For it is in the millions of small melodies that the truth of history is always found, for history only matters because of the effects we see or imagine in the lives of the ordinary people who are caught up in, or give shape to, the great events.

The difference between science fiction and fantasy … is simply this: science fiction has rivets and fantasy has trees.

The most evil creatures dont desire the destruction of everythingthey only desire to exploit it for themselves.

The only teacher that's worth anything to you is your enemy.

The problem with elections is that anybody who wants an office badly enough to run for it probably shouldn’t have it. And anybody who does not want an office badly enough to run for it probably shouldn’t have it, either. Government office should be received like a child’s Christmas present, with surprise and delight. Instead it is usually received like a diploma, an anticlimax that never seems worth the struggle to earn it.

The univers is statistically more likely to be ironic than not.

I always tell the truth about what I’m selling, and then nobody buys it.