Robert J. Sawyer Quotes

• Learning to ignore things is one of the great paths to inner peace.

  Robert J. Sawyer

  Peace, Clever, Relaxation

  Robert J. Sawyer (2009). “Calculating God”, p.143, Macmillan

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• Honor does not have to be defended.

  Robert J. Sawyer

  Inspirational, Motivational, Honor

  Robert J. Sawyer (2009). “Calculating God”, p.142, Macmillan

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• You can't choose the ways in which you'll be tested.

  Robert J. Sawyer

  Motivational, Way, Tested

  Robert J. Sawyer (2009). “Calculating God”, p.85, Macmillan

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• Since ancient times, the philosophers' secret has always been this: we know that God does not exist, or, at least, if he does, he's utterly indifferent to our individual affairs--but we can't let the rabble know that; it's the fear of God, the threat of divine punishment and the promise of divine reward, that keeps in line those too unsophisticated to work out questions of morality on their own.

  Robert J. Sawyer

  Punishment, Work Out, Secret

  Robert J. Sawyer (2009). “Calculating God”, p.146, Macmillan

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• Secrecy was the problem; transparency the obvious cure.

  Robert J. Sawyer

  Problem, Conspiracy, Secrecy

  Robert J. Sawyer (2010). “WWW: Watch”, p.254, Penguin

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• General principles should not be based on exceptional cases.

  Robert J. Sawyer

  Principles, Should, Cases

  Robert J. Sawyer (2009). “Calculating God”, p.145, Macmillan

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• Do you think it's possible that things that seem to be discrete in three dimensions might all be part of the same bigger object in four dimensions? ...What if humanity- that collective noun we so often employ- really is, at a higher level, a singular noun? What it what we perceive in three dimensions as seven billion individual human beings are really all just aspects of one giant being?

  Robert J. Sawyer

  Thinking, Humanity, What If

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• The right things to do are those that keep our violence in abeyance; the wrong things are those that bring it to the fore.

  Robert J. Sawyer

  Inspirational, Abuse, Violence

  Robert J. Sawyer (2009). “Calculating God”, p.175, Macmillan

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• Naturally, one does not normally discuss plans to commit murder with the intended victim.

  Robert J. Sawyer

  Doe, Murder, Victim

  "Flashforward". Book by Robert J. Sawyer, 1999.

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• No one disputes that seeming order can come out of the application of simple rules. But who wrote the rules?

  Robert J. Sawyer

  Simple, Order, Disputes

  Robert J. Sawyer (2009). “Calculating God”, p.88, Macmillan

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• There is no indisputable proof for the big bang," said Hollus. "And there is none for evolution. And yet you accept those. Why hold the question of whether there is a creator to a higher standard?

  Robert J. Sawyer

  Atheist, Atheism, Bangs

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• Virtual reality is just air guitar writ large.

  Robert J. Sawyer

  Reality, Air Guitar, Air

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• It is either coincidence piled on top of coincidence," said Hollus, "or it is deliberate design.

  Robert J. Sawyer

  Design, Coincidence, Said

  Robert J. Sawyer (2009). “Calculating God”, p.68, Macmillan

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• Not wanting to die was another universal constant, it seemed.

  Robert J. Sawyer

  Wanting To Die, Constant, Universal

  Robert J. Sawyer (2009). “Calculating God”, p.77, Macmillan

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• Paul Levinson has outdone himself: The Plot to Save Socrates is a philosophically rich gem full of big ideas and wonderful time-travel tricks.

  Robert J. Sawyer

  Ideas, Plot, Wonderful

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• A science fiction writer should try to combine the intimately human with the grandly cosmic.

  Robert J. Sawyer

  Trying, Fiction, Should

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• If theft is advantageous to everyone who succeeds at it, and adultery is a good strategy, at least for males, for increasing presence in the gene pool, why do we feel they are wrong? Shouldn't the only morality that evolution produces be the kind Bill Clinton had - being sorry you got caught?

  Robert J. Sawyer

  Sorry, Males, Bills

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• With billions of years, who knows what science might make possible? Why, it might even make it possible for an intelligence, or data patterns representing it, to survive a big crunch and exist again in the next cycle of creation. Such an entity might even have science sufficient to allow it to influence the parameters for the next cycle, creating a designer universe into which that entity itself will be reborn already armed with billions of years worth of knowledge and wisdom.

  Robert J. Sawyer

  Technology, Data, Creating

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• That natural selection can produce changes within a type is disputed by no one, not even the staunchest creationist. But that it can transform one species into another — that, in fact, has never been observed.

  Robert J. Sawyer

  Facts, Natural, Type

  Robert J. Sawyer (2009). “Calculating God”, p.102, Macmillan

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• The true God is not a form idealized; he/she/it is real and therefore, by definition, imperfect; only an abstraction can be free of flaws. And since God is imperfect, there will be suffering.... There is no perfect God. And your suffering requires no more explanation than that unavoidable imperfection.

  Robert J. Sawyer

  Real, Perfect, Suffering

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• How do you define God? Like this. A God I could understand, at least potentially, was infinitely more interesting and relevant than one that defied comprehension.

  Robert J. Sawyer

  Interesting, Relevant, Comprehension

  Robert J. Sawyer (2009). “Calculating God”, p.326, Macmillan

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