L. Sprague de Camp Quotes

The knowledge of how to slay each other more swiftly is no true advance in civilization.

Now I said: “It’s unjust, Father. A man’s fate should be determined impersonally, on the basis of his virtues and abilities alone, without regard to all these petty personal likes and dislikes.”
My father replied: “Perhaps it should be but it isn’t. If they like you, they’ll excuse your faults; if they dislike you, they’ll overlook your virtues.”
“Then they’re a lot of stupid fools!”
“Are you only just now learning that? But if they are, you won’t change them, not in one lifetime.

I find that verse provides one of the cheapest and most harmless of life’s major pleasures.

I am sorry, my dear, but that is the best advice we can give you. If some irrational rule of your society prevents, so much the worse for your society.

There must be something. No, nothing. But there must be, if she could only be clever enough to think of it. What, then? How do you know there is anything to think of? There simply must be. But that’s wretched logic; things don’t exist because you wish they did…

In all these fights and flights I have never known that mad joy of battle of which the epics speak. Before the combat I am frightened, during it I am confused, and after it I am weary and disgusted.

These folk are such liars that they think all other men are, too.

There was no harder-boiled materialist than I; I rejected Marxism as too mystical and not materialistic enough.

In Viagens Interplanetarias, Sprague’s interstellar travel takes place in Earth's backyard, so to speak; among stars, that is, within a reasonable number of light-years from the sun. Further, his concept of interstellar travel has . This makes the stories harder to write. I once asked him why he did this and he explained that since travel faster than the speed of light was impossible, it would take far too long to reach the really distant stars. I pointed out that if he used “hyper-space” as most writers did, that wouldn’t matter. (Hyperspace is a mythical term among s.f. writers and can be used in a vague and foggy way to excuse any speeds up to infinity.) Sprague said he didn't believe in hyperspace. I said neither did I but I used it. He just put his pipe in his mouth and shook his head. "If I don’t believe a thing is possible," he said, "I don't use it."

Mighty is the empire of habit.

The world is full of people who, if they got to Heaven, would complain about the tune of the harps and the dampness of the clouds.

From all I gather, love of individuals is more important among you than love of your Community. If that's the case, how can your Communities be well run?"
"Mostly they aren't," said Bloch, relighting his pipe. "But we have a lot of fun.

Let me tell you a little secret. A man’s ability as a swordsman of the other kind, to borrow your words, hinges much upon his health of body and peace of mind. If you’d fain cause his—ah—resolution to droop, you have but oft to berate him in harsh and wounding terms. If you’re fain to have him serve you with vigor, flatter and praise him; make him think himself worthier than in his heart he knows himself to be.

We rented an apartment in a rambly wooden-frame building, a block from the beach. This was before the waterfront sprouted a host of huge condominiums, like a plague of concrete mushrooms.

The wise man does not defy necessity.