Robert Sheckley - Dimension of Miracles (1968)

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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
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
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
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
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
A little prescience goes a long way, especially in a galaxy as disorganized as this one.

Robert Sheckley
Once upon a time men resisted the implications of actuality. That day is gone. We know now that art is the thing itself together with its extensions into superfluity. Not pop art, I hasten to say, which sneers and exaggerates. This is popular art, which simply exists. This is the age in which we unconditionally accept the unacceptable, and thus proclaim the naturalness of our artificiality.

Robert Sheckley
The only thing to think over was Me, of course. And the real problem about Me was, What was I supposed to do? Was I meant to be nothing but God? I had tried the God business and found it too limited. It was a job for a simple-minded egomaniac. There had to be something else for me to do—something more meaningful, more expressive of my true self. I'm convinced of it! That is my problem, and that is the question I ask of you: What am I to do with myself?

Robert Sheckley
He shared the common human hallmark: he was simultaneously predictable and unfathomable—a routine miracle.

Robert Sheckley
Why in God's name should a God be praised if he is only performing his Godly function?

Robert Sheckley
I'll follow the reedy tenor of his excuses and blast them with the bellowy bass of irrefutable logic!

Robert Sheckley
A malfunction of this type can be cured only by changing the nature of the universe, which is, of course, impractical.

Robert Sheckley
Isn't there anything you can do about the predator? Carmody asked.
Nothing. Nor would I if I could. Predation is a necessary circumstance. Even the Gods are eventually eaten by Fate. You will not be an exception to the universal rule.

Robert Sheckley
Well, no sense crying over unspilt blood, the Prize Clerk said. If we took full account of our eventualities, we'd soon run out of eventualities for us to take full account of.

Robert Sheckley