Vernor Vinge Quotes

Pham was overwhelmed by the other things that Gunnar Larson had to say, the advice that might be worthless but that had the stench of wisdom.

Civilizations rise and fall, but all technical civilizations know the greatest secrets now. They know which social mechanisms normally work, and which ones quickly fail. They know the means to postpone disaster and evade the most foolish catastrophes. They know that even so, each civilization must inevitably fall.

Yet, even with the greatest care, a technological civilization carried the seeds of its own destruction. Sooner or later, it ossified and politics carried it into a fall.

Funny how the least attempt at deception always seems to make life more complicated.

Didn’t Underhill understand? All decent societies agreed on basic issues, things that meant the healthy survival of their people. Things might be changing, but it was self-serving nonsense to throw the rules overboard.

The essence of real creativity is a certain playfulness, a flitting from idea to idea without getting bogged down by fixated demands. Of course, you don’t always get what you thought you were asking for. From this era on, I think invention will be the parent of necessity—and not the other way around.

Being alone was something he was very good at. There was so much to learn.

Politics may come and go, but trade goes on forever.

So even in hell, there are clowns.

The old truths still hold: without a sustaining civilization, no isolated collection of ships and humans can rebuild the core of technology.

Interesting problem, pain. So helpful, so obnoxious.

So high, so low, so many things to know.

Technical people don’t make good slaves. Without their wholehearted cooperation, things fall apart.

They’re very good at reaching nonsense conclusions from insufficient information.

Peregrine Wickwrackscar was flying. A pilgrim with legends that went back almost a thousand years—and not one of them could come near to this!