Brian W. Aldiss: Quotes about life

Brian W. Aldiss was British science fiction author. Explore interesting quotes on life.
Brian W. Aldiss: 232   quotes 14   likes

“There have been mechanicals on the market with mini-computers for brains — plastic things without life, super-toys — but we have at last found a way to link computer circuitry with synthetic flesh.”

Brian W. Aldiss book Super-Toys Last All Summer Long

Super-Toys Last All Summer Long (1969)

Life , Way

“Synthetic life-forms were less than ten years old, the old android mechanicals less than sixteen; the faults of their systems were still being ironed out, year by year.”

Brian W. Aldiss book Super-Toys Last All Summer Long

Super-Toys Last All Summer Long (1969)

Life

“The hardship of it was a pleasure. Life was a pleasure; he looked back at its moments, many of them as shrouded in mist as the opposite bank of the Thames. Objectively, many of them held only misery, fear, confusion; but afterward, and even at the time, he had known an exhilaration stronger than the misery, fear, or confusion. A fragment of belief came to him from another epoch: Cogito ergo sum. For him that had not been true; his truth had been: Sentio ergo sum. I feel, so I exist. He enjoyed this fearful, miserable, confused life, and not only because it made more sense than nonlife. He could never explain that to anyone.”

Brian W. Aldiss book Greybeard

Source: Greybeard (1964), Chapter 3 “The River: Swifford Fair” (p. 75)

Life , Pleasure , Truth , Fear

“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)

Life , Stupidity , Law

“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)

Life

“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)

Life , Housing

“You see life as a contrast between misery and pleasure, Jon; that is not a correct interpretation.”
“It’s a pretty good rule of thumb, I should have thought.”
“Thought and non-thought is the only valid line of comparison.”
“Bit of a bird’s-eye view, isn’t it? That puts us on the same level as the proles.”

Brian W. Aldiss

“Exactly.”
“Man on Bridge” p. 89
Short fiction, Who Can Replace a Man? (1965)

Life , Pleasure , Bird

“He had the settled expression of a certain kind of peasant—the kind that accepts, with protest but without malice, the vagaries of life. It is the gift life sends to compensate for the lack of a high I. Q.”

Brian W. Aldiss

“Man on Bridge” pp. 90-91
Short fiction, Who Can Replace a Man? (1965)

Life

“Sounds to me as if you want journalists,” Timberlane said.
“No, sir, we require steady men with integrity. This is not a scoop, it’s a way of life.”

Brian W. Aldiss book Greybeard

Source: Greybeard (1964), Chapter 4 (p. 115)

Life , Men , Way

“All over the world there must be far-reaching changes in animal behavior and habitat; if only one could have another life in which to chart it all…. Ah, well, that’s not a fruitful thing to wish, is it?”

Brian W. Aldiss book Greybeard

Source: Greybeard (1964), Chapter 5 “The River: Oxford” (p. 147)

Life , World , Behavior , Change

“A later generation could have explained the miracle to Sir Frank — though explaining in terms he would not have understood. Though he knew well enough the theory of family traits and likenesses, it would have been impossible then to make him comprehend the intricacy of a chromosome which carries inside it — not merely the stereotypes of parental hair or temperament — but the secret knowledge of how to breathe, how to work the muscles to move the bones, how to grow, how to remember, how to commence the processes of thought … all the infinite number of secret "how to's" that have to be passed on for life to stay above jelly level.
A freak chromosome in Sir Frank ensured he passed on, together with these usual secrets, the secret of his individual consciousness.”

Brian W. Aldiss

Let's Be Frank (1957)

Life , Secret , Family , Knowledge

“To be a standard shape is not all in life. To know is also important.”

Brian W. Aldiss book Hothouse

Source: Hothouse (1962), Chapter 5

Life