Charles Sheffield Quotes

TIG. Trust In Government. An old political principle, to give your organization a name that’s the opposite of what you mean.

The game never ended. If Sol were guaranteed to go nova tomorrow, today she would hear from lobbyists for sunscreen.

When you have died once, you become most reluctant to do so again.

Is that what it takes to go all the way in politics? Ambition first, everything else back in the pack?
And if it is, would any sane human want to have what it takes?

Could it wipe out life on Earth?"
"Oh, I very much doubt that. Single-celled and oceanic forms will presumably survive. But it might make life impossible for humans."
"Actually, that tends to be my primary concern. Sponges and oysters will have to take care of themselves.

If deadly violence were to be committed, he was like me. He would think it better to give than to receive.

What purpose and will didn’t tell you, unfortunately, was how to do something that must be done.

But remember, it was all hearsay."
"In Washington, hearsay's the same as gospel truth.

The heirs, naturally, wanted everything to be theirs as soon as possible. No one is more rapacious, ruthless, and impatient than a loving family member.

Right decision or wrong decision, it was a leader’s job to make it.

The leaders of the Legion of Argos were out-of-this-world mad. Rigid in outlook, intolerant of minor differences. In other centuries they would have led the Inquisition, tortured the heretics, burned the witches.

More and more, she felt certain that the members of the Legion of Argos from the top down were mental cases. Prophecies, penances, holy cleansings, arbitrary murders to settle grievances, ethnic entry requirements, guns everywhere, regimented behavior, visitors who were effectively prisoners—all the signs of a paramilitary religious cult.

Richard Nixon was protected from impeachment, so long as Spiro Agnew was Vice President and would assume the presidency in Nixon’s place. Half of Washington knew that Agnew was a crook, and a boneheaded one at that. They had to get rid of Agnew before they could really go after Nixon.

It was the age-old conundrum: How do I know that the ‘me’ who wakes after a night’s sleep is the same ‘me’ who went to bed? I don’t. I merely employ it as a working assumption, for lack of anything better.

You pursue progress, even if you suspect that it is an illusion.