Charles Sheffield

“D’you know what homeostasis is?”

“I used to, before I rotted my brain with politics.”

You went through life in public office, laying claim to high morality when you knew quite well that at heart you were totally immoral. You were well acquainted with the majority of the seven deadly sins. Certainly pride, anger, and greed had their place in your life. You could claim a lifelong familiarity with and affection for lust.

And then, at an age when a man ought know himself, you discovered that your immorality had its limits.

I’d make a case for saying anything that propagates itself in an intentional way qualifies to be thought of as alive.

It is not clear to me whether the insouciance of youth will be the doom of humanity or its salvation. I prefer to think the latter, but I have my doubts.

Many plans featured that old standby, prayer. Its historical record of effectiveness apparently discouraged few people, although I, regrettably, am among the skeptics. All the churches were full. It is not clear to me exactly what prayers were being offered by their occupants. The temporary suspension, perhaps, of the laws of physics? The art galleries and theaters also reported record crowds. If religion is an opiate, art is an anodyne.

The limits we assign to Nature sometimes define our own lack of imagination.

At stake with something more important than sex. At stake was life and death.

Engineers are dangerous because they’re obsessed by facts and you can’t divert them or buy them off.

Data are not the same as information. Before you can get the answers you want, you have to ask the right question.

Richard Nixon was protected from impeachment, so long as Spiro Agnew was Vice President and would assume the presidency in Nixon’s place. Half of Washington knew that Agnew was a crook, and a boneheaded one at that. They had to get rid of Agnew before they could really go after Nixon.

Right decision or wrong decision, it was a leader’s job to make it.

The same thing happens to every President. People tell a chief executive what they think he wants to hear. Rosy economic reports, high popularity figures, promising international changes, you name it. There’s a competition to be the first with good news. Anyone who tells bad news tends to get weeded out—even if all the real news is bad.