Jack Mcdevitt

He would make a good manager, but he had a little too much integrity to survive in a top job.

Secrecy is a compulsive reflex in this country. It strangles thought, delays scientific progress, and destroys integrity.

One could not always put safety up front as the prime goal. Do that, and who would ever achieve anything of note?

The cultures we can look at had already grasped the essential unity of nature. No board of gods can survive that knowledge.

The man was either foolish or fearless. Assuming there was a difference.

“I can’t imagine,” said Dupre, “a better way to unnerve people than to tell them there’s no cause for alarm.”

“I suspect we would be wise,” he said without looking up, “to avoid declaring what God will or will not allow.”

There’d been studies over the years supporting the proposition that groups composed exclusively of women usually made intelligent decisions, that exclusively male groups did a bit less well, and that mixed groups did most poorly of all, by a substantial margin. It appeared that, when women were present, testosterone got the upper hand and men took greater risks than they might otherwise. Correspondingly, women in the mixed group tended to revert to roles, becoming more passive, and going along with whatever misjudgment the males might perpetrate.

He’d grown a mustache since Randall had last seen him. It was hard to understand why: He looked devious enough without it.

Show me what a people admire, and I will tell you everything about them that matters.

Maybe the universe doesn’t approve of places like New York.

So long as you believe in some truth you do not believe in yourself. You are a servant. A man of faith.