"Sometimes terror and pain are not the best levers; deception, when it works, is the most elegant and least expensive manipulation of all."

Vernor Vinge Literature See all quotes by Vernor Vinge →

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“Peregrine Wickwrackrum was of two minds about evil: when enough rules get broken, sometimes there is good amid the carnage.”

“Sometimes the biggest disasters aren’t noticed at all—no one’s around to write horror stories.”

“All his life he had lived by the law. Often his job had been to stop acts of revenge....And now revenge was all that life had left for him.”

“Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.”

“If there be only hours, at least learn what there is time to learn.”

“The voice was gentle, like a scalpel petting the short hairs of your throat.”

Resonant Thoughts

"Case shuffled into the nearest door and watched the other passengers as he rode. A pair of predatory-looking Christian Scientists were edging toward a trio of young office techs who wore idealized hol…"

— William Gibson

Literature1948–2008

#beauty

"What will we do when they start capturing our people?" Klein asked. "They will, you know, if they haven't by now. Things go wrong." Heydrich's fingers drummed some more. He didn't worry about the labo…"

— Harry Turtledove

Literature1949

#humor

"In every age of the world there has been an established system, which has been opposed from time to time by isolated and dissentient reformers. The established system has sometimes fallen, slowly and …"

— Augustus De Morgan

Mathematics1806–1871

#friendship

"As long as both men and women regard the subordination of half the human race to the other as "natural," it is impossible to envision a society in which differences do not connote either dominance or …"

— Gerda Lerner

Literature1920–2013

#knowledge