Larry Niven Quotes - Page 2

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• The best advice I was ever given was on my twenty-first birthday when my father said, Son, here's a million dollars. Don't lose it.

  Larry Niven

  Father, Son, Advice

  8 Copy quote

• A civilization has the ethics it can afford

  Larry Niven

  Civilization, Ethics

  5 Copy quote

• The perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum.

  Larry Niven

  Maximum, Perversity, Universe

  "Ringworld". Book by Larry Niven (p. 142), 1970.

  4 Copy quote

• Never be embarrassed or ashamed by anything you choose to write.

  Larry Niven

  Writing, Ashamed, Embarrassed

  Larry Niven (1984). “Niven's Laws”, Owlswick Press

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• For each human being there is an optimum ratio between change and stasis. Too little change, he grows bored. Too little stability, he panics and loses his ability to adapt. One who marries six times in ten years won't change jobs. One who moves often to serve his company will maintain a stable marriage. A woman chained to one home and family may redecorate frantically or take a lover or go to many costume parties.

  Larry Niven

  Jobs, Party, Moving

  Larry Niven, John Brunner, Jack Vance (1973). “Three trips in time and space: original novellas of science fiction”

  6 Copy quote

• Boredom is my worst enemy. It's killed a lot of my friends, but it won't get me. When I get bored, I go risk my life somewhere.

  Larry Niven

  Blessing, Worst Enemy, Boredom

  8 Copy quote

• The human species really could have faced global thermonuclear war. During seventy years of Cold War we grew used to it.

  Larry Niven

  War, Years, Cold

  Larry Niven (2010). “Stars and Gods”, p.363, Macmillan

  16 Copy quote

• We're looking as far ahead as we can, and we don't get penalized for mistakes.

  Larry Niven

  Mistake, Alaska

  Space.com interview with S. James Blackman, February 10, 2000.

  4 Copy quote

• How much intelligence does it take to sneak up on a leaf?

  Larry Niven

  Intelligence, Doe, Leafs

  Larry Niven (1984). “Ringworld Engineers”, Del Rey

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• I do suspect that privacy was a passing fad.

  Larry Niven

  Fads, Privacy, Passing

  Larry Niven (2010). “Stars and Gods”, p.361, Macmillan

  8 Copy quote

• The value of a thing is what that thing will bring. -Legal Maxim

  Larry Niven

  Maxims, Values

  4 Copy quote

• There had been a popular joke on Freedom, started by a man named Calder. Looking down from space, he had said, the dominant life forms on Earth were obviously the cereals and other grasses. They occupied all the most desirable and fertile land; and they had tamed insects and animals to care for them. In particular, they had domesticated the bipeds to nurture and cultivate them and to save and plant their seed. Now, watching the farmers, Alex could easily imagine that they were worshiping and genuflecting before their masters.

  Larry Niven

  Men, Animal, Space

  Jerry Pournelle, Larry Niven, Michael Flynn (2002). “Fallen Angels”, p.232, Baen Publishing Enterprises

  4 Copy quote

• The brightest minds in our field have been trying to find a definition of science fiction for these past seventy years. The short answer is, science fiction stories are given as possible, not necessarily here and now, but somewhere, sometime.

  Larry Niven

  Past, Years, Fiction Stories

  Larry Niven (2003). “Scatterbrain”, p.311, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• Species evolve to meet the environment. An intelligent species changes the environment to suit itself. As soon as a species becomes intelligent, it should stop evolving.

  Larry Niven

  Intelligent, Suits, Environment

  Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle (1991). “The Mote in God's Eye”, p.31, Simon and Schuster

  7 Copy quote

• Love was a delicious blend of warm and cold. There was comfort in making love. It solved no problems: but one could run away from problems.

  Larry Niven

  Love, Running, Comfort

  7 Copy quote

• I never got good at predicting what millions of people will suddenly decide is rational.

  Larry Niven

  People, Rational, Predicting

  Larry Niven (2010). “Stars and Gods”, p.361, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• I do not believe they've run out of surprises.

  Larry Niven

  Running, Believe, Surprise

  Larry Niven (2010). “Stars and Gods”, p.360, Macmillan

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• In challenging a kzin, a simple scream of rage is sufficient. You scream and you leap.

  Larry Niven

  Simple, Challenges, Scream

  Larry Niven (2014). “Ringworld: The Graphic Novel, Part One”, p.29, Macmillan

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• The witnessing of titanic events is always dangerous, usually painful, and often fatal.

  Larry Niven

  Events, Painful, Dangerous

  "Ringworld". Book by Larry Niven, October 1970.

  4 Copy quote

• As for AIDS, it's a plague. We are human, we get plagues. They come along every so often, kill off two thirds of the population; in the next generation it's a quarter; after that it's a childhood disease.

  Larry Niven

  Two, Childhood, Disease

  8 Copy quote

• I am trying to prevent a bloodbath. Is that clear enough for you? I'm trying to prevent a civil war that could kill half the people in this world.

  Larry Niven

  War, People, Trying

  "A Gift from Earth". Book by Larry Niven, 1968.

  4 Copy quote

• Psi and/or magical powers, if real, are nearly useless.

  Larry Niven

  Real, Useless, Ifs

  "How the Universe works (Niven's Laws)". Analog Magazine, November 2002.

  4 Copy quote

• Consider the true picture. Think of myriads of tiny bubbles, very sparsely scattered, rising through a vast black sea. We rule some of the bubbles. Of the waters we know nothing.

  Larry Niven

  Thinking, Sea, Water

  Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle (1991). “The Mote in God's Eye”, p.15, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• Treat your life like something to be sculpted.

  Larry Niven

  Treats, Like Something

  Larry Niven (2010). “Stars and Gods”, p.363, Macmillan

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• Stupidity is always a capital crime.

  Larry Niven

  Stupidity, Crime

  "N-Space". Book by Larry Niven, 1989.

  5 Copy quote

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