Quotes from book
Timescape

Timescape

Timescape is a 1980 science fiction novel by American writer Gregory Benford . It won the 1981 Nebula and 1980 British Science Fiction Award, and the 1981 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. It won the 1981 Ditmar Award for Best International Fiction. The novel was widely hailed by both critics of science fiction and mainstream literature for its fusion of detailed character development and interpersonal drama with more standard science fiction fare such as time travel and ecological issues.Pocket Books used the title of this book for their science fiction imprint.


Gregory Benford photo
Gregory Benford photo

“(Crank theories) always violated the first rule of a scientific model: they were uncheckable.”

Gregory Benford book Timescape

Source: Timescape (1980), Chapter 17 (p. 235)

Gregory Benford photo

“No matter how much you plan for it, the real thing seems curiously, well, unreal.”

Gregory Benford book Timescape

Source: Timescape (1980), Chapter 37 (p. 395)

Gregory Benford photo

“To shine is better than to reflect.”

Gregory Benford book Timescape

Source: Timescape (1980), Chapter 16 (p. 220)

Gregory Benford photo
Gregory Benford photo

“Religions do not teach doubt.”

Gregory Benford book Timescape

Source: Timescape (1980), Chapter 27 (p. 322)

Gregory Benford photo
Gregory Benford photo

“The personal was, compared with the tides of great nations, a bothersome detail.”

Gregory Benford book Timescape

Source: Timescape (1980), Chapter 43 (p. 441)

Gregory Benford photo
Gregory Benford photo

““Free will again,” Cathy said.
“Or free won’t,” Peterson said mildly.”

Gregory Benford book Timescape

Source: Timescape (1980), Chapter 23 (p. 291)

Gregory Benford photo
Gregory Benford photo

““The peers just fill the air with their speeches.”
“And from what I've seen, vice versa.””

Gregory Benford book Timescape

Source: Timescape (1980), Chapter 5 (p. 46)

Gregory Benford photo

“At least being prosperous set one apart in England; here it guaranteed nothing, not even taste.”

Gregory Benford book Timescape

Source: Timescape (1980), Chapter 11 (p. 134, concerning the USA)

Gregory Benford photo

“Modern economics and the welfare state borrowed heavily on the future.”

Gregory Benford book Timescape

Source: Timescape (1980), Chapter 43 (p. 445)

Gregory Benford photo

“There was something about such reflex stupidity that never failed to irritate him.”

Gregory Benford book Timescape

Source: Timescape (1980), Chapter 17 (p. 231)

Gregory Benford photo

“They will do anything for the worker, except become one.”

Gregory Benford book Timescape

Source: Timescape (1980), Chapter 5 (p. 46, concerning the peers)

Gregory Benford photo
Gregory Benford photo
Gregory Benford photo

“Somehow to them, the press was always the judge of things scientific.”

Gregory Benford book Timescape

Source: Timescape (1980), Chapter 17 (p. 236, concerning cranks)

Gregory Benford photo

“Deep ignorance, but still a kind that knew its limits. The limits were crucial.”

Gregory Benford book Timescape

Source: Timescape (1980), Chapter 31 (p. 360)
Context: You had to form for yourself a lucid language for the world, to overcome the battering of experience, to replace everyday life’s pain and harshness and wretched dreariness with — no not with certainty but with an ignorance you could live with. Deep ignorance, but still a kind that knew its limits. The limits were crucial.

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