Larry Niven Quotes

The Gods do not protect fools. Fools are protected by more capable fools.

For two hundred and fifty years the kzinti had not attacked human space. They had nothing to attack with. For two hundred and fifty years men had not attacked the kzinti worlds; and no kzin could understand it. Men confused them terribly.

He kept the gun in his hand. It felt good. He was sick of having to be afraid. It was a situation to drive a man right out of his skull. If he stopped being afraid, even for an instant, he could be killed! But now, at least for the moment, he could stop listening for footsteps, stop trying to look in all directions at once. A sonic stunner was a surer bet than a hypothetical, undependable psi power. It was real, cold and hard in his hand.

In fantasy, more than in other forms of literature, the obligation is to teach something universally true about the human condition.

“You think that you are the great man because you know all of these things.” He waved his arms at the panels and the dials surrounding them, and out the windows to the stars beyond. He shook his head. “Poor foolish man. Do you really think that these things matter? No, you are nothing but a driver, a highly-paid, educated servant. The real decisions, the real power will always be with the men who understand money. And we will always own men like you.”

Once you know about critics, you know about literature. Literature is whatever survives the critics.

That’s the only part that bugs me about this. It’s so empty out there.” “True. On the other hand, if the Sun blows up we’ll be in an unrivaled position to say, ‘What was that?’” “Oh,

travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour. - Robert Louis Stevenson

To be paranoid was to inflate one’s importance, to see oneself as worthy of persecution

"He understood when the kzin kitten looked up at its parent and asked, "Is it good to eat?" The adult's eyes met Louis's eyes. Louis let his smile widen to show the teeth. The adult said, "No." In the confidence of four Man-Kzin wars plus some "incidents" — all centuries in the past, but all won by men — Louis grinned and nodded. You tell him, Daddy! Its safer to eat white arsenic than human meat!"

There’s always another problem behind the one you just solved. Does that mean that you should stop solving problems?

“I didn’t know you were such a fighter,” Eviane said.
“Yeah, well, neither did I.”
She smiled shyly.
“Does that make a big difference?” he asked hesitantly.
“Always,” she said. She stared at that bank of fog as if it concealed answers to every important question. “Oh, girls say that they want strong sensitive men. When we can’t find both, we settle for strong.”
Some part of him resented that. “Evolution in action?”
She nodded. “Sure. Deep down inside, we all know that something like this could happen. That the civilization we’d spent so much time and money building up could all come toppling down. And if it did, what would get us through is strength.”
“Not just physical strength, though.”

Allen, it puzzles me that a man can shoot thirty-two full-grown men and women before the sheriff’s men gun him down. You’re more his time, maybe you can tell me. Why didn’t someone just shoot the son of a bitch?

There is no turning away from knowledge.

Any time seems long when you need to make a decision but can’t.