Poul Anderson

Quotes

1. It would annoy me less that we’re heading into a new puritanical era if the puritanism concerned itself about things that matter.

   p. 330

2. 

   Are you happy?

   Your question is meaningless. I am occupied. I participate in operations, I am one with the accomplishments.

   p. 426

3. 

   Light fills the air, wind is aglow, drink of it, breathe of it, make leafing.

   Rainfall sows itself, it grows down through soil to the secret places where stones abide; it brings the strength of them up rootward.

   Lie still, molder away, then be again grass.

4. 

   I have learned much in two thousand years, but nothing about any gods, except that they too, arise, change, age, and die. Whatever there is beyond the universe, if anything, I doubt it concerns itself with us.

   p. 140

5. 

   I also know you cannot pick and choose. Change is a medicine bundle. You must refuse it altogether, or take the whole thing.

   p. 215

6. 

   Think. You have had your dealings with our bureaucracy. It is impossible not to, especially if one is a foreigner. Believe me, when we set our minds to it we can tangle, obstruct, and bring to a dead halt a herd of stampeding elephants.

   p. 291

7. 

   “Well, I’ll try to sketch it out for you, but I’ll have to repeat stuff I’ve told you before.”

   “That’s all right. I’m a simon-pure layman. My basic thought habits were formed early in the Iron Age. Where it comes to science, I can use plenty of repetition.”

   p. 331

8. 

   Anybody can find infinite Mandelbrot figures in his navel.

9. 

   I’ve seen so many gods come and go, what’s one more?

   p. 254

10. 

    Absolute proof of absolute knowledge is impossible.

    p. 426

11. 

    “Evolution is cut-and-try. If I may anthropomorphize,” he added. “Often it’s hard not to.”

    p. 333

12. 

    “We do need something to lift us out of ourselves. It’s wrong to carry our pettinesses along to the stars.”

    “We will, though,” he said. “We can’t help it. How do you escape being what you are?”

    p. 438