Jack McDevitt Quotes

Cities have a social utility, if only as places to get away from.

There is, he’d said, an inverse correlation between the amount of power a person has and the level at which his or her mind functions. A person of ordinary intelligence who acquires power, of whatever kind, tends to develop an exaggerated view of his own capabilities. Sycophants gather. There is little or no criticism of decisions. As his ability to disrupt the lives of others advances, these tendencies become stronger. Eventually you end with Louis the Fourteenth, who thinks he’s done a good job for France, although the country he left behind was ruined.

I can't imagine," said Dupre, "a better way to unnerve people than to tell them there's no cause for alarm.

The only people he knew of who would have leveled material advantage so that no one had any were of course those who had none to start with.

The idiots always rose to the top and made policy.
It explained a lot of things.

He’d grown a mustache since Randall had last seen him. It was hard to understand why: He looked devious enough without it.

Those who rise to the top of organizations, who live to direct others, to wield power, are inevitably afflicted by weak egos, by a need to prove themselves. This explains why they are so easily frightened and so easily manipulated. And why they are so dangerous.

The stars are silent.
Voyager among dark harbors, I listen, but the midnight wind carries only the sound of trees and water lapping against the gunwale and the solitary cry of the night swallow.
There is no dawn. No searing sun rises in east or west. The rocks over Calumal do not silver, and the great round world slides through the void.

The queen of virtues is the recognition of one’s own flaws.

Prudence, and experience, suggested she expect the worst.

Truth, beaten down, may well rise again. But there’s a reason it gets beaten down. Usually, we don’t like it very much.

Decisions are always made with insufficient information. If you really knew what was going on, the decision would make itself.

Politics was a struggle for power, in its purest and simplest terms. If the voters were lucky, the winner would go on to improve their lot, because he would need their votes next time. Or because he enjoyed being popular. But issues were irrelevant. Always had been, probably. Once the age of mass communications arrived, presidents became entertainers, celebrities, if they were smart. FDR used his fireside chats; Kennedy had allowed spontaneous questions at press conferences, relying on wit and charm. Reagan knew from the films exactly how a president should behave, and he had exactly enough acting talent to bring it off. In that sense, he was the first modern president.

If you’ll forgive me, sir, physics is not politics. You can’t make things happen by trying harder.

The man was either foolish or fearless. Assuming there was a difference.