"I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain." — Dune by Frank HerbertWords to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors
Great science fiction and fantasy novels don't just expose us to other worlds and alternate timelines — they expand our minds and give us compass to steer by. Here are our favorite bits of advice and maxims from SF books.
You could do a lot worse than living your life according to principles espoused in science fiction books — in fact, here's somebody who claims that it's impossible to live a moral life unless you read science fiction. We won't go quite that far, but here are some words to live by from science fiction. Please do post your own favorite maxims and aphorisms from SF in the comments — I have a feeling it'll be a really amazing comment thread!
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" — Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.
"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." — Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless.
"Reality is frequently inaccurate" — Douglas Adams, The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." — Philip K. Dick, How To Build A Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later.
"I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when looked at in the right way did not become still more complicated." — Poul Anderson
"When smashing monuments, save the pedestals. They always come in handy." — Unkempt Thoughts by Stanislaw Lem
"Our lives are about development, mutation and the possibility of change; that is almost a definition of what life is: change. [...] If you disable change, if you effectively stop time, if you prevent the possibility of the alteration of an individual's circumstances — and that must include at least the possibility that they alter for the worse — then you don't have life after death; you just have death." — Iain M Banks, Look to Windward.
"Believing takes practice." — A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle
"The only way to cope with something deadly serious is to try to treat it a little lightly." — A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle
"Keep violence in the mind, where it belongs." — Brian Aldiss, Barefoot In The Head.
"Many people need desperately to receive this message: 'I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.'" — Kurt Vonnegut, Timequake
"We do not often get to declare victories, Natch, and most of them do not remain victories for very long. Ultimately when you reach my age you realize that victories are temporary, and in all the years of human history there is one final battle which nobody has ever won.Time has a way of changing the terms of your victories over the years, until you begin to wonder precisely what it was you fought for so viciously, so uncompromisingly. You begin to see that victory and defeat are but alternate reflections from the same prism.You see that the measure of a person really might be the integrity with which he fought his battles and not their ultimate dispensation, just like your elders have been telling you all along." — Serr Vigal to Natch, in MultiReal by David Louis Edelman.
"Most people don't believe something can happen until it already has. That's not stupidity or weakness, that's just human nature." — Max Brooks, World War Z
"Lies are neither bad nor good. Like a fire they can either keep you warm or burn you to death, depending on how they're used." — Max Brooks, World War Z
"Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life." — Sir Terry Pratchett.
"Generals are in the business of getting people killed. Captains like to keep theirs alive. You wanna put on a parade? Go find a general. You want to fight your way home? Talk to me." — Negation written by Tony Bedard (Crossgen Comics)
"In a perfect world everything would be either black or white, right or wrong, and everyone would know the difference. But this isn't a perfect world. The problem is people who think it is." — Unwind by Neil Shusterman.
"You cannot buy the Revolution. You cannot make the Revolution. You can only be the Revolution. It is in your spirit or, it is nowhere." — Shevek's speech to the workers in The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin.
"It is our suffering that brings us together. It is not love. Love does not obey the mind, it turns to hate when forced. The bond that binds us is beyond choice. We are brothers. We are brothers in what we share. In pain, which each of us must suffer alone, in hunger, in poverty, in hope, we know our brotherhood. We know it, because we have been forced to learn it. We know that there is no help for us but from one another, that no hand will save us if we do not reach out our hand. And the hand that you reach out is empty, as mine is. You have nothing. You possess nothing. You own nothing. You are free. All you have is what you are, and what you give." — Shevek's speech to the workers in The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin again.
"I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it." — Sam in American Gods by Neil Gaiman
"There's never been a true war that wasn't fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right. The really dangerous people believe they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do. And that is what makes them dangerous." — Mr. Wednesday in American Gods by Neil Gaiman
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right."
— Two epigrams from Salvor Hardin, the first mayor of Terminus, in The Foundation series by Isaac Asimov."You are precisely as big as what you love and precisely as small as what you allow to annoy you." — Robert Anton Wilson
"The difference between stupid and intelligent people — and this is true whether or not they are well-educated — is that intelligent people can handle subtlety. They are not baffled by ambiguous or even contradictory situations — in fact, they expect them and are apt to become suspicious when things seem overly straightforward." — The Constable in The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson.
"We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while." — Montag in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
"Everyone must leave something in the room or left behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there. It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime." — Granger in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
"Guard your honor. Let your reputation fall where it will. And outlive the bastards." — A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold
"Premature burial works just fine as a cure for adolescence." — George Alec Effinger
"There are honest people in the world, but only because the devil considers their asking prices ridiculous." — A Fine And Private Place by Peter S. Beagle
"The trouble with anger is, it gets hold of you. And then you aren't the master of yourself anymore. Anger is. And when anger is the boss, you get unintended consequences." — Doon's father in City Of Ember by Jeanne Duprau
"When your rage is choking you, it is best to say nothing." — Fledgling by Octavia Butler
"If a grasshopper tries to fight a lawnmower, one may admire his courage but not his judgement." — Farnham's Freehold by Robert A. Heinlein
"Never try to out-stubborn a cat." — Time Enough For Love by Robert A. Heinlein
"Happiness consists in getting enough sleep. Just that, nothing more." — Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
"A day is like a whole life. You start out doing one thing, but end up doing something else, plan to run an errand, but never get there. . . . And at the end of your life, your whole existence has the same haphazard quality, too. Your whole life has the same shape as a single day." — Jurrassic Park by Michael Crichton
"All children have to be deceived if they are to grow up without trauma." — Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
"Life is pain, highness. Anyone who tells you differently is selling something." — The Princess Bride by William Goldman
"There is nothing in the world so easy to explain as failure - it is, after all, what everybody does all the time." — Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
"Fear is the mind killer." — Dune by Frank Herbert
"If you need something to worship, then worship life - all life, every last crawling bit of it! We're all in this beauty together!" — Paul in Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
"There's a fine line between a superpower and a chronic medical condition." — Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman
"You often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons." — The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
"Neighborhoods that mainly operated at night had a way of looking a lot worse in the morning." — Virtual Light by William Gibson.
"These are the people who hold a community together, who lead. Unlike the sheep and the wolves, they perform a better role than the script given to them by their inner fears and desires. They act out the script of decency, of self-sacrifice, of public honor — of civilization. And in the pretense, it becomes reality." Xenocide by Orson Scott Card
"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." – Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling
"If you want to see the true measure of a man, watch how he treats his inferiors, not his equals." – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling
Additional reporting by Kelly Faircloth and Mary Ratliff. Thanks also to Stephen Ratliff and Mark Townsend. We also found some good stuff on WikiQuote and GoodReads.
Send an email to Charlie Jane Anders, the author of this post, at charliejane@io9.com.
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Your version of Internet Explorer is not supported. Please upgrade to the most recent version in order to view comments.Shouldn't it be *Rules* from *34* writers?Uh heh heh heh huh.
My favourite advice from RAW is "Think for yourself, Schmuck!" Reply
"'There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing.'" Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury. ReplyWalking Eye!:The Business-Casual Gamer promoted this commentStarlionblue approved this comment"Wisdom is wisdom, no matter how lowly and emphemeral the source."
--some old THOR comic I read once. Reply
"Trying to protect the clouds from the winds of change, Kotus? Impossible for an army, and impossible for you."
- Briareos Hecatonchires, from Masamune Shireow's Appleseed Reply
"Hey, hey, hey — don't be mean. We don't have to be mean. 'Cause, remember: no matter where you go... there you are."
- Buckaroo Banzai Reply
"- You trust beyond reason.
- Yes, it’s how I get results beyond hope."
- A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold."Shuffling facts only takes you so far anyway. Sooner or later, you come down to bare trust. Or mistrust"
- A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold."No, no, never send interim reports. Only final ones. Interim reports tend to elicit orders. Which you must either then obey, or spend valuable time and energy evading, which you could be using to solve the problem. " - Miles Vorkosigan in "Brothers in Arms" by Lois McMaster Bujold
"There is a very ancient rule of thumb that states, people tend to get promoted to the level of their incompetence." - from "Falling Free" by Lois McMaster Bujold
"Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself." - from "A Civil Campaign" by Lois McMaster Bujold
"Home is not a place. It's wherever your passion takes you." - John Sheridan, Babylon 5
"The perversity of the Universe tends to a maximum." - Larry Niven
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." - attributed to George Orwell
"What would you like, Jaguar?"
"The usual: Hundreds of grandchildren, utter domination of known space, and the pleasure of hearing that all my enemies have died in terrible, highly improbable accidents that cannot be connected to me..."
- Conversation betwwen Jaguar Alpha and Tyr Anasazi - Andromeda"Life isn't fair. It's just fairer than death." - The Princess Bride
"An Outside Context Problem was the sort of thing most civilisations encountered just once, and which they tended to encounter rather in the same way a sentence encountered a full stop. The usual example given to illustrate an Outside Context Problem was imagining you were a tribe on a largish, fertile island; you'd tamed the land, invented the wheel or writing or whatever, the neighbours were cooperative or enslaved but at any rate peaceful and you were busy raising temples to yourself with all the excess productive capacity you had, you were in a position of near-absolute power and control which your hallowed ancestors could hardly have dreamed of and the whole situation was just running along nicely like a canoe on wet grass... when suddenly this bristling lump of iron appears sailless and trailing steam in the bay and these guys carrying long funny-looking sticks come ashore and announce you've just been discovered, you're all subjects of the Emperor now, he's keen on presents called tax and these bright-eyed holy men would like a word with your priests." - Iain M. Banks in Excession Reply
KARA
No...I’d always know. I think
that’s what I had to figure out by
getting away...if I gave up, if I
stopped, I’d end up regretting it.
...I’d always know I could have made
a difference. I don’t want my life
to be like that.(Steven E. McDonald) Reply
"If I'd known it was harmless, I'd have killed it myself." A Scanner Darkly (specifically, that description afterwards of how that quote became indicative of everything that was bad about "straights" to Barris, Luckman, and Arctor, but turning on a light or attempting for more than 30 seconds to find it online is simply not an option...)"To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem." Hitchhiker's Guide
"You know, when we fought the Cylons, we did it to save ourselves from extinction. But we never answered the question, why? Why are we as a people worth saving? We still commit murder because of greed, spite, jealousy. And we still visit all of our sins upon our children. We refuse to accept the responsibility for anything that we've done. Like we did with the Cylons. We decided to play God, create life. When that life turned against us, we comforted ourselves in the knowledge that it really wasn't our fault, not really. You cannot play God then wash your hands of the things that you've created. Sooner or later, the day comes when you can't hide from the things that you've done anymore." Bill Adama
Also, I love that Pratchett quote (as I love so very many of the other things he's committed to paper). Where's it from? Reply
Not sci-fi, but fantasy (Tolkien)Frodo: "It’s a pity Bilbo didn’t kill him when he had the chance!"
Gandalf: "Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo’s hand. Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo?
Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise can not see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or evil before this is over.
The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many."Frodo: "I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened."
Gandalf: "So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, in which case you also were meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought." Reply
Eridani promoted this comment"Good things in the long run are often tough while they're happening."H. Beam Piper, "Space Viking." Reply
"We should grant power over affairs only to those who are reluctant to hold it and then only under conditions that increase the reluctance." – Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse: Dune"Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect all who seek it." – Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse: Dune
"Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this. Men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget." – Robert Jordan, The Dragon Reborn
"If your God is everywhere, if He is always watching, why should your people make houses to go to worship Him? Faced with an all-seeing, everywhere-being God, I would think what is needed is a place to hide." – Tad Williams, Caliban’s Hour
"Any dogma, primarily based on faith and emotionalism, is a dangerous weapon to use on others, since it is almost impossible to guarantee that the weapon will never be turned on the user." – Isaac Asimov, Foundation Reply
"Magic is just science we don't understand yet."-Christopher Moore various"If you want to imagine the future, imagine a boy and his dog and his friends." And a summer that never ends.
And if you want to imagine the future, imagine a boot... no, imagine a sneaker, laces trailing, kicking a pebble; imagine a tick, to poke at interesting things, and throw for a dog that may or may not decide to retrieve it; imagine a tuneless whistle, pounding some luckless popular song into insensibility; imagine a figure, half angel, half devil, all human...
Slouching hopefully towards Tadfield...
...forever." Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett Good Omens Reply
Does Voltaire count? Because I always liked "Crush infamy."And did any sci fi author ever say "get off my lawn"? I like that, too. Reply
Another Gibson one, from Johnny Mnemonic:If they think you're crude, go technical; if they think you're technical, go crude. Reply
Starlionblue promoted this commentthe contents of this article and comments should really really be tied into some engine that will cough up a quote of the day for us everytime we sign in. My contributions are from John Crowley:"Seeing a woman's child is like seeing a woman naked, in the way it changes how her face looks to you, how her face becomes less the whole story"
"Just as a lamp waved in darkness creates a figure of light in the air, which remains for as long as the lamp repeats its motion exactly, so the universe retains its shape by repetition: the universe is Time's body." Reply
This is a great thread, well done.People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
&
"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- forever."
George Orwell Reply
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