{
  "type": "author",
  "site": {
    "name": "Leafy Quotes",
    "language": "en",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com"
  },
  "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.",
  "name": "Theodore Sturgeon",
  "slug": "theodore-sturgeon",
  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/theodore-sturgeon",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/theodore-sturgeon.json",
  "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/theodore-sturgeon.md",
  "image": null,
  "quotes_count": 20,
  "books": [
    {
      "title": "More Than Human",
      "slug": "more-than-human",
      "quotes_count": 8,
      "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/gateway/theodore-sturgeon/more-than-human_978-05-7511-010-6.jpg",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/theodore-sturgeon/more-than-human"
    },
    {
      "title": "To Marry Medusa",
      "slug": "to-marry-medusa",
      "quotes_count": 2,
      "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/gateway/theodore-sturgeon/to-marry-medusa_978-05-7511-011-3.jpg",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/theodore-sturgeon/to-marry-medusa"
    },
    {
      "title": "Venus Plus X",
      "slug": "venus-plus-x",
      "quotes_count": 10,
      "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/gateway/theodore-sturgeon/venus-plus-x_978-05-7511-012-0.jpg",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/theodore-sturgeon/venus-plus-x"
    }
  ],
  "recent_quotes": [
    {
      "id": "feb94ff5-660a-494c-8854-56e70a94c245",
      "slug": "is-it-mens",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/theodore-sturgeon/venus-plus-x/is-it-mens",
      "text": "Is it men’s disgust of women that makes so many of them treat women with such contempt? Is it that which makes it so easy to point out that the Don Juans and the Lotharios, for all their hunger for women, are often merely trying to see how many women they can punish?",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 114,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "women",
          "slug": "women",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women"
        },
        {
          "name": "contempt",
          "slug": "contempt",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/contempt"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theodore_Sturgeon#Venus_Plus_X_(1960)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:49"
    },
    {
      "id": "f7d2f19d-e82f-43c7-95fa-cf3adb284b3d",
      "slug": "so-it-is-easily",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/theodore-sturgeon/venus-plus-x/so-it-is-easily",
      "text": "So it is easily seen that the sexual insignes are nothing in themselves, for any of them, in another time and place, might belong to both sexes, the other sex, or neither. In other words, a skirt does not make the social entity, woman. It takes a skirt plus a social attitude to do it.\n\nBut all through history, in virtually every culture and country, there has indeed been a “woman’s province” and a “man’s province,” and in most cases the differences between them have been exploited to fantastic, sometimes sickening extremes.\n\nWhy?",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 125,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "women",
          "slug": "women",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women"
        },
        {
          "name": "masculinity",
          "slug": "masculinity",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/masculinity"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theodore_Sturgeon#Venus_Plus_X_(1960)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:49"
    },
    {
      "id": "ca9a90eb-92b1-4fda-addf-a81e4b651c6e",
      "slug": "there-were-a-lot",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/theodore-sturgeon/venus-plus-x/there-were-a-lot",
      "text": "There were a lot of people living in his time who never did latch on to the idea that the curve of technological progress was not a flat slanting line like a diving board, but a geometrical curve like a ski-jump. These wistful and mixed-up souls were always suffering from attacks of belated conservatism, clutching suddenly at this dying thing and that, trying to keep it or bring it back. It wasn’t real conservatism at all, of course, but an unthought longing for the dear old days when one could predict what would be there tomorrow, if not next week. Unable to get the big picture, they welcomed the conveniences, the miniaturization of this and the speed of that, and then were angrily confused when their support of these things changed their world.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 33,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "change",
          "slug": "change",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change"
        },
        {
          "name": "technology",
          "slug": "technology",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technology"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theodore_Sturgeon#Venus_Plus_X_(1960)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:49"
    },
    {
      "id": "c63bd688-0192-45f4-a095-ec5d7fca9413",
      "slug": "do-you-know",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/theodore-sturgeon/more-than-human/do-you-know",
      "text": "Do you know what morals are? Morals are an obedience to rules that people laid down to help you live among them.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 181,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "morality",
          "slug": "morality",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality"
        },
        {
          "name": "law",
          "slug": "law",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/law"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theodore_Sturgeon#More_Than_Human_(1953)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:49"
    },
    {
      "id": "9ada9e7d-eab3-4fba-8942-f4939b8778b2",
      "slug": "loves-a-different",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/theodore-sturgeon/more-than-human/loves-a-different",
      "text": "Love’s a different sort of thing, hot enough to make you flow into something, interflow, cool and anneal and be a weld stronger than what you started with.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 169,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "love",
          "slug": "love",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theodore_Sturgeon#More_Than_Human_(1953)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:49"
    },
    {
      "id": "994f156a-152a-4757-8181-82fcfd780e8f",
      "slug": "so-it-was",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/theodore-sturgeon/more-than-human/so-it-was",
      "text": "So it was that Lone came to know himself; and like the handful of people who have done so before him he found, at this pinnacle, the rugged foot of a mountain.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 60,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "self-knowledge",
          "slug": "self-knowledge",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/self-knowledge"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theodore_Sturgeon#More_Than_Human_(1953)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:49"
    },
    {
      "id": "8d4499e5-2474-4e67-be13-089aed92f353",
      "slug": "logic-and-truth",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/theodore-sturgeon/more-than-human/logic-and-truth",
      "text": "Logic and truth are two very different things, but they often look the same to the mind that’s performing the logic.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 97,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "truth",
          "slug": "truth",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth"
        },
        {
          "name": "reason",
          "slug": "reason",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reason"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theodore_Sturgeon#More_Than_Human_(1953)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:49"
    },
    {
      "id": "871e6e25-6e77-4b9f-b44e-f92bc18bad7f",
      "slug": "reality-isnt-the",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/theodore-sturgeon/more-than-human/reality-isnt-the",
      "text": "Reality isn’t the most pleasant of atmospheres, Lieutenant. But we like to think we’re engineered for it. It’s a pretty fine piece of engineering, the kind an engineer can respect. Drag in an obsession and reality can’t tolerate it. Something has to give; if reality goes, your fine piece of engineering is left with nothing to operate on. So it operates badly. So kick the obsession out; start functioning the way you were designed to function.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 146,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "reality",
          "slug": "reality",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reality"
        },
        {
          "name": "obsession",
          "slug": "obsession",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/obsession"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theodore_Sturgeon#More_Than_Human_(1953)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:49"
    },
    {
      "id": "78f259f1-1eae-4193-8159-a46e955782a2",
      "slug": "you-cannot-be-objective",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/theodore-sturgeon/venus-plus-x/you-cannot-be-objective",
      "text": "You cannot be objective about this because you have been indoctrinated, sermonized, drenched, imbued, inculcated and policed on the matter since first you wore blue booties. You come from a time and place in which the maleness of the male, and the femaleness of the female, and the importance of their difference, were matters of almost total preoccupation.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 123,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "women",
          "slug": "women",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women"
        },
        {
          "name": "masculinity",
          "slug": "masculinity",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/masculinity"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theodore_Sturgeon#Venus_Plus_X_(1960)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:49"
    },
    {
      "id": "6c45e84b-2b1c-4a39-8760-505d879a08cc",
      "slug": "an-ethic-isnt",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/theodore-sturgeon/more-than-human/an-ethic-isnt",
      "text": "An ethic isn’t a fact you can look up. It’s a way of thinking.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 183,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "morality",
          "slug": "morality",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality"
        },
        {
          "name": "thinking",
          "slug": "thinking",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theodore_Sturgeon#More_Than_Human_(1953)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:49"
    },
    {
      "id": "6158d5db-48dc-40a7-8392-2dca92bf2cd4",
      "slug": "mankind-has-in",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/theodore-sturgeon/venus-plus-x/mankind-has-in",
      "text": "Mankind has in it a crushing need to feel superior. This doesn’t have to bother the very small minority who actually are superior, but it sure troubles the controlling majority who are not. If you can’t be really good at anything, then the only way to be able to prove you are superior is to make someone else inferior. It is this rampaging need in humanity which has, since pre-history, driven a man to stand on the neck of his neighbor, a nation to enslave another, a race to tread on a race. But it is also what men have done to women.\n\nDid they actually find them inferior to begin with, and learn from that to try to feel superior to other things outside—other races, religions, nationalities, occupations?\n\nOr was it the other way around: did men make women inferior for the same reason they tried to dominate the outsider? Which is cause, which effect?",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 115,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "women",
          "slug": "women",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women"
        },
        {
          "name": "pride",
          "slug": "pride",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pride"
        },
        {
          "name": "women's equal rights",
          "slug": "womens-equal-rights",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/womens-equal-rights"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theodore_Sturgeon#Venus_Plus_X_(1960)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:49"
    },
    {
      "id": "4f090d78-2f38-46eb-a3b9-487ea437d598",
      "slug": "pleasure-the-outer",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/theodore-sturgeon/venus-plus-x/pleasure-the-outer",
      "text": "Pleasure, the outer edge of ecstasy, was in the dour days of Protestantism, considered sinful in itself, wherever gained; Rome held specifically that any or all sexual pleasure was sinful. And for all this capped volcano produced in terms of bridges and houses, factories and bombs, it gouted from its riven sides a frightful harvest of neurosis. And even where a nation officially discarded the church, the same repressive techniques remained, the same preoccupation with doctrine, filtered through the same mesh of guilt. So sex and religion, the real meaning of human existence, ceased to be meaning and became means; the unbridgeable hostility between the final combatants was the proof of the identity of their aim—the total domination, for the ultimate satisfaction of the will to superiority, of all human minds.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 130,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "religion",
          "slug": "religion",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion"
        },
        {
          "name": "sex",
          "slug": "sex",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sex"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theodore_Sturgeon#Venus_Plus_X_(1960)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:49"
    }
  ]
}