Theodore Sturgeon - More Than Human (1953)

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Here, too, was the guide, the beacon, for such times as humanity might be in danger; here was the Guardian of Whom all humans knew — not an exterior force, nor an awesome Watcher in the sky, but a laughing thing with a human heart and a reverence for its human origins, smelling of sweat and new-turned earth rather than suffused with the pale odor of sanctity.

Theodore Sturgeon
Ask Baby can you be truly part of someone you love." "He says only if you love yourself.

Theodore Sturgeon
That's fairly common. We don't believe anything we don't want to believe.

Theodore Sturgeon
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.

Theodore Sturgeon
An ethic isn't a fact you can look up. It's a way of thinking.

Theodore Sturgeon
There's this about a farm: when the market's good there's money, and when it's bad there's food.

Theodore Sturgeon
Morals: They're nothing but a coded survival instinct!

Theodore Sturgeon
The most human thing about anyone is a thing he learns and … and earns. It's a thing he can't have when he's very young; if he gets it at all, he gets it after a long search and a deep conviction. After that it's truly part of him as long as he lives.

Theodore Sturgeon
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.

Theodore Sturgeon
Fear is a survival instinct; fear in its way is a comfort for it means that somewhere hope is alive.

Theodore Sturgeon
Logic and truth are two very different things, but they often look the same to the mind that's performing the logic.

Theodore Sturgeon
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.

Theodore Sturgeon
Do you know what morals are? Morals are an obedience to rules that people laid down to help you live among them.

Theodore Sturgeon
The idiot heard the sounds, but they had no meaning for him. He lived inside somewhere, apart, and the little link between word and significance hung broken.

Theodore Sturgeon
He slept like an animal, well and lightly, faced in the opposite direction from that of a man; for a man going to sleep is about to escape into it while animals are prepared to escape out of it.

Theodore Sturgeon
Just think about it," he said softly. "You can do practically anything. You can have practically everything. And none of it will keep you from being alone." "Shut up shut up...Everybody's alone." He nodded. "But some people learn how to live with it.

Theodore Sturgeon