Quotes from book
More Than Human

Name: More Than Human
Author: Theodore Sturgeon

More Than Human is a 1953 science fiction novel by American writer Theodore Sturgeon. It is a revision and expansion of his previously published novella Baby is Three, which is bracketed by two additional parts written for the novel .

“There’s this about a farm: when the market’s good there’s money, and when it’s bad there’s food.”

Theodore Sturgeon book More Than Human

Source: More Than Human (1953), Chapter 1, p. 34

“So it was that Lone came to know himself; and like the handful of people who have done so before him he found, at this pinnacle, the rugged foot of a mountain.”

Theodore Sturgeon book More Than Human

Source: More Than Human (1953), Chapter 1, p. 60

“The most human thing about anyone is a thing he learns and … and earns. It’s a thing he can’t have when he’s very young; if he gets it at all, he gets it after a long search and a deep conviction. After that it’s truly part of him as long as he lives.”

Theodore Sturgeon book More Than Human

Source: More Than Human (1953), Chapter 3, p. 184

“Here, too, was the guide, the beacon, for such times as humanity might be in danger; here was the Guardian of Whom all humans knew — not an exterior force, nor an awesome Watcher in the sky, but a laughing thing with a human heart and a reverence for its human origins, smelling of sweat and new-turned earth rather than suffused with the pale odor of sanctity.”

Theodore Sturgeon book More Than Human

Source: More Than Human (1953), Chapter 3, p. 186

“Logic and truth are two very different things, but they often look the same to the mind that’s performing the logic.”

Theodore Sturgeon book More Than Human

Source: More Than Human (1953), Chapter 2, p. 97

“Do you know what morals are? Morals are an obedience to rules that people laid down to help you live among them.”

Theodore Sturgeon book More Than Human

Source: More Than Human (1953), Chapter 3, p. 181

“Morals: They’re nothing but a coded survival instinct!”

Theodore Sturgeon book More Than Human

Source: More Than Human (1953), Chapter 3, p. 175

“Reality isn’t the most pleasant of atmospheres, Lieutenant. But we like to think we’re engineered for it. It’s a pretty fine piece of engineering, the kind an engineer can respect. Drag in an obsession and reality can’t tolerate it. Something has to give; if reality goes, your fine piece of engineering is left with nothing to operate on. So it operates badly. So kick the obsession out; start functioning the way you were designed to function.”

Theodore Sturgeon book More Than Human

Source: More Than Human (1953), Chapter 3 “Morality”, p. 146

“An ethic isn’t a fact you can look up. It’s a way of thinking.”

Theodore Sturgeon book More Than Human

Source: More Than Human (1953), Chapter 3, p. 183

“Love’s a different sort of thing, hot enough to make you flow into something, interflow, cool and anneal and be a weld stronger than what you started with.”

Theodore Sturgeon book More Than Human

Source: More Than Human (1953), Chapter 3, p. 169

“We don’t believe anything we don’t want to believe.”

Theodore Sturgeon book More Than Human

Source: More Than Human (1953), Chapter 2 “Baby is Three”, p. 94
Context: That’s fairly common. We don’t believe anything we don’t want to believe.

“The idiot heard the sounds, but they had no meaning for him.”

Theodore Sturgeon book More Than Human

Source: More Than Human (1953), Chapter 1 “The Fabulous Idiot”, p. 1
Context: The idiot heard the sounds, but they had no meaning for him. He lived inside somewhere, apart, and the little link between word and significance hung broken.