Brian W. Aldiss: Trending quotes

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Brian W. Aldiss: 232 quotes14 likes

“You are like all cruel men, sentimental; you are like all sentimental men; squeamish.”

“Poor Little Warrior!” p. 80
Short fiction, Who Can Replace a Man? (1965)

“Obeying an inalienable law, things grew, growing riotous and strange in their impulse for growth.”

Source: Hothouse (1962), Chapter 1 (first line)

“Irreconcilables: he should stay here and conform; he should — not stay here (remembering no time when he was not here, Harley could frame the second idea no more clearly than that). Another point of pain was that "here" and "not here" seemed to be not two halves of a homogeneous whole, but two dissonances.”

Brian W. Aldiss book Outside

Outside (1955)

“At least the mentor’s point was made: loneliness was psychological, not statistical.”

Brian W. Aldiss

“Old Hundredth” p. 163
Short fiction, Who Can Replace a Man? (1965)

“The day of the android has dawned.”

Brian W. Aldiss

"Are You An Android?", Science Fantasy #34 (April 1959)

“Never, never let action become a substitute for thought.”

Brian W. Aldiss

“Basis for Negotiations” p. 121 (originally published in New Worlds Science Fiction #114, January 1962)
Short fiction, Who Can Replace a Man? (1965)

“Science fiction is no more written for scientists than ghost stories are written for ghosts.”

Brian W. Aldiss

Penguin Science Fiction (1961) Introduction

“It’s a national failing to think of politics as something that goes on in Parliament. It isn’t; it’s something that goes on inside us.”

Brian W. Aldiss book Greybeard

Source: Greybeard (1964), Chapter 2 “Cowley” (p. 47)

“Perhaps the first fire, the first tool, the first wheel, the first carving in a limestone cave, had each possessed a symbolic rather than a practical value, had each been pressed to serve distortion rather than reality. It was a sort of madness that had driven man from his humble sites on the edges of the woods into towns and cities, into arts and wars, into religious crusades, into martyrdom and prostitution, into dyspepsia and fasting, into love and hatred, into this present cul-de-sac; it had all come about in pursuit of symbols. In the beginning was the symbol, and darkness was over the face of the Earth.”

Brian W. Aldiss book Greybeard

Source: Greybeard (1964), Chapter 3 (p. 91)

“Frank's chromosome was now breeding as true as ever. Blood group, creed, colour of skin — nothing was proof against it. The numbers with shared consciousness, procreating for all they were worth, trebled every generation.”

Brian W. Aldiss

Let's Be Frank (1957)

“Man was an accident on this world or it would have been made better for him!”

Brian W. Aldiss book Hothouse

Source: Hothouse (1962), Chapter 18

“One of the characteristics of age was that all avenues of talk led backward in time.”

Brian W. Aldiss book Greybeard

Source: Greybeard (1964), Chapter 1 “The River: Sparcot” (p. 21)

“It [i. e., his look] held the fatal mixture of stupidity and cunning that lurks at the bottom of all evil.”

Brian W. Aldiss book Hothouse

Source: Hothouse (1962), Chapter 22

“I’ve no objection to morality, except that it’s obsolete.”

Brian W. Aldiss book Greybeard

Source: Greybeard (1964), Chapter 4 (p. 122)

“You know why I am a prisoner—because the laws are so stupid that we prefer to break them than to live by them, although it means life-long imprisonment.”

Brian W. Aldiss

“Man on Bridge” p. 87
Short fiction, Who Can Replace a Man? (1965)

“You were fool enough to think that one hundred and fifty million years either way made an ounce of difference to the muddle of thoughts in a man’s cerebral vortex.”

Brian W. Aldiss

“Poor Little Warrior!” p. 78
Short fiction, Who Can Replace a Man? (1965)

“However you envisage your role in life, all you can do is perform it as best you can.”

Brian W. Aldiss book Greybeard

Source: Greybeard (1964), Chapter 7 (p. 203)

“That’s one thing about these religious boys—they reckon that if they are on God’s side, then the enemy must be on the devil’s, and so they have no qualms about giving it to ’em hot and strong.”

Brian W. Aldiss book Greybeard

Source: Greybeard (1964), Chapter 4 (p. 112)

“Many modifications in private and public life took place. Privacy ceasing to exist, all new houses were glass-built, curtains abolished, walls pulled down. Police went, the entire legal structure vanished overnight — a man does not litigate against himself. A parody of Parliament remained, to deal with foreign affairs, but party politics, elections, leaders in newspapers (even newspapers themselves) were scrapped.”

Brian W. Aldiss

Let's Be Frank (1957)

“Frank II liked Spain. Philip's capital was gayer, warmer, and more sanitary than London. It was intoxicating to enjoy the best of both courts. It proved also extremely remunerative: the shared consciousness of Frank I and II was by far the quickest communicational link between the two rival countries, and as such was worth money. Not that Frank revealed his secret to a soul, but he let it be known he had a fleet of capable spies who moved without risk of detection between England and Spain. Burly Lord Burleigh beamed upon him. So did the Duke of Medina Sidonia.”

Brian W. Aldiss

Let's Be Frank (1957)