In this universe the night was falling; the shadows were lengthening towards an east that would not know another dawn. But elsewhere the stars were still young and the light of morning lingered; and along...

The trouble with cliché’s, some philosopher remarked, probably with a yawn, is that they are so boringly true. But “love at first sight” is never boring.

Personally, I refuse to drive a car – I won’t have anything to do with any kind of transportation in which I can’t read.

But most of the time, with a contented resignation that comes normally to a man only at the end of a long and busy life, he sat before the keyboard and filled the air with...

We want a President who has to be carried screaming and kicking into the White House — but will then do the best job he possibly can, so that he’ll get time off for good...

Many of the fundamental physical constants-which as far as one could see, God could have given any value He liked-are in fact very precised adjusted, or fine-tuned, to produce the only kind of Universe that...

There were, however, a few exceptions.One was Norma Dodsworth, the poet, who had not unpleasantly drunk but had been sensible enough to pass out before any violent action proved necessary. He had been deposited, not...

Those wanderers must have looked on Earth, circling safely in the narrow zone between fire and ice, and must have guessed that it was the favourite of the Sun’s children.

The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

It must be wonderful to be seventeen, and to know everything.

After their encounter on the approach to Jupiter, there would aways be a secret bond between them—not of love, but of tenderness, which is often more enduring.

. . . the newspapers of Utopia, he had long ago decided, would be terribly dull.

Long ago the signalling had become no more than a meaningless ritual, now maintained by an animal which had forgotten to learn and a robot which had never known to forget.

My favourite definition of an intellectual: ‘Someone who has been educated beyond his/her intelligence.[Sources and Acknowledgements: Chapter 19]

..the happy hum of humanity.

Bowman was aware of some changes in his behavior patterns; it would have been absurd to expect anything else in the circumstances. He could no longer tolerate silence; except when he was sleeping, or talking...

Now times had changed, and the inherited wisdom of the past had become folly.

I’m sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It’s just been too intelligent to come here.[IRC discussion at Scifi.com, 1 November 1996]

The person one loves never really exists, but is a projection focused through the lens of the mind onto whatever screen it fits with least distortion.

The confrontation lasted about five minutes; then the display died out as quickly as it had begun, and everyone drank his fill of the muddy water. Honor had been satisfied; each group had staked its...

One of the greatest tragedies in mankind’s entire history may be that morality was hijacked by religion.

Even more alarming were persistent rumors that someone had smuggled an Emotion Amplifier on board ‘Mentor’. The so-called joy machines were banned on all planets, except under strict medical control; but there would always be...

Moses Kaldor had always loved mountains; they made him feel nearer to the God whose nonexistence he still sometimes resented.

As his body became more and more defenseless, so his means of offense became steadily more frightful.