"I think most human misery is due to well-meaning fanatics like him."

Poul Anderson Literature See all quotes by Poul Anderson →

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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

"In America I was liberated from a certain naïve belief in culture and attained the capacity to see culture from the outside. To clarify the point: in spite of all social criticism and all consciousnes…"

— Theodor Adorno

Philosophy1903–1969

#mind

"For a thinking man is where Wisdom is at home."

— Zoroaster

Literature-627–-550

#mind

"The meaning of life for human beings is to serve one another for the survival of humanity and the advancement of civilization."

— Newton Lee

Literature

#Human Nature

"Let us be honest. Did all the priests of Rome increase the mental wealth of man as much as Bruno? Did all the priests of France do as great a work for the civilization of the world as Diderot and Volt…"

— Robert G. Ingersoll

Law1833–1899

#knowledge