John W. Campbell Quotes

• History does not always repeat itself. Sometimes it just yells, 'Can't you remember anything I told you?' and lets fly with a club.

  John W. Campbell

  Doe, Clubs, Remember

  Analog Science Fiction and Fact Magazine, 1965.

  12 Copy quote

• Man studied birds for centuries, trying to learn how to make a machine to fly like them. He never did do the trick; his final success came when he broke away entirely and tried new methods.

  John W. Campbell

  Men, Bird, Trying

  John W. Campbell Jr. (1955). “Who Goes There?: And Other Stories”

  8 Copy quote

• We presuppose two things: that there is yet to be learned infinitely more than is now known, and that man can learn it.

  John W. Campbell

  Learning, Men, Two

  13 Copy quote

• Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.

  John W. Campbell

  Home, Editors, Writing And Reading

  13 Copy quote

• Write me a creature that thinks as well as a man or better than a man, but not like a man.

  John W. Campbell

  Writing, Men, Thinking

  13 Copy quote

• Never accept the initial premise of the opposition.

  John W. Campbell

  Assessment, Accepting, Initials

  13 Copy quote

• Immunity corrupts; absolute immunity corrupts absolutely.

  John W. Campbell

  Absolutes, Immunity

  Analog Science Fiction and Fact Magazine, 1970.

  11 Copy quote

• Generally, a desirable, practically attainable idea, suggested in prophecy, has a chance of forcing itself into reality by its very existence.

  John W. Campbell

  Reality, Ideas, Chance

  12 Copy quote

• That's the trouble with languages. They have to be learned.

  John W. Campbell

  Statistics, Language, Trouble

  15 Copy quote

• Science is not a sacred cow-but there are a large number of would-be sacred cowherds busily devoting quantities of time, energy and effort to the task of making it one, so they can be sacred cowherds.

  John W. Campbell

  Science, Numbers, Effort

  13 Copy quote

• No literature is sound, no philosophy of action workable, if it doesn't take a hard look at itself.

  John W. Campbell

  Philosophy, Sound, Looks

  John W. Campbell (2011). “Cloak of Aesir”, p.6, Hachette UK

  12 Copy quote

• There's nothing quite so stultifying as having someone around who has all the answers-and gives them to you.

  John W. Campbell

  Giving, Answers, Statistics

  6 Copy quote

• Pioneering basically amounts to finding new and more horrible ways to die

  John W. Campbell

  Way, Horrible, Findings

  14 Copy quote

• Too darned good a machine can be a menace, not a help.

  John W. Campbell

  Machines, Statistics, Helping

  John W. Campbell (2011). “Cloak of Aesir”, p.6, Hachette UK

  5 Copy quote

• It was the law that if a white man was caught trying to educate a Negro slave, he was liable to prosecution entailing a fine of fifty dollars and a jail sentence. . . Our ignorance was the greatest hold the South had on us. We knew we could run away, but what then?

  John W. Campbell

  Running, Ignorance, Men

  9 Copy quote

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin