Kim Stanley Robinson quotes

Kim Stanley Robinson is an acclaimed American science fiction writer known for his thought-provoking explorations of ecological and social themes. His Mars Trilogy, in particular, has been celebrated for its scientific accuracy and deep political insight. He continues to influence contemporary science fiction and discussions about the future of humanity. Here are 127 of his quotes:

That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.

Kim Stanley Robinson

What we need is equality without conformity.

Kim Stanley Robinson

The sky itself is the eighth color of the rainbow, spread over the whole sky for us, all the time.

Kim Stanley Robinson

One of the chief features of incompetence was an inability to see it in oneself.

Kim Stanley Robinson

Science was many things, Nadia thought, including a weapon with which to hit other scientists.

Kim Stanley Robinson

Beauty was the promise of happiness, not happiness itself; and the anticipated world was often more rich than anything real.

Kim Stanley Robinson

Ridiculous. But lies were what people wanted; that was politics.

Kim Stanley Robinson

I think the US is in a terrible state of denial ... Worse than that, we seem to be caught in a kind of Götterdämmerung response: we'd rather have the world go down in flames than change our lifestyle or admit we're wrong.

Kim Stanley Robinson

Beauty is power and elegance, right action, form fitting function, intelligence, and reasonability. And very often,” he grinned and pushed at her belly, "expressed in curves.

Kim Stanley Robinson

Economics was like psychology, a pseudoscience trying to hide that fact with intense theoretical hyperelaboration. And gross domestic product was one of those unfortunate measurement concepts, like inches or the British thermal unit, that ought to have been retired long before.

Kim Stanley Robinson

Rock is much more malleable than ideas.

Kim Stanley Robinson

Fights over ideas are the most vicious of all. If it were merely food, or water, or shelter, we would work something out. But in the realm of ideas one can become idealistic .

Kim Stanley Robinson

The only part of an argument that really matters is what we think of the people arguing.

Kim Stanley Robinson

When some French were assembling an encyclopedia of paranormal experiences, they decided to leave déjà vu out, because it was so common it could not be considered paranormal.

Kim Stanley Robinson

If the amount of money going into the war economy were invested in landscape restoration, we would be in a far more positive position. It may get a little dire before we pull together, but I think when the prosperous nations, and in particular the US, realise they're wrecking their own kids' lives, there will be a mass change in value. It will be a difficult century, and ugly, but I don't think that in the end people are so stupid as to kill themselves off.

Kim Stanley Robinson

You could never teach other people anything that mattered. The important things they had to learn for themselves, almost always by making mistakes, so that the lessons arrived too late to help. Experience was in that sense useless. It was precisely what could not be passed along in a lesson or an equation.

Kim Stanley Robinson

It was not power that corrupted people, but fools who corrupted power.

Kim Stanley Robinson

The world operates by number, by physical laws, expressed mathematically. If you know these, you will have a better grasp of things. And some possible job skills.

Kim Stanley Robinson

A sudden gust: How big the world seems in a wind.

Kim Stanley Robinson

Plague was plague, and could not be treated lightly. And this plague was obviously worse than most, having killed everyone in the region.

Kim Stanley Robinson

It's amazing what superstitions survive in fearful minds.

Kim Stanley Robinson

Politics in its most common form: complaint. No one wanted to do it but everyone was happy to complain about it.

Kim Stanley Robinson