James Blish: Making

James Blish was American author. Explore interesting quotes on making.

James Blish: 60 quotes0 likes

““Your concept is a tremendous network of inconsistencies.”
“In what way?” the countess said, not very much interested.
“It seems to be based on reverence for the young, and an extremely patient and protective attitude toward their physical and mental welfare. Yet you make them live in these huge caves, utterly out of contact with the natural world, and you teach them to be afraid of death—which of course makes them a little insane, because there is nothing anybody can do about death. It is like teaching them to be afraid of the second law of thermodynamics, just because living matter sets that law aside for a very brief period.”

James Blish book A Case of Conscience

Source: A Case of Conscience (1958), Chapter 12 (pp. 149-150)

“Now that I'm a free agent I mean to make my own choices, and explain them to nobody if that’s what pleases me.”

James Blish book A Case of Conscience

Source: A Case of Conscience (1958), Chapter 17 (p. 206)

“No exercise of will can make any of us other than what we are, or more than marginally better than who we are.”

James Blish book The Quincunx of Time

Source: The Quincunx of Time (1973), Chapter 10, “Weinbaum on Sinai” (pp. 118-119)