Charles Sheffield

He was still young enough to hate looking like a fool more than anything in the world.

“Captain Roker, I don’t like your insinuation,” he said. “McAndrew is a physicist—so am I. You may not be smart enough to realize it, but physics is a field of study, not a surgical operation. Castration isn’t part of the Ph.D. Exams, you know.”

The more foolproof you think something is, the worse the failure when it happens.