Larry Niven

One mark of a good officer, he remembered, was the ability to make quick decisions. If they happen to be right, so much the better.

Chickens fly very well in low gravity.

Happiness is beautiful, all by itself. A happy person is beautiful, per se.

It does not destroy matter, which is reassuring. Rewriting one law of physics is worse than trying to eat one peanut.

You question my dispassionate judgment? Men have died for less!

So he was a little more callous than the rest of the world’s billions. But not much. Every voter had a bit of the organlegger in him. In voting the death penalty for so many crimes, the law makers had only bent to pressure from the voters. There was a spreading lack of respect for life, the evil side of transplant technology. The good side was a longer life for everyone. One condemned criminal could save a dozen deserving lives. Who could complain about that?

I see that you will never agree. I cannot help that. I can only read the evidence.

Seen through the glow of a building orgasm, a woman seems to blaze with angelic glory.

The majority is always sane.

New technologies create new customs, new laws, new ethics, new crimes.

The perversity of the universe tends towards a maximum. The universe is hostile.

A machine has no mind to read; you never know when it’s going to betray you—