Robert Sheckley Quotes

63 Sourced Quotes

Joenes's students quickly absorbed the material given to them, passed their tests, and quickly forgot the material. Like many vital young organisms, they were able to eject anything harmful, disturbing, distressing, or merely boring. Of course they also ejected anything useful, stimulating, or thought provoking. This was perhaps regrettable, but it was part of the educative process to which every teacher had to accustom himself.

Robert Sheckley
It is a truism throughout the civilized galaxy that when you go to the police, your troubles really begin.

Robert Sheckley
You might say that, Flynn said, thus avoiding an outright lie, since anyone might say anything whether it was true or not.

Robert Sheckley
Action isn't my forte. I'm an expert on contemplation and mild regret.

Robert Sheckley
Rome has an ambiance, puerile yet unmatchable. Rome hints at the possibility of becoming the main actor in the drama of one's own life. (The hint is false, of course; but the stolid northern cities do not even possess the hint.)

Robert Sheckley
Do you have any papers for Will Barrent?
None, the lawyer said. His case is in different hands. I'm afraid it might not be completely processed until after the Games are over.
But I'll probably be dead then, Barrent said.
That, I can assure you, won't stop the papers from being properly served, the fat lawyer said proudly. Dead or alive, you will retain all your rights.

Robert Sheckley
Hey, what is this, he asked.
I guess maybe you could call it like love, Caroline said.
Whaddaya mean, love? Chet asked. Your contract expressly forbids you to fall in love during the duration of your tenth kill, and it furthermore explicitly forbids you to fall in love with your Victim.
Love, Caroline said coolly, existed a long time before contracts.
Contracts, Martin said viciously, are a lot more enforceable than love.

Robert Sheckley
Last week we revoked his Godhead; we caught him operating a life without a license.

Robert Sheckley
How nicely you put it! We may rant against fortune and the world, but we are left at the end with the stark proposition: These are the things which are.

Robert Sheckley
And a great longing overcame him, a desire to be finished with desire, to forego pleasure and pain, to quit the petty modes of achievement and failure, to have done with distractions, and get on with the business of life, which was death.

Robert Sheckley
Earth, Earth, the short, alien Carmody mused. I think I remember the name now. There was a recent study of isolated worlds and the peculiarities of their development. Earth was mentioned as a planet covered with an obsessively overproductive species. Object manipulation is their outstanding modality. Their project is an attempt to live in their own, ever-accumulating waste products. In short, Earth is diseased place. I believe it is being phased out of the Galactic Master Plan on the basis of chronic cosmic incompatibility. The place will then be rehabilitated and turned into a refuge for daffodils.

Robert Sheckley
Remember, the inevitable inefficiency of a huge bureaucracy will be working for you.

Robert Sheckley
Still, no matter how commonplace, one's death is the most interesting event of one's life.

Robert Sheckley
It was the college conservatives who had almost succeeded in electing John Smith to the Presidency of the United States during the last election. The fact that Smith had been dead for twenty years had not dampened their ardor; quite the contrary, many considered this the candidate's best quality.

Robert Sheckley
For the question inevitably remains, is Polletti's admission of fear a magnificent conquest of the unconquerable, or a mere admission of the inadmissable?

Robert Sheckley
Wherever you go in the galaxy, you can find a food business, a house-building business, a war business, a peace business, a governing business, and so forth. And, of course, a God business, which is called 'religion,' and which is a particularly reprehensible line of endeavor.

Robert Sheckley
You have been bitten by the travel bug, which is very suitable for your time of life, and is a passion akin to falling in love, or fighting an idealistic war, or becoming disillusioned with the world, and other postures of the young.

Robert Sheckley
Nature also gives rain and drought, heat and cold; and thoughtfully ensures that the rain rots man's food, the drought parches it, the heat scalds man's body, and the cold freezes his limbs.
These are only nature's milder aspects, not to be compared to the wrathfulness of the sea, the frigid indifference of the mountains, the treachery of the swamp, the depravity of the desert, or the terror of the jungle. But I noticed that nature, in her hatred of mankind, provided that most of the earth's surface be covered with sea, mountains, swamp, desert, and jungle.

Robert Sheckley
You want me to tell you why reality is the way it is, Seethwright said. But there is no explanation for that. You must simply learn to fit your preconceptions to what you find. You must not expect reality to adapt itself to you, except very infrequently.

Robert Sheckley
His friends, who had been waiting for the death announcement, came to congratulate him. They were eager to hear the complete details of the Trial by Ordeal; but Barrent had learned now that secret knowledge was the road to power. He gave them only the sketchiest outline.

Robert Sheckley
Our roles are chose for us in this world by the stern dictates of an unrelenting Fate; and many a man who thought to play the emperor on Life's stage found himself cast for a corpse instead.

Robert Sheckley
Nature abhors a vacuum, and I don't like it much either.

Robert Sheckley
On Omega, the law was kept secret. Older residents used their knowledge of the law to enforce their rule over the newcomers. This system was condoned and reinforced by the doctrine of the inequality of all men, which lay at the heart of the Omegan legal system. Through planned inequality and enforced ignorance, power and status remained in the hands of the older residents.

Robert Sheckley
Carmody's jaw stiffened and he withdrew his hand. He had been pushed around long enough. Now, for the sake of his own self-esteem, he would not yield any more.

Robert Sheckley
Thus action serves as anodyne, whereas contemplation is revealed as the most direct form of involvement, and therefore much shunned by men.

Robert Sheckley
The law, he said, is above the criminal and the judge, and rules them both. The law is inescapable, for an action is either lawful or unlawful. The law, indeed, may be said to have a life of its own, an existence quite apart from the finite lives of the beings who administer it. The law governs every aspect of human behavior; therefore, to the same extent that humans are lawful beings, the law is human. And being human, the law has its idiosyncrasies, just as a man has his. For a citizen who abides by the law, the law is distant and difficult to find. For those who reject and violate it, the law emerges from its musty sepulchers and goes in search of the transgressor.

Robert Sheckley
Evil, the priest said, after he had settled comfortably into Barrent's best chair, is that force within us which inspires men to acts of strength and endurance. The worship of Evil is essentially the worship of oneself, and therefore the only true worship. The self which one worships is the ideal social being; the man content in his niche in society, yet ready to grasp any opportunity for advancement; the man who meets death with dignity, who kills without the demeaning vice of pity. Evil is cruel, since it is a true reflection of the uncaring and insensate universe. Evil is eternal and unchanging, although it comes to us in the many forms of protean life.

Robert Sheckley
But Joenes then made a speech which was a beauty, and I cannot recall it word for word, but the idea was that laws are made by man and thus must partake of the evil nature of man, and that true morality lies in following the true dictates of the illuminated soul.
A Commie, huh? said the lead cop.

Robert Sheckley
One moment's inattention, and the long expected death came at last—unexpectedly! In that agonized moment, sprawled helpless upon the uncaring ground, Polletti realized that no preparation for one's own death is possible. Death has had too much experience in catching men off guard, in piercing their attitudes and reducing their poses.

Robert Sheckley
Would you define Good for me, Citizen Abbot?
Certainly. Good is that force within us which inspires men to acts of conformity and subservience. The worship of Good is essentially the worship of oneself, and therefore the only true worship. The self which one worships is the ideal social being: the man content in his niche in society, yet ready to creatively advance his status. Good is gentle, since it is a true reflection of the loving and pitying universe. Good is continually changing in its aspects, although it comes to us in the... You have a strange look on your face, young man.
I'm sorry, Citizen Abbot. I believe I heard that sermon, or one very much like it.

Robert Sheckley