Robert J. Sawyer
48 quotes
Biography
"Learning to ignore things is one of the great paths to inner peace."
"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?"
"It is either coincidence piled on top of coincidence,"said Hollus, "or it is deliberate design."
"No one disputes that seeming order can come out of the application of simple rules. But who wrote the rules?"
"It embodies, perhaps more clearly than anything else I've written, the central theme of all my work: namely, that clearheaded, unflinching, rational thinking is the only effective way to deal with reality."
"You know his dictum: nothing is anything unless it is something. That is, a concept without material reality is meaningless."
"I am a priest. It’s my job to whip individuals or groups into a frenzy."
"Science holds our answer; knowledge—real knowledge, verifiable knowledge, not superstition, not religious nonsense—will be our salvation."
"I’m old, and if that has one advantage, it’s perspective: I’ve seen so much change during my lifetime."
"Nothing is anything unless it is something. In other words, a concept without material reality is meaningless."
"The sad truth, Afsan, is that often what we intend has little to do with what we achieve."
"Only a fool fights in a building that’s on fire."
"The intelligent person must abhor violence."
"But here’s the rub: equality doesn’t necessarily mean being the same. It’s possible to be different but equal. Yes, the male may be more ornate or more powerful in many cases, but the female controls mating, choosing the male, and also, of course, it is the female who brings new life into the world. Which is better? No one can say. Equal, but different."
"“Good luck—and God protect.” I was sure that little reference to God was for the sake of the network cameras. Ching-Mei was an atheist. She only had faith in empirical data, in experimental results."
"Adjectives modify nouns, adverbs modify verbs, advertisers modify the truth."
"It turned out that big-bucks science had been a purely mid-twentieth-century phenomenon, starting with the Manhattan Project and ending with the fall of the Soviet Union."
"Failing to act is a decision in and of itself."
"Throwing some light on the subject had only made the mystery deeper."
"Jag barked dismissively. “Philosophy,” he said. “Not science. They just want to believe that.”"
"You are spoiled by being a sociologist, Lansing. In the hard sciences, we occasionally have to face the reality that some of our theories will actually be disproven."
"“What arrogant fools we are!” said Jag. “Don’t you see?” To this day, despite all the humbling lessons the universe has already taught us, we still try to retain a central role in creation. We devise theories of cosmology that say the universe was destined to give rise to us, that it had to evolve life like us. Humans call it the anthropic principle, my people called it the aj-Waldahudigralt principle, but it’s all the same thing: the desperate, deep-rooted need to believe that we are significant, that we’re important."
"It had to begin somewhere—maturity, the stage after the midlife crisis, peace. It had to begin somewhere."
"“Children play with toy soldiers,” said Keith, looking now at Jag. “Child races play with real ones. Maybe it’s time all of us grew up a bit.”"
"There was a small crucifix above the door to his room; it had been there since he’d been a little boy. He stared up at the tiny Jesus—but there was no point in praying. The die was cast; what was done was done."