# Quote — Poul Anderson, The Boat of a Million Years

> You shall depart freely. Caution enjoins me to have you arrested and garroted within this hour. Either you are a charlatan and deserve it or a mortal danger and require it. However, I deem you a sensible man who will withdraw to his obscurity. And I am grateful to you for a fascinating glimpse of—what is best left alone.

- Author: [Poul Anderson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson.md)
- Book: [The Boat of a Million Years](https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-boat-of-a-million-years.md)
- Page: 205
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Poul_Anderson#The_Boat_of_a_Million_Years_(1989)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-boat-of-a-million-years/you-shall-depart

## More from this book

> 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 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-boat-of-a-million-years/it-would-annoy.md)

> Are you happy?
>
> Your question is meaningless. I am occupied. I participate in operations, I am one with the accomplishments.

p. 426 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-boat-of-a-million-years/are-you-happy.md)

> 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 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-boat-of-a-million-years/i-have-learned.md)