Philip José Farmer

I concluded that extreme mysticism was closely allied to madness.

“We’re not that stupid!”

“No, but you’re that impulsive. Which is a form of stupidity.”

“The trouble with you, Peter—one of the troubles—is you worry too much about other people’s behavior. And you have too high ideals for them, ideals which you yourself don’t try to live up to.”

“I know I can’t live up to them, so I make a no pretense,” Frigate said.

“But it bothers me that others claim to have these ideals and to be living up to them. If I point out that they aren’t, they get angry.”

The little Moor chuckled. “Naturally. Your criticism threatens their self-image. If that were to be destroyed, they, too, would be destroyed. At least, they think so.”

Burton thought the man was crazy, though he was discreet enough not to say so. He and his crew had fallen into the hands of fanatics. Fortunately, the god had told Metusael that his worshipers must hurt no one unless it was in self-defense. However, he knew from experience that “self-defense” could mean whatever a person or group wanted it to mean.

The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in the stars but in our lousy genes. Or in the failure of one’s conquest of one’s self.

The fault, dear Brutus, is in our fear of knowing ourselves.

If you live very long time or are immortal, perhaps you learn everything about everything in order to pass the time.

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know, but it sounds deep. I’ll think up an explanation later.”

TV, the worst thing that had happened to the twentieth century. After the atom bomb and overpopulation, of course.

Anyway, women are about as mysterious as a tin mine. All you have to do is carry a lantern into the dark places, and you see everything. But men like to think women are the eternally mysterious. That saves men the trouble of asking questions, taking a little time and effort.

Everybody should fear only one person, and that person should be himself.

Beauty is beautiful because it is doomed to perish!

Then she warned her self—for the ten thousandth time?—that she must not be as guilty of prejudice as others. Find the facts first and study them before judgment.