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What point was there in pursuing an ever-elusive popularity?
David Brin
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It was a queer, disturbing instant of recognition. We all create monsters in our minds. The only important difference may be which of us let our monsters become real.
David Brin
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Had I been wrong, this would still have been the honorable thing to do.
I am very glad, however, to find out that I was right.
David Brin
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Beware of assumptions that seem obvious in one decade. They may become quaint in the next.
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How can we set up a system which encourages individuals to strive and excel, and yet which shows some compassion to the weak, and weeds out madmen and tyrants?
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In all of history, we have found just one cure for error—a partial antidote against making and repeating grand, foolish mistakes, a remedy against self-deception. That antidote is criticism.
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She closed her eyes. And while her intellect wouldn't let her realize her deepest fear, that all this might soon be gone forever, nevertheless she stood there for a time and worshipped the only way a person like her could worship—in silence and solitude, under the temple of the sky.
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The Union will awaken. It always has. We always will.
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Huh, Sepak thought, marveling how much one could learn by just sitting still and observing. It wasn't a skill one learned in the frenetic pace of modern society.
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The same was true of the most popular girls. They had no empathy, no compassion for more normal kids.
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A neurosis defends itself by coming up with rationalizations to explain away bizarre behavior.
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Where were answers to the truly deep questions? Religion promised those, though always in vague terms, while retreating from one line in the sand to the next. Don't look past this boundary, they told Galileo, then Hutton, Darwin, Von Neumann, and Crick, always retreating with great dignity before the latest scientific advance, then drawing the next holy perimeter at the shadowy rim of knowledge.
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We are having extreme difficulty with local gangs of Survivalists. Fortunately, these infestations of egotists are mostly too paranoid to band together. They're as much trouble to each other as to us, I suppose. Still, they are becoming a real problem.
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All this talk of using tax policy to 'assess social costs'... what a dumb idea. The only way to stop polluters is to put them against walls and shoot them.
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From you, my boy, I expect no less than the completely preposterous and utterly calamitous.
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Self-awareness is probably overrated. A complex, self-regulating system doesn't need it in order to be successful, or even smart.
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One of life's joys was to have friends who gave you reality checks... who would call you on your crap before it rose so high you drowned in it.
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How did he get away with pushing a book like this? How is it anyone ever believed him?
Gordon shrugged. It was called 'the Big Lie' technique, Johnny. Just sound like you know what you're talking about—as if you're reciting facts. Talk very fast. Weave your lies into the shape of a conspiracy theory and repeat your assertions over and over again. Those who want an excuse to hate or blame—those with big but weak egos—will leap at a simple, neat explanation for the way the world is. Those types will never call you on the facts.
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It was silly to suppose that trials only hardened men, automatically making them wise. He knew many who were stupid, arrogant, and mean, in spite of having suffered.
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They saw the end coming, he thought, looking down the file of awful figures. But they were dead wrong about the reasons why. They assumed only gods had the power to wreak such havoc on their world, but people caused the devastation here.
Alex felt compassion for the ancient Pasquans—but a superior sort nevertheless. In blaming gods, they had conveniently diverted censure from the real culprit. The designer of weapons. The feller of trees. The destroyer. Man himself.
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He read about humanity's age-old racial struggles. Had it really been less than half a millennium since humans contrived gigantic, fatuous lies about each other simply because of pigment shades, and killed millions because they believed their own lies?
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It's clear that male human beings should never have been left in control of the world all these centuries. Many of you are wonderful beyond belief, but too many others will always be bloody lunatics.
Your sex is simply built that way. Its better side gave us power and light, science and reason, medicine and philosophy. Meanwhile the dark half spent its time dreaming up unimaginable hells and putting them into practice.
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Look at all the happiest, sanest people you've known, Nelson. Really listen to them. I bet you'll find they don't fear a little inconsistency or uncertainty now and then. Oh, they try always to be true to their core beliefs, to achieve their goals and keep their promises. Still, they also avoid too much rigidity, forgiving the occasional contradiction and unexpected thought. They are content to be many.
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You don't have conversations with microprocessors. You tell them what to do, then helplessly watch the disaster when they take you literally!
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Prison for the crime of puberty—that was how secondary school had seemed, when he really thought back on it.
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Quote of the day
Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees.
Faith Baldwin
David Brin
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Born:
October 6, 1950
(age 73)
Bio:
Glen David Brin is an American scientist and award-winning author of science fiction. He has received the Hugo, Locus, Campbell and Nebula Awards.
Known for:
The Uplift War (1987)
Startide Rising (1983)
Sundiver (1980)
The Postman (1985)
Brightness Reef (1995)
Most used words:
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big
power
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