"“If anything does change man,” he said, “it’s science and technology. Just think about the fact—while it lasts—that parents need not take for granted some of their babies will die. You get a completely different concept of what a child is."

Poul Anderson Literature See all quotes by Poul Anderson →

React to this quote

More by Poul Anderson

“Life isn’t a fairy tale; the knight who kills the dragon doesn’t necessarily get the princess. So what? Who’d want to live in a cosmos less rich and various than the real one?”

“On our Earth, we’ve perforce learned all the knavery there is to know.”

“Men, whose span is cruelly short, rush nonetheless to death in their youth as to a maiden’s arms.”

“It was lonely, not even knowing yourself.”

“Heim ignored the mob scene on the 3V, rested his eyes on the cold serenity of the Milky Way and thought that this, at least, would endure.”

“What’s the point of our living all these centuries if we haven’t grown up even a little?”

Resonant Thoughts

"I think people are great in many different ways. So, I think some justices are great because they have extraordinary wisdom, they have an understanding of how to apply the law in their times … in a wa…"

— Elena Kagan

Politics1960

#justice

"Let the language which is on the tongues of our children be treated by our people with that reverence, that love and that care which civilized communities bestow on the most precious of their national…"

— Owain Owain

Literature1929–1993

#family

"I have the most romantic husband. I do."

— Heidi Klum

Sports1973

#family

"The phase transition paradigm: The standard model of fundamental physics incorporates, as one of its foundational principles, the idea that “empty space” or “vacuum” can exist in different phases, typ…"

— Frank Wilczek

Science1951

#life