"A sufficiently intelligent being will look about her, solve all questions, then cease activity."

Larry Niven Literature See all quotes by Larry Niven →

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“We learn only to ask more questions.”

“3) Stories to end all stories on a given topic, don't.”

“The Gods do not protect fools. Fools are protected by more capable fools.”

“I had to grin. Morris was shocked and horrified. I'd shown him a brand new sin.”

“Sex was a game nobody lost.”

“Anyone who says human nature can't be changed is out of his head. To make it stick, he's got to define human nature—and he can't.”

Resonant Thoughts

"Why can't everybody just get along? No reasonably detached person goes to Israel without being reduced in philosophical discourse to the level of Rodney King—or, for that matter, to the level of Georg…"

— P. J. O'Rourke

Literature1947–2022

#philosophy

"Machines as simple as thermostats can be said to have beliefs, and having beliefs seems to be a characteristic of most machines capable of problem solving performance. However, the machines mankind ha…"

— John McCarthy (computer scientist)

Science1927–2011

#knowledge

"Well, nothing was ever done so systematically as nothing is being done now."

— Woodrow Wilson

Politics1916–1965

#philosophy

"Really good philosophising requires something more than a razor-sharp brain, something that is sometimes called subtlety of mind, a philosophical sensibility or insight. I call it judgement, which I d…"

— Julian Baggini

Philosophy1968

#philosophy