Poul Anderson Quotes

Quotes about:

• I think the first duty of all art, including fiction of any kind, is to entertain. That is to say, to hold interest. No matter how worthy the message of something, if it's dull, you're just not communicating.

  Poul Anderson

  Art, Writing, Thinking

  48 Copy quote

• The single definition of government I've ever seen that makes sense is that it's the organization which claims the right to kill people who won't do what it wants.

  Poul Anderson

  Government, Organization, People

  Poul Anderson (2014). “The Avatar”, p.32, Open Road Media

  13 Copy quote

• I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated.

  Poul Anderson

  Motivational, Witty, Truth

  Quoted in New Scientist, 25 Sept. 1969

  17 Copy quote

• There are some ideas so stupid that only intellectuals can believe in them, particularly left-wing intellectuals.

  Poul Anderson

  Stupid, Believe, Wings

  5 Copy quote

• A man isn't really alive till he has something bigger than himself and his own little happiness, for which he'd gladly die.

  Poul Anderson

  Men, Alive, Littles

  Poul Anderson (2015). “Starfarers”, p.488, Open Road Media

  10 Copy quote

• Timidity can be as dangerous as rashness.

  Poul Anderson

  Dangerous, Rashness, Timidity

  Poul Anderson (2003). “Going For Infinity: A Literary Journey”, p.20, Macmillan

  9 Copy quote

• A fanatic is a man who, when he's lost sight of his purpose, redoubles his effort.

  Poul Anderson

  Men, Sight, Effort

  Poul Anderson (2015). “Harvest of Stars”, p.41, Open Road Media

  9 Copy quote

• Machines can only find what ignorant men have programmed them to find.

  Poul Anderson

  Men, Ignorant, Machines

  Poul Anderson, Jack Dann, Michael Orgill, George Zebrowski (1977). “A world named Cleopatra”

  5 Copy quote

• Why do people in this age think their own impoverished lives must be the norm of the universe?

  Poul Anderson

  Thinking, People, Stupidity

  "The Corridors of Time".

  3 Copy quote

• So much American science fiction is parochial - not as true now as it was years ago, but the assumption is one culture in the future, more or less like ours, and with the same ideals, the same notions of how to do things, just bigger and flashier technology. Well, you know darn well it doesn't work that way.

  Poul Anderson

  Technology, Years, Way

  6 Copy quote

• Colonization means potential immortality for the human genus. Man's safety on Earth was never great, and it dwindles hourly. Disarmament, even world government, will not guarantee survival in an age when population presses natural resources to the limit and when the knowledge of how to work mischief on a planetary scale is ever more widely diffused among peoples who may grow ever more desperate.

  Poul Anderson

  Mean, Men, Space

  6 Copy quote

• Give fear no hold on you. Keep sinews loose and senses open, ready at every instant to flow with the rush of action.

  Poul Anderson

  Giving, Flow, Action

  3 Copy quote

• Happier are all men than the dwellers in Faerie – or the gods, for that matter…Better a life like a falling star, bright across the dark, than a deathlessness that can see naught above or beyond itself…the day draws nigh when Faerie shall fade, the Erlking himself shrink to a woodland sprite and then to nothing, and the gods go under. And the worst of it is, I cannot believe it wrong that the immortals will not live forever.

  Poul Anderson

  Stars, Believe, Fall

  11 Copy quote

• He had seen too much of the cosmos to have any great faith in man's ability to understand it.

  Poul Anderson

  Science, Men, Too Much

  Poul Anderson (2015). “Starfarers”, p.483, Open Road Media

  8 Copy quote

• In my considered opinion, the profit to be made by permanent settlement in space is nothing less than the survival of industrial civilization, and therefore the survival of nearly the entire human race, along with such amenities as peace, freedom, enough to eat, and the chance to reach a high age in good health.

  Poul Anderson

  Space, Race, Civilization

  8 Copy quote

• The fish that first ventured ashore had considerable practical problems.

  Poul Anderson

  Firsts, Problem, Fishes

  Poul Anderson (2015). “Harvest of Stars”, p.276, Open Road Media

  3 Copy quote

• Let us settle down to the serious business of getting drunk.

  Poul Anderson

  Drunk, Serious Business, Settling

  Poul Anderson (2015). “Fire Time”, p.27, Open Road Media

  3 Copy quote

• If we knew exactly what to expect throughout the Solar System, we would have no reason to explore it.

  Poul Anderson

  Exploration, Reason, Solar System

  Poul Anderson (2008). “The Van Rijn Method”, p.54, Baen Publishing Enterprises

  6 Copy quote

• These lands are not always calm. We may well have more adventures ahead of us. But we shall meet them with high hearts.

  Poul Anderson

  Heart, Adventure, Land

  Poul Anderson (2008). “The Van Rijn Method”, p.61, Baen Publishing Enterprises

  3 Copy quote

• Anybody can find infinite Mandelbrot figures in his navel.

  Poul Anderson

  Infinite, Figures, Navel

  Poul Anderson (2015). “Harvest of Stars”, p.366, Open Road Media

  21 Copy quote

• What five books would I like to be remembered for? Well... Tau Zero, I like that one especially. It was somewhat of a tour de force, and I think it got across what I was trying for.

  Poul Anderson

  Zero, Book, Journey

  6 Copy quote

• Heaven is not as narrowly literal-minded as hell.

  Poul Anderson

  Heaven, Hell, Literal

  3 Copy quote

• We live with our archetypes, but can we live in them?

  Poul Anderson

  Writing, Archetype

  Poul Anderson (2003). “Going For Infinity: A Literary Journey”, p.655, Macmillan

  14 Copy quote

• It is a truism that the structure of a society is basically determined by its technology. Not in an absolute sense-there may be totally different cultures using identical tools-but the tools settle the possibilities; you can't have interstellar trade without spaceships. A race limited to a single planet, possessing a high knowledge of mechanics but with its basic machines of industry and war requiring a large capital investment, will inevitably tend toward collectivism under one name or another. Free enterprise needs elbow room.

  Poul Anderson

  War, Technology, Names

  Poul Anderson (2011). “Trader to the Stars: Polesotechnic League”, p.26, Hachette UK

  3 Copy quote

• At each stage...entirely new laws, concepts and generalizations are necessary, requiring inspiration and creativity to just as great a degree as in the previous one.

  Poul Anderson

  Inspiration, Creativity, Science

  3 Copy quote

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