Poul Anderson quotes - page 3

You cannot imagine how wearisome existence grows, alone and immortal. (Poul Anderson)
Then they died. And other men came after them. Wars flamed up and burned out; the howling peoples dwelt in smashed cities and kindled their fires with books. View quote
Poul Anderson
Pioneering is an unlimited chance to become the biggest frog, provided the puddle is small enough. View quote
Poul Anderson
The air was cold and smelled of earth. Birds twittered. "Beyond one or two hundred years back,” Havig once said to me, "the daytime sky is always full of wings.”. View quote
Poul Anderson
People usually take for granted that the way things are is the way things must be. View quote
Poul Anderson
Be calm. A man can do but little. Enough if that little be right. View quote
Poul Anderson
All those agonizing philosophical-theological conundrums amount to "Ask a silly question, get a silly answer." View quote
Poul Anderson
The last thing any sane person wants is a jihad. View quote
Poul Anderson
Sincerity is the most overrated virtue in the catalogue. View quote
Poul Anderson
And ninety-nine percent of the human race, no matter how smart they are, will do the convenient thing instead of the wise thing, and kid themselves into thinking they can somehow escape the consequences. We're just built that way. View quote
Poul Anderson
We need a reserve of life, every kind of life,” he explained. "Today for the spirit-a glimpse of space and green. Tomorrow for survival, flat-out survival. (Poul Anderson)
You have to have some kind of morality,” he said. "Sure. Like you have to have motives for doing anything at all. Still, I think we're beyond that smug sort of code which proclaimed crusades and burned heretics and threw dissenters into concentration camps. We need more personal and less public honor. View quote
Poul Anderson
The city was breaking state and national laws every day-it had to-and the governor was outraged. He wanted to bring the whole state back under his own authority. It wasn't an unreasonable wish, but the times weren't ripe; and when they eventually were, the old forms of government would be no more important than the difference between Homoousian and Homoiousian. But it was going to take a lot of argument to convince the Albany man of that. View quote
Poul Anderson
The old man murmured: "Aye, we draw to an end. Dying hurts. Nonetheless the forefathers were wise who in their myths made Nan coequal with Lesu. A thing which endured forever would become unendurable. Death opens a way, for peoples as well as for people.”. View quote
Poul Anderson
He'd seen too often how little of the universe is designed for man to neglect any safety measure. View quote
Poul Anderson
History does not tend to the better, Doc, it does not, it does not. We imagine so because events have produced our glorious selves. Think, however. Put aside the romantic legends and look at the facts. The average Frenchman in 1800 was no more unfree than the average Englishman. The French Empire could have brought Europe together, and could have been liberalized from within, and there might have been no World War I in which Western civilization cut its own throat. Because that's what's happened, you know. We're still busy bleeding to death, but we haven't far to go now. View quote
Poul Anderson
Over unforced love, the gods themselves had no might. View quote
Poul Anderson
I say that a God who would come between two who have been to each other what we have been, is not one I would heed. View quote
Poul Anderson
Tis colder outside than a well-born maiden's heart. View quote
Poul Anderson
Look, these were none of them supermen. In fact, they were either weaklings who'd been assigned civilian-type jobs, or warriors as ignorant and superstitious as brutal. Aside from what specialized training fitted them for Wallis's purposes, he'd never tried to get them properly educated. If nothing else, that might have led to questioning of his righteousness and infallibility. View quote
Poul Anderson
Say on. If you are a rogue, you are at least an interesting one. (Poul Anderson)
Like sensible people throughout history, the average Phoenician wanted as little to do with his government as possible. View quote
Poul Anderson
What I'm trying to make you know, not in your forebrain but in your marrow, is that reality never conforms very well to the textbooks, and sometimes it doesn't conform at all. View quote
Poul Anderson
I cannot believe you harbor any illusions about the barbarians being nature's noblemen. I soon lost mine. They were every bit as ruthless. They were simply less efficient. View quote
Poul Anderson
What I want is to commune with the land. In company I couldn't admit that. It'd sound too pompous, as though I were from Greenpeace or the People's Republic of Berkeley. View quote
Poul Anderson