Charles Sheffield Quotes

British mathematician, physicist and writer (1935–2002)

Charles Sheffield (25 June 1935 – 2 November 2002) was an English-born mathematician, physicist and science fiction writer who served as a President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and of the American Astronautical Society.

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Alternative Names: Charles A. Sheffield • James Kirkwood

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The important question wasn’t whether or not you thought you were the right one to lead. It was whether others believed you were.

It is one of the unfortunate aspects of the legal profession that excess carries no penalty. There is never, for a lawyer, such a thing as too much.

The lead prosecutor told the jury at my trial that I was “A sick parasite, preying on society.”
Parasite on society; this, mind you, from a lawyer.

The same thing happens to every President. People tell a chief executive what they think he wants to hear. Rosy economic reports, high popularity figures, promising international changes, you name it. There’s a competition to be the first with good news. Anyone who tells bad news tends to get weeded out—even if all the real news is bad.

At stake with something more important than sex. At stake was life and death.

He was acquitted; he must have been."
"Right. Good lawyer, tainted evidence. But that doesn't mean he was innocent.

When hard times come to the party, dignity is one of the first guests to leave.

Forrest Singer, it always seemed to Saul, spoke as though the two of them were equals. Saul possibly held the slightly inferior position in the doctor’s eyes. Saul was the President of the United States, true; but Forrest Singer was an M.D.

A thousand friends have less weight than a single enemy.

Decisions based on incomplete information are one thing, a fact of political life. Decisions made with no information are another.

Any other instructions?"
"Not without breaking one of my own golden rules. In an unpredictable situation, the man or woman on the spot should make the decisions, not the general sitting on his ass a million miles away from the action.

Data are not the same as information. Before you can get the answers you want, you have to ask the right question.

I’ll say only this: if we’re going to throw the idea of the Big Bang overboard, we won’t have much left of current astrophysics and cosmology.

It was improbable for him to meet his old friends here? Fine, so it was improbable; but it had happened. “Improbable” was something you could only apply to future events.

I learned a long time ago that it’s a bad habit to waste effort counting your friends. It’s your enemies you need to look out for.