Poul Anderson Quotes

When facts are insufficient, theorizing is ridiculous at best, misleading at worst.

What’s the point of our living all these centuries if we haven’t grown up even a little?

In Harvest of Stars, there is this notion, not original with me of course, that it will become possible to download at least the basic aspects of a human personality into a machine program...

I’ve seen so many gods come and go, what’s one more?

Freedom brings responsibility and often guilt. It may indeed provide a deeper satisfaction and a richer life, but the evaluation of such rewards is a distressingly subjective process. Perhaps no argument in favor of liberty can satisfy the intellect; perhaps the best we can hope for is a shared emotional conviction.

The old man murmured: “Aye, we draw to an end. Dying hurts. Nonetheless the forefathers were wise who in their myths made Nan coequal with Lesu. A thing which endured forever would become unendurable. Death opens a way, for peoples as well as for people.”

My mother taught me a Spanish saying," he remarked, "that it takes four men to make a salad: a spendthrift for the oil, a philosopher for the seasonings, a miser for the vinegar, and a madman for the tossing.

Keep on thinking. Keep your thinking close to the ground, where it belongs. Don’t ever trade your liberty for another man’s offer to do your thinking and make your mistakes for you.

Li-Tsung of Krasna would have told him to live at all costs, sacrifice all the others, to save himself for his planet and the Fellowship. But there were limits. You didn’t have to accept Dave’s Calvinism—though its unmerciful God seemed very near this dead star—to swallow the truth that some things were more important than survival. Than even the survival of a cause.
Maybe I’m trying to find out what those things are, he thought confusedly.

All those agonizing philosophical-theological conundrums amount to "Ask a silly question, get a silly answer."

Destiny," said John. "The ghastliest word a man can speak.

“I wonder if there are any gods at all—if they aren’t just another story.”
Tom and Owl shrank from him. But no lightning struck.

Your son was in your own tradition."
"Better, I hope," said the old man. "There would be little sense to existence, did boys have no chance to be more than their fathers.

Another irritating thing about Naqsans was their habit of solemnly repeating the obvious. In that respect they were almost as bad as humans.

I am a peaceful man, captain. I rely more on my cerebral cortex than my guns.