“Tell them the universe is too complicated a toy for a sensibly cautious being to play with.”

Source: Ringworld (1970), p. 314

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Tell them the universe is too complicated a toy for a sensibly cautious being to play with." by Larry Niven?

Larry Niven138

American writer 1938

Related quotes

“The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.”

Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) Indian lawyer, statesman, and writer, first Prime Minister of India

“We are now visiting and playing with several planets as a child plays with his toys.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Science talks about very simple things, and asks hard questions about them. As soon as things become too complex, science can't deal with them… But it's a complicated matter: Science studies what's at the edge of understanding, and what's at the edge of understanding is usually fairly simple. And it rarely reaches human affairs. Human affairs are way too complicated. In fact even understanding insects is an extremely complicated problem in the sciences. So the actual sciences tell us virtually nothing about human affairs.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Science in the Dock, Discussion with Noam Chomsky, Lawrence Krauss & Sean M. Carroll (2011), 2, Chomsky.info, March 1, 2006, August 16, 2011 http://www.chomsky.info/debates/20060301.htm, <br class="br">Quotes 2010s, 2011

“It’s not right. A human being is a human being. A human being is not a toy.”

Adam Roberts book Jack Glass: The Story of a Murderer

“We cannot help but use the people below us as a resource, my love,” said her two MOHmies, as one. “That is what it means to be in power. Your choice is to relinquish power forever, or to accept that and use people for good.”...
“If we are powerful,” sang her MOHmies, “we can make things better, but we are made unclean by the fact that we have power. If we are powerless we remain clean, but we cannot make things better.”
Part 2, Chapter 13, “Of Multitudes” (p. 240).
Jack Glass (2012)

“The last thing any sensible human being should want is immortality. As it is, life lasts too long for most of us.”

Joseph Heller book God Knows

God Knows (1984)

“You, poor child, without toys or playmates, you played murder, because it is a game that one can play alone.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Jupiter to Electra, Act 3
The Flies (1943)
Context: You are a tiny little girl, Electra. Other little girls dreamed of being the richest or the most beautiful women of all. And you, fascinated by the horrid destiny of your people, you wished to become the most pained and the most criminal … At your age, children still play with dolls and they play hopscotch. You, poor child, without toys or playmates, you played murder, because it is a game that one can play alone.