Larry Niven: Trending quotes

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Larry Niven: 276 quotes3 likes

“Sometimes there’s no point in giving up.”

Larry Niven book The Ringworld Engineers

Source: The Ringworld Engineers (1980), p. 282

“Putting a monkey wrench in machinery is often the only way to force somebody to repair, replace, or redesign the machinery. Especially legal or social machinery.”

Larry Niven book World of Ptavvs

Source: World of Ptavvs (1966), p. 97

“In a universe the size of ours almost anything that can happen, will.”

There Is a Tide (p. 201)
Short fiction, Tales of Known Space (1975)

“God was knocking, and he wanted in bad.”

Describing the sound inside a spacecraft propelled by nuclear explosions, in Footfall (1986)

“Doctor, you keep asking me to see your point of view, which is based on ethics. You never see mine, which isn’t.”

Larry Niven book The Mote in God's Eye

Source: The Mote in God's Eye (1974), Chapter 53 “The Djinn” (p. 516; spoken by a politician to a scientist)

“19) Think before you make the coward's choice. Old age is not for sissies.”

Niven's Laws

“The majority is always sane.”

Source: Ringworld (1970), p. 177

“1) Writers who write for other writers should write letters.”

Niven's Laws, Niven's Laws For Writers

“"You look like a girl with a secret," Matt said. "I think it must be the smile."
She moved closer to him, which was very close, and lowered her voice. "Can you keep a secret?"
Matt smiled with one side of his mouth to show that he knew what was coming. She said it anyway. "So can I."”

Source: A Gift From Earth (1968), Ch. 2 : The Sons Of Earth

“Peace isn’t a stable condition, not for us. Maybe not for anything that lives.”

The Warriors (p. 151)
Short fiction, Tales of Known Space (1975)

“The morning was blacker than the inside of a smoker’s lungs.”

Becalmed in Hell (p. 16)
Short fiction, Tales of Known Space (1975)

“Matthew Leiah Keller sat beneath a watershed tree and brooded. Other children played all around him, but they ignored Matt. So did two teachers on monitor duty. People usually ignored Matt when he wanted to be alone.
Uncle Matt was gone. Gone to a fate so horrible that the adults wouldn't even talk about it.”

Source: A Gift From Earth (1968), Ch. 1 : The Ramrobot

“A thrint was master over every intelligent beast. This was the Powergiver’s primal decree, made before he made the stars. So said all of the twelve thrintun religions, though they fought insanely over other matters.”

Larry Niven book World of Ptavvs

Source: World of Ptavvs (1966), p. 85

““Do you play games of chance?”
“Emphatically yes. The process of living is a game of chance. To avoid chance is insanity.””

There Is a Tide (p. 206)
Short fiction, Tales of Known Space (1975)

“Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.”

Anonymous saying, this is an inversion of the third of Arthur C. Clarke's three laws : "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." It has been attributed to Niven, and even called "Niven's Law" by some, and to Terry Pratchett by others, but without any citation of an original source in either case, and the earliest occurrence yet located is in Keystone Folklore (1984) by the Pennsylvania Folklore Society.
Misattributed

“8) History never repeats itself.”

Niven's Laws

“It does not destroy matter, which is reassuring. Rewriting one law of physics is worse than trying to eat one peanut.”

Larry Niven book World of Ptavvs

Source: World of Ptavvs (1966), p. 40

“There’s always another problem behind the one you just solved. Does that mean that you should stop solving problems?”

Larry Niven book Flash Crowd

Flash Crowd, section 7, in Three Trips in Time and Space (1973), edited by Robert Silverberg, p. 65

“Seen through the glow of a building orgasm, a woman seems to blaze with angelic glory.”

Source: Ringworld (1970), p. 165

“I asked him, “Do you know the difference between nude and naked?”
He shook his head.
“Nude is artistic. Naked is defenseless.””

Cloak of Anarchy (p. 124)
Short fiction, Tales of Known Space (1975)