a wet Sunday afternoon."
>>>> --Benny Hill
>>>
>>> I'm sure that was from a book, since I've never seen[1] Benny Hill.
>>>
>>> [1] Well, I *saw* part of it, across a noisy bar, back in 1982.
>>> But, I never understood a single word they said.
>>
>> But you helped them a-drink their wine?
>
> You are getting more obscure, not less so.
I expect that you're one of the few people here who didn't recognize it, and
certainly one of the few Americans.
Taki Kogoma
allegedly proclaimed to rec.arts.sf.written:
Ezri is the 9th Dax.
--
Capt. Gym Z. Quirk (Known to some as Taki Kogoma) quirk @ swcp.com
Just an article detector on the Information Supercollider.
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)
> htn963 <htn...@live.com> wrote:
>>> What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction and other
>>> sources?
>
>> "There are those who long for immortality who does not know what to do
>> on a wet Sunday afternoon."
>> --Benny Hill
>
> Well, if you're going to quote Benny Hill in a sci-fi context...
>
> "They thought that it could not be done.
> Some even said they _knew_ it.
> But he _dared_ to _attempt_ what they said _could not be done_...
> ...AND HE COULDN'T BLOODY DO IT!"
>
My favorite Benny Hill quote is still:
"A woman like that could ruin a man... if he was lucky."
Mike Schilling
> On 2009-05-11, Mike Schilling <mscotts...@hotmail.com>
> allegedly proclaimed to rec.arts.sf.written:
>> Mike Van Pelt wrote:
>>> In article <AqSNl.487$5F2...@nwrddc01.gnilink.net>,
>>> Dan Tilque <dti...@verizon.net> wrote:
>>>> "Tony" <to...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>>>> news:GcadnaSZHYdK5p7X...@giganews.com...
>>>>> What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science
>>>>> fiction and other sources?
>>>>
>>>> I am an atheist, myself. A simple faith, but a great comfort to me,
>>>> in these last days.
>>>
>>> Emperor Ezri (I think ...) in one of the Vorkosigan books.
>>> Gregor's grandfather, anyway.
>>
>> Nitpick: Ezar.
>
> Ezri is the 9th Dax.
Kirk Douglas was the first.
William December Starr
tu160 <tu...@yahoo.com> said:
> "It is the soldier, not the reporter who has given us the freedom
> of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us
> the freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus
> organizer, who gives us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the
> soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and
> whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to
> burn the flag." ~Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, Sergeant, USMC
No. Taking his "the soldier" to be shorthand for "the soldiers of
the United States," those soldiers have _defended_ the rights that
the sergeant enumerates. If they were given by anyone, it was by
the elected _civilians_ who ratified them as the laws of the nation.
-- wds
William December Starr
ncw...@hotmail.com said:
> "I was with the Filipino Army in the assault on Reykjavik"
One of my all-time favorites. Nitpick, though: it's actually
"I was with the Filipino Army at the final advance on Reykjavik."
-- wds
David DeLaney
>htn963 <htn...@live.com> writes:
>>"There are those who long for immortality who does not know what to do
>>on a wet Sunday afternoon."
>>--Benny Hill
>
>I'm sure that was from a book, since I've never seen[1] Benny Hill.
>
>[1] Well, I *saw* part of it, across a noisy bar, back in 1982. But, I
>never understood a single word they said.
It's like Hula XTreme - every sped-up movement tells a story.
Dave "usually a ribaldly-accented one" DeLaney
--
\/David DeLaney posting from d...@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.
Butch Malahide
wrote:
> I expect that you're one of the few people here who didn't recognize it, and
> certainly one of the few Americans.
Citizen Heydt, you are under arrest. You have been accused of
unusualness.
Kurt Busiek
I think Dorothy would cheerfully plead to unusual. I'm guessing most
of us would.
But her avoidance of decades' worth of popular music doesn't make "Joy
to the World" obscure; it just makes it something she avoided.
kdb
Mike Schilling
Exactly. I miss Babylon 5 references not because they're obscure, but
because I have better taste than the rest of you.
Tina Hall
Sounds like it could fit into the HHGttG. Why I'm thinking that is
that the 'nailed to a tree' part sounds familiar, and it doesn't fit
into any other book I've read.
On the whole, the first mentioned quote doesn't sound at all
familiar, thus I think there's more wrong with it than just the tree
versus stick thing.
Here's another favorite quote:
--------
"I just thought, it might be appropriate if we had an equal number
of names for mud."
"Oh, right. Yes. Let's see, we could have real crappy mud, bloody
awful mud, pain in the ass mud, squeezes inside your exoskeleton and
squelches a lot mud, and then there's always the ultimate: drowning
in mud."
-- Nights Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton
--------
I tried to find another (Vimes and the zombie from his team after a
battle, some Discworld novel), but unfortunately the file with the
quote is either hidden too well, or I've tried the wrong words. If
someone could provide it, I'd be grateful. (The funny thing is
something about the arm that fell off and the zombie started beating
enemies with, which for some reason didn't cope well with that. Oh,
and it ends with Vimes commenting on the zombie's ear hanging off. I
think the zombie might be called Reg --Reginald Shoe?-- but not
sure.)
--
"You're really fond of having a Priest doing the looking around, eh?"
"They certainly like to poke their nose into things, so why not make
them happy." -- Gorash and Sadren, S&E I: Controlled by Magic
Excerpts at: <http://home.htp-tel.de/fkoerper/ath/athintro.htm>
Tina Hall
> "Tony" <to...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science
>> fiction and other sources?
> Another one:
I know this is only a quote, but it bugs me, so...
> "All right, you asked for it. First commandment. There ain't no
> such thing as 'one true way,' and the way you find is only good
> for you, not anybody else, because your interpretation of what
> you see and feel and understand as the truth is never going to be
> the same as anyone else's.
> Second commandment. The only answers worth having are the ones you
> find for yourself.
> Third commandment. Leave the world better than you found it.
The first, true as it is, turns the third into nonsense.
> Fourth commandment. If it isn't true, going to do some good, or
> spread a little love around, don't say it, do it or think it.
Same here. Unless it's meant to produce egomaniacs that only go for
their own good.
> Fifth commandment. There are only three things worth living for;
> love in all its manifestations, freedom, and the chance to keep
> humanity going a little while longer.
That's very much a candiate for something where the first _applies_.
> They're the same things worth dying for. And if you aren't willing
> to die for the things worth living for, you might as well turn in
> your membership in the human race.
And here it completely derails and tumbles down the cliff to crash
on the rocks below into many shattered shards. It's just so
bullshit, in _my_ truth.
--
Theron growled again and picked her up, carrying her away. Jansha
grinned at them with her head leaned back, upside down.
(Tashen) "Whoever needs drakes when you've got a Summer Lord nearby?"
-- Seasons & Elements I: Controlled by Magic
Wayne Throop
:: such thing as 'one true way,' and the way you find is only good for
:: you, not anybody else, because your interpretation of what you see
:: and feel and understand as the truth is never going to be the same as
:: anyone else's. Second commandment. The only answers worth having
:: are the ones you find for yourself. Third commandment. Leave the
:: world better than you found it.
: The first, true as it is, turns the third into nonsense.
Not at all. Just means there's more than one true way
to make the world better.
Kurt Busiek
<mscotts...@hotmail.com> said:
Perhaps not better than me, since I'd miss 'em all, too.
But I'm sure I have thoroughly unacceptable tastes in there somewhere.
I can name all the Waltons, for one...
kdb
Jonathan Schattke
> Greg Goss <go...@gossg.org> wrote:
>
>> jdni...@panix.com (James Nicoll) wrote:
>>
>>>>>> "Man, I don't think we had better hit that mountain again."
>>>>>> "Why not, Mike?"
>>>>>> "It's not there any longer."
>>> Unfortunately if you do the math - and we can be pretty sure
>>> Heinlein didn't - we soon see this scene while cool [1] is also implausible
>>> because of the number of shots it would have taken [2] [3].
>>>
>>> 3: http://groups.google.ca/group/rec.arts.sf.fandom/msg/b5aea7310fa30647?hl=en
>> A crater is pushing a hole into a (presumably) level plain. A
>> mountain is sticking up from the plain. Rock is pretty brittle.
>>
>> I am not a geologist and don't know where to look up the energies
>> required, but I find it believable that if you hit it a few dozen
>> times in short succession, the mountain could well slump into a sand
>> dune shape, without actually being blasted away.
>
> Another reason why crater bulk removal may be a poor model for
> excavating a mountain is that a crater's material only disappears if
> it has a large upward component.
Well, NO. It gets spread out with each impact.
After a certain point, asteroid impacts put a significant amount of dust
which doesn't fall any time soon.
But... the story was using too small chunks going nowhere near fast
enough to take out a mountain in that manner.
But, impact craters "soften" much deeper than the crater they leave, and
subsequent hits in the same spot would eject material much further than
the first hit. So, you can dig a hole a bit faster than a first level
approximation would indicate. Unfortunately I don't have the modeling
software to model a couple thousand 2 ton impactors on Cheyenne mountain.
Jonathan Schattke
> In article <Bi_Nl.29764$YU2....@nlpi066.nbdc.sbc.com>,
> Mike Schilling <mscotts...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> Michael Stemper wrote:
>>> In article
>>> <bbe59e0d-eb32-4d8e...@s38g2000prg.googlegroups.com>,
>>> htn963 <htn...@live.com> writes:
>>>
>>>> "There are those who long for immortality who does not know what to
>>>> do on a wet Sunday afternoon."
>>>> --Benny Hill
>>> I'm sure that was from a book, since I've never seen[1] Benny Hill.
>>>
>>> [1] Well, I *saw* part of it, across a noisy bar, back in 1982. But, I
>>> never understood a single word they said.
>> But you helped them a-drink their wine?
>
> You are getting more obscure, not less so.
He only specifically helped Jeremiah the bullfrog drink his wine;
everyone else is unspecified.
Jonathan Schattke
Well, NO.
We have the rights because the soldiers fought a long, almost hopeless
war against a superpower to earn the right for our politicians, many of
whom fought in that war, to decide to try to make these rights inviable
in our society.
It hasn't worked as perfectly as they hoped, but so far, I can still
call a soldier a jerk and not get arrested or killed on a whim. And
without soldiers, I'd be subject to arbitrary arrest for calling a
soldier a wanker, as was the case in the English Empire c. 1760. The
reason the Bill of Rights was enumerated was because all the things
listed had been tried against the colonists, and they wanted to make
sure their government never sunk as low as the European monarchies.
Dorothy J Heydt
Let's look at it this way.
Because each of us, me included tends to think (unless we
stop and *think* about it) that other people tend to think
the way we do, we get the following phenomenon.
A lot of things appear on groups that I don't know about; I
assume there are other things that other people don't know
about. Therefore, when someone asks a question, my default
assumption is that he really doesn't know and would like to
be told. So I answer the question, and other people
indignantly tell me that OBviously the guy was trolling and
should've been ignored.
Other people all know a lot of things (popuylar culture
particularly) that they assume all their other posters know
too. So that to ask a question (like, recently, "Who's Von
Pimm?") is their way of saying "Oh haw haw haw, you know
perfectly well what the answer to that is, you're just acting
dumb to be funny; I will also act dumb and that will be funny
too."
Only acting as if you were stupid isn't funny.
We are not going to agree on this.
Dorothy J Heydt
Oh, bah. I've been ignoring popular culture for the last
fifty years or so. The statute of limitations applies.
Wayne Throop
: So that to ask a question (like, recently, "Who's Von
: Pimm?") is their way of saying "Oh haw haw haw, you know
: perfectly well what the answer to that is, you're just acting
: dumb to be funny; I will also act dumb and that will be funny too."
The humor isn't in "acting dumb" as such. The humor is that
it's an indirect way to say "you've misspelled Von Pinn".
Indirection and reveals are a basic technique of humor.
: Only acting as if you were stupid isn't funny.
Shrug. Some people like puns, some people like knock-knock jokes.
And some people like "don't call me Shirley", when the mood strikes them.
Is that so wrong?
"Tarvek has been taken to the hospital!"
"The hospital?!? What is it?!?"
"It's a big building where sick people go,
but that's not important now."
ncw...@hotmail.com
> Remus Shepherd <re...@panix.com> wrote:
> >> tu160 wrote:
> >>> 'We put poisons in our water and air to weed out the weak! We
> >>> detonate fission bombs in our only biosphere! We nailed our god
> >>> to a stick! Don't f**k with the human race!'
> >> I heard it slightly differently ("...detonate atomic weapons..."
> >> and "...nailed our god to a TREE!"), but it's a good rant.
> >>> --attributed to General Nikolai Nikolai at a galactic summit
> >> Do you actually know the source of this quote? When I heard it,
> >> it was being quoted in a context that sounded like it was said by
> >> a character in a roleplaying game, but since then I found it
> >> mentioned in enough places that I find it hard to believe that
> >> so many people had connections with the player in question.
> > I also have this quote saved in my files, but I have it
> > unattributed. Sure would like to know where it's from. Never
> > heard of this Nikolai character, and google isn't helping me
> > learn anything about him or this quote.
>
> Sounds like it could fit into the HHGttG. Why I'm thinking that is
> that the 'nailed to a tree' part sounds familiar, and it doesn't fit
> into any other book I've read.
>
: And then, one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had
been nailed
: to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for
a change, one girl
: sitting on her own in a small cafe in Rickmansworth suddenly
realized what it was
: that had been going wrong all this time, and she finally knew how
the world could
: be made a good and happy place.
It's part of the prologue to the first book
Cheers,
Nigel.
mike muth
> What are some of your favorite literary quotes from science fiction and other
> sources?
Well, there are quite a few. My book is 300 pages and over 20 pages
is quotations from SF authors.
David Gerrold:
Being crazy is a great way to get attention without having to be
responsible.
If God is really watching us, the least we can do is be entertaining.
Life is hard. Then you die. Then they throw dirt in your face. Then
the worms eat you. Be grateful it happens in that order.
There isn't any such thing as sanity. What there is, is the ability to
be appropriate to the situation.
There's one thing to be said for ignorance. It starts a lot of
interesting arguments.
Fredric Brown:
The last man on Earth sat alone in his room. There was a knock at the
door...
RAH:
A desire not to butt into other people's business is at least eighty
percent of all human wisdom...and the other twenty percent isn't very
important.
If a writer does not entertain his readers, all he is producing is
paper dirty on one side.
It does not require a broad education to function as a social and
economic animal...as long as you know when to rub blue mud into your
bellybutton. But a mistake in local customs can get you lynched.
Never try to outstubborn a cat.
When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.
Arthur C. Clarke:
Reading computer manuals without the hardware is as frustrating as
reading sex manuals
without the software.
Isaac Asimov
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new
discoveries, is not Eureka! (I found it!) but rather, 'hmm.... that's
funny...'
Jerry Pournelle
The enemy of every free man is a real greedy successful one. [The]
Biggest enemies of capitalism are successful capitalists.
That's the thing about people who think they hate computers. What they
really hate is lazy programmers.
--
Mike
Sometimes, dealing with these guys is like shooting fish in a barrel
with a rocket launcher. You can do it, but it makes a mess, the
satisfaction is fleeting, and it tends to annoy bystanders.
Louann Miller
$d36...@news.calweb.com:
Re Bujold quote, Emperor Ezar:
>>I am an atheist, myself. A simple faith, but a great comfort to me, in
>>these last days.
> Yeah... He had reason to *hope* there's no ultimate day of
> accounting. Though he was, in his own blood-soaked way,
> trying to turn his civilization in a less nasty direction.
There are versions of the afterlife that would gag almost anyone. Fairly
mild example -- Aquinas suggests somewhere that not only would the damned
be tortured for eternity in Hell, but that the blessed would _get to
watch_ as part of their reward for goodness. (Not that I'm blaming any
modern Catholics for that.)
Louann Miller
news:gu9v46$so1$1...@reader1.panix.com:
>> I heard it slightly differently ("...detonate atomic
>> weapons..." and
>> "...nailed our god to a TREE!"), but it's a good rant.
>
>> > --attributed to General Nikolai Nikolai at a galactic summit
>
>> Do you actually know the source of this quote?
Someone in the Worldwalker's native world (which defaults to a general
Indo-European polytheism IIRC) describes Christianity as "dead god on a
stick" in a tone more puzzled than snarky. But that's surely too recent to
apply to this question.
Dorothy J Heydt
There's a fine Lovecraft parody by Randall Garrett, whose
title I forget. It's a narrative by a fellow who was taking
an ocean voyage, when an undersea earthquake raised a
long-submerged island from the sea, he went ashore to explore
and found a building. Clearly this was a place of worship
frequented aeons ago by some eldritch primordial race now
vanished from the Earth. Yadda yadda; you know the form.
But the final shock, which has left the narrator in a state
of mental and physical collapse, was the Thing at the focal
point of the temple. Much Lovecraftoid description follows,
but to summarize: it had only two arms, its naked body had no
protective spines or scales, ... and it was nailed to a cross.