Henry Kuttner quotes

Henry Kuttner was an American author renowned for his influential contributions to science fiction, fantasy, and horror literature. His imaginative stories often blurred genres and were marked by wit and psychological depth. He greatly impacted the development of speculative fiction, both independently and in collaboration with his wife, C.L. Moore. Here are 40 of his quotes:

Well, all this belongs to the future. And so do I. Even before the cosmic cleavage altered all history I was a misfit in this civilization. And now it just isn't my world anymore. I don't belong here. So I think I'll take my chances in that other place, where I won't have to get used to the little things that keep bothering me here and bother nobody but me...

Henry Kuttner

The fire that had come from beyond the stars was harnessed. Tamed - chained - by the flesh to which it had once, long ago, given life....

Henry Kuttner

I don't know if men will ever journey again, as we journeyed, to that intersection of latitude and longitude where a shell hangs forever - forever and yet not forever, in space and out of space - on the axis stretching through time from beginning to end. From the dawn of the nebulae to the twilight of absolute entropy, when the framework of the cosmos has broken down into chaos, still that axis will stretch from dawn to dusk, from beginning to end. For as this world spins on an axis through space, so the sphere of time spins on its own axis.

Henry Kuttner

In the face of real danger Elak forgot the gods and drew his rapier. Prayers, he had found, would not halt a dagger's blow or a strangler's hands.

Henry Kuttner

Eons and unimaginable eons ago, before mankind existed on earth, only the waters existed. There was no land. And from the slime there sprang up a race of beings which dwelt in the sunken abysses of the ocean, inhuman creatures that worshipped Dagon, their god. When eventually the waters receded and great continents arose, these beings were driven down to the lowest depths. Their mighty kingdom, that had once stretched from pole to pole, was shrunken as the huge land masses lifted. Mankind came - but from whence I do not know - and civilizations arose. ... These things hate man, for they feel that man has usurped their kingdom. Their greatest hope is to sink the continents again, so that the seas will roll over all the earth, and not a human being will survive. Their power will embrace the whole world, as it once did eons ago. They are not human, you see, and they worship Dagon. They want no other gods worshipped on Earth. Ishtar, dark Eblis, even Poseidon of the sunlit seas....

Henry Kuttner

I could be as jittery as you if I wanted to. But I've studied history and literature. And architecture, and a lot of things. Just to balance this psycho work. There's a lot more perfection in a Doric column than in you.

Henry Kuttner

We need not go back through the cavern of the monsters," she said. "There is a way to reach the unseen road from here.

Henry Kuttner

There is a sword," I said. "A sword that is - is not quite a sword as we think of weapons. My mind is cloudy there still. But I know that Ghast Rhymi can tell me where it is. A weapon, yet not a weapon. The Sword Called Llyr.

Henry Kuttner

The race moves on. It has its human limitations. The tools we make have no limitations at all. When we educate ourselves to learn to handle those tools most efficiently we can go on to the next step, whatever it may be. Meanwhile there must be check and balance-rigid control.

Henry Kuttner

The wars ended when there were no longer two societies left to fight against each other.

Henry Kuttner

For me, the Big Ride. You start when you're born. You climb on the toboggan and then you're off. But you can only have the one ride. No use telling the ticket-taker you want to go again. They shovel you under at the end of the slope and there's a new lot of passengers waiting. You've had your three-score and ten. And it's over.

Henry Kuttner

Love is a false synonym for propagation, as the soul is a wish fulfillment creation growing out of self-preservation.

Henry Kuttner

He seemed to feel something like indulgent contempt for the rest of the world. It was all right, I suppose. Nobody had better reason. The man was a genius.

Henry Kuttner

Elak got up and recovered his rapier, loudly thanking Ishtar for his deliverance. "For," he thought, "a little politeness costs nothing, and even though my own skill and not Ishtar's hand saved me, one never knows." Too, there were other dangers to face, and if the gods are capricious, the goddesses are certainly even more so.

Henry Kuttner

I have drawn strength from the stars, and the cosmic sources beyond the universe. You know nothing of my power. It is enough - more than enough - to keep Atlantis steady on its foundation, impregnable against the attacks of Dagon's breed.

Henry Kuttner

A nation. The ultimate in human destiny - and a call for help. And much more that we'll never understand.

Henry Kuttner

We are all part of some cosmic pattern, and this pattern works toward good and not evil. It builds and does not destroy. So I shall go on in my search for a race where I can find kinship and happiness.

Henry Kuttner

Her hands came out of her sleeves. There was a rod of blinding silver in each.

Henry Kuttner

The whole thing never happened and I can prove it - now. But Ira De Kalb made me wait a billion years to write the story.

Henry Kuttner

A casual eye might have seen nothing extraordinary in Wade as he moved lithely across the meadow toward the Thunderbug.

Henry Kuttner

I never understood the ultimate answer. That was beyond me.

Henry Kuttner

I believe in things I never used to.

Henry Kuttner