Robert J. Sawyer Quotes

Children play with toy soldiers," said Keith, looking now at Jag. "Child races play with real ones. Maybe it's time all of us grew up a bit."

Nothing is anything unless it is something. In other words, a concept without material reality is meaningless.

Sagan may not have believed in the God of the Bible, but he at least allowed the possibility of a creator.
Or did he? Carl was no more obliged to believe what he wrote in his sole work of fiction than George Lucas was required to believe in the Force.

Not wanting to die was another universal constant, it seemed.

I've never heard you talk like this before.
"We all change with the passing of the days."

God," he said under his breath.
"All the gods," replied Jag, softly, "are a very, very long way from here.

Jag barked dismissively. “Philosophy,” he said. “Not science. They just want to believe that.”

Science holds our answer; knowledge—real knowledge, verifiable knowledge, not superstition, not religious nonsense—will be our salvation.

It embodies, perhaps more clearly than anything else I've written, the central theme of all my work: namely, that clearheaded, unflinching, rational thinking is the only effective way to deal with reality.

Afsan stood tall. “I am not afraid.”
“Fear is important, young one. Fear is the counselor. Those who don’t know when to fear wind up dead.”

Must God be defined in a way that places him or her beyond the scope of science?
I’d always believed that there was nothing beyond the scope of science.
And I still believe that.
Where do you draw the line?
Right here. For me, the answer was right here.
How do you define God?
Like this. A God I could understand, at least potentially, was infinitely more interesting and relevant than one that defied comprehension.

The Lord works in mysterious ways. Mrs. Lansbury had always said that. Everything happens for a purpose.
Such bull. Such unmitigated crap. I felt my stomach knotting. Cancer didn’t happen for any purpose. It tore people apart; if a god did create life, then he’s a shoddy workman, churning out flawed, self-destructing products.

As one of my Jewish friends has been known to observe, the Jews who survived World War II were either now atheists or hadn’t been paying attention.

'Justice,' he said, his breath coming out raggedly as he quoted another Nobel laureate—at that precise moment, he couldn't remember which one—'is always delayed and finally done only by mistake.'

...but there, because there is no grace of God, go I.