Then, as his planet killed him, it occurred to Kynes that his father and all the other scientists were wrong, that the most persistent principles of the universe were accident and error.

Caution is the path to mediocrity. Gliding, passionless mediocrity is all that most people think they can achieve.

Educational bureaucracies dull a child's questing sensitivity. The young must be dampened down. Never let them know how good they can be. That brings change. Spend lots of committee time talking about how to deal with exceptional students. Don't spend any time dealing with how the conventional teacher feels threatened by emerging talents and squelches them because of a deep-seated desire to feel superior and safe in a safe environment.

Argument closes off the doors of the senses. It always masks violence. Continued too long, argument always leads to violence.

Show me a completely smooth operation and I'll show you someone who's covering mistakes. Real boats rock.

A creature who has spent his life creating one particular representation of his selfdom will die rather than become the antithesis of that representation

Anything outside yourself, this you can see and apply your logic to it. But it's a human trait that when we encounter personal problems, these things most deeply personal are the most difficult to bring out for our logic to scan. We tend to flounder around, blaming everything but the actual, deep-seated thing that's really chewing on us.