“They’ve heard about space but they still don’t believe in it.”

—  Fritz Leiber, book The Wanderer

Source: The Wanderer (1964), Chapter 6 (p. 37).
Context: They’ve heard about space but they still don’t believe in it. They haven’t been out here to see for themselves that there isn’t any giant elephant under the earth, holding it up, and a giant tortoise holding up the elephant. If I say “planet” and “spaceship” to them, they still think “horoscope” and “flying saucer”.

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 "They’ve heard about space but they still don’t believe in it." by Fritz Leiber?
Fritz Leiber photo
Fritz Leiber67
American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction 1910–1992

Related quotes

Patrick Rothfuss photo

“I’d heard you were dead.”
"I heard you wear a red lace corset,” I said matter-of-factly. “But I don’t believe every bit of nonsense that gets rumored about.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

“They’ve got a kind of committee there,” he had said, “an office. Acceptable Doctrine, it’s called. Everyone on the committee is mostly concerned about what people believe. They’re running things, too; don’t let them tell you they aren’t. Truth doesn’t enter in. If they’ve decided something is doctrine, they’ll ignore all evidence to the contrary and lie to your face. You don’t want to run afoul of those types, do you? Not if you have questions to ask. No.”

Sheri S. Tepper book Grass

Source: Grass (1989), Chapter 10 (p. 191)

George Graham photo

“Every time I turn on the television and hear a manager from the lower divisions, they’ve usually got a Scottish accent. I don’t know the reason for that but let’s hope it continues. I like the philosophy of Scottish managers, they’ve always got this will to win and this work ethic, which I believe in.”

George Graham (1944) Scottish footballer

Interview, Sport.co.uk, 14 January 2011

Nicholas Sparks photo

“Believe me, I'm no romantic, and while I've heard all about love at first sight, I've never believed in it, and I still don't. But even so, there was something there, something recognizably real, and I couldn't look away.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

Elfriede Jelinek photo

“Intellectuals will still go on emphasizing free will even when they’ve got nothing left to eat.”

Elfriede Jelinek book Wonderful, Wonderful Times

62
Wonderful, Wonderful Times (1990)

“If I think about what life is, I believe life is a miracle. And if I think about what a miracle is, I don’t believe in it.”

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

Voces (1943)

Donald J. Trump photo

“No, it’s crazy. Crazy! It’s a crazy deal. No, the fake news media, they’ve been trying to figure this out for years. They still don’t get it though. They don’t get it. Look at all of those cameras. Look at all of those cameras. That’s a lot of cameras. That’s a lot of cameras, Lindsey and Tim, that’s a lot of… They heard you guys were here. They heard Tim was here and that Lindsey was here and that… And they said, “We’re not going to attend that rally,” but when we heard those two guys plus our great congressmen, they’re here, great congressmen. But this is an incredible time for our nation. We’re thrilled to be in the midst of what we call the Great American Comeback and that’s what it is. Jobs are booming, incomes are soaring, factories are returning, poverty is plummeting, confidence is surging, and we have completely rebuilt the awesome power of the United States military. Our country is stronger than ever before.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

2020s, 2020, February, Donald Trump Charleston, South Carolina Rally (February 28, 2020)

Lee Smolin photo

“There are unfortunately not a few good professional physicists who still think about the world as if space and time had an absolute meaning.”

Lee Smolin book Three Roads to Quantum Gravity

Three Roads to Quantum Gravity (2000)

Jerry Coyne photo

“The question to ask believers is this: “Does it really matter whether what you believe about God is true—or don’t you care?””

Jerry Coyne (1949) American biologist

If it does matter, then you must justify your beliefs; if it doesn’t, then you must justify belief itself.
Source: Faith vs. Fact (2015), p. 63

Édouard Louis photo

“Since the rape, it has felt like I’ve faced an unimaginable battering – first in going to the police, being in front of officers who don’t understand you. Then when you say it publicly, there are people who don’t believe you, who mock you. Or there are people who believe it but say it’s your own fault. Before this, I had heard a lot of women talking about the fact they weren’t believed. And when History of Violence was published, I realised the full extent of what those women had gone through.”

Édouard Louis (1992) French writer

On the aftermath of being sexual assaulted and his book History of Violence in “Édouard Louis: 'I want to be a writer of violence. The more you talk about it, the more you can undo it'” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/09/edouard-louis-i-want-to-be-a-writer-of-violence-the-more-you-talk-about-it-the-more-you-can-undo-it in The Guardian (2018 Jun 9)

Related topics