Anything you don't understand is dangerous until you do understand it.

One mark of a good officer, he remembered, was the ability to make quick decisions. If they happen to be right, so much the better.

I've spent a lot of my life among people brighter than myself.

Once every hundred years, the Los Angeles smog rolls away for a single night, leaving the air as clean as interstellar space. That way the gods can see if Los Angeles is still there. If it is, they roll the smog back so they won't have to look at it.

The reader has certain rights. He bought your story. Think of this as an implicit contract. He's entitled to be entertained, instructed, amused; maybe all three. If he quits in the middle, or puts the book down feeling his time has been wasted, you're in violation.

Hopeless causes are the only ones worth fighting for. The fight for the taxpayer is the most hopeless of them all.

Building one space station for everyone was and is insane: we should have built a dozen.