Poul Anderson: Man

“A fanatic is a man who, when he's lost sight of his purpose, redoubles his effort.”

Poul Anderson

Source: Harvest of Stars

Effort

“Man does not live by bread alone, nor guns, paperwork, theses, naked practicalities.”

Poul Anderson

Gibraltar Falls (p. 118)
Time Patrol

“She rarely saw priest—and knowing her heart sinned, was glad of that. Dreary was a church after the woodlands and hills and sounding sea. She still loved God—and was not the earth His work, and a church only man’s?—but she could not bring herself to call on Him very often.”

Poul Anderson book The Broken Sword

Source: The Broken Sword (1954), Chapter 24 (p. 174)

Love , God , Heart , Sea

““I think you look on death as your friend,” she murmured. “That is a strange friend for a young man to have.”
“The only faithful friend in this world,” he said. “Death is always sure to be at your side.””

Poul Anderson book The Broken Sword

Source: The Broken Sword (1954), Chapter 21 (p. 148)

Death , World , Faith , Thinking

““Your son was in your own tradition.”
“Better, I hope,” said the old man. “There would be little sense to existence, did boys have no chance to be more than their fathers.””

Poul Anderson book The Enemy Stars

Source: The Enemy Stars (1959), Chapter 18 (p. 150)

Hope , Boy , Sense , Chance

“If anything does change man,” he said, “it’s science and technology. Just think about the fact—while it lasts—that parents need not take for granted some of their babies will die. You get a completely different concept of what a child is.”

Poul Anderson book There Will Be Time

Source: There Will Be Time (1972), Chapter 6 (p. 60)

Thinking , Parent , Science , Change

“Be calm. A man can do but little. Enough if that little be right.”

Poul Anderson book There Will Be Time

Source: There Will Be Time (1972), Chapter 11 (p. 126)

“A man isn't really alive till he has something bigger than himself and his own little happiness, for which he'd gladly die.”

Poul Anderson

"Ghetto" (1954)
Short fiction

Happiness

“The city was breaking state and national laws every day—it had to—and the governor was outraged. He wanted to bring the whole state back under his own authority. It wasn’t an unreasonable wish, but the times weren’t ripe; and when they eventually were, the old forms of government would be no more important than the difference between Homoousian and Homoiousian. But it was going to take a lot of argument to convince the Albany man of that.”

Poul Anderson book Brain Wave

Source: Brain Wave (1954), Chapter 9 (p. 76)

Law , Time

“The old man murmured: “Aye, we draw to an end. Dying hurts. Nonetheless the forefathers were wise who in their myths made Nan coequal with Lesu. A thing which endured forever would become unendurable. Death opens a way, for peoples as well as for people.””

Poul Anderson book There Will Be Time

Source: There Will Be Time (1972), Chapter 11 (p. 124)

Death , People , Way , Hurt

“He’d seen too often how little of the universe is designed for man to neglect any safety measure.”

Poul Anderson book The Star Fox

Section 2 “Arsenal Port”, Chapter III (p. 93)
The Star Fox (1965)

Universe

“There really wasn’t much in a man’s life that mattered. But those few things mattered terribly.”

Poul Anderson book The Star Fox

Section 3 “Admiralty”, Chapter IX (p. 200)
The Star Fox (1965)

Life

“One man, one vote: A legal doctrine requiring that, from time to time, old gerrymanders be replaced with new ones. The object of this is the achievement of genuine democracy.”

Poul Anderson book There Will Be Time

Source: There Will Be Time (1972), Chapter 3 (p. 30)

Democracy , Time

“Keep on thinking. Keep your thinking close to the ground, where it belongs. Don’t ever trade your liberty for another man’s offer to do your thinking and make your mistakes for you.”

Poul Anderson book Brain Wave

Source: Brain Wave (1954), Chapter 3 (p. 25)

Thinking

“A cultured, sensitive, observant man is a pleasure to be with in any age.”

Poul Anderson book There Will Be Time

Source: There Will Be Time (1972), Chapter 9 (p. 97)

Pleasure , Age

“I don’t pretend to understand what the physicists mean by time, but for people, it isn’t so-and-so many measured units; it’s events, experiences. A man who crowds his life and dies young has lived longer than one who got old sitting in tame sameness.”

Poul Anderson book The Boat of a Million Years

Source: The Boat of a Million Years (1989), Chapter 19 “Thule”, Section 14 (p. 441)

Life , Time , People , Understanding

“Your Eminence is as great a man as I have ever met.”

Poul Anderson book The Boat of a Million Years

“Then God have mercy on humankind,” Richelieu replied.
Source: The Boat of a Million Years (1989), Chapter 11 “The Kitten and the Cardinal” (p. 207)

“You shall depart freely. Caution enjoins me to have you arrested and garroted within this hour. Either you are a charlatan and deserve it or a mortal danger and require it. However, I deem you a sensible man who will withdraw to his obscurity. And I am grateful to you for a fascinating glimpse of—what is best left alone.”

Poul Anderson book The Boat of a Million Years

Source: The Boat of a Million Years (1989), Chapter 11 “The Kitten and the Cardinal” (p. 205)