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The uplifters are forever running around telling blockheads they would do better if they would believe in themselves. But they already do. That is why they are blockheads.

Jack McDevitt

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Jack McDevitt
Age: 89
Born: 1935
Born: April 14
Author
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
Around
Better
Believe
Would
Blockheads
Telling
Already
Forever
Running

More quotes by Jack McDevitt

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Certain types of decisions can be safely ignored. Some issues will go away with the passage of time, others will be so slow developing that the decision-makers will depart before the results of their neglect becomes manifest. Which brings us to the environment.
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There are few professions whose primary objective is to advance the cause of humanity rather than simply to make money or accrue power. Among this limited group of humanitarians I would number teachers, nurses, bookstore owners, and bartenders.
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See what the world looks like from orbit. Well, in that way, at least, there was profit to be had. Nobody could look down at the planet, green and blue, with no borders in evidence and no sign of human habitation, and not get his perspective forever altered.
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Intelligence is like pornography. I can't define it, but I know if when I see it.
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Solitude is only a good idea if you have the right people along to share it.
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But, come to think of it, there was no need to wait. Time travelers don't have to wait for anybody.
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If you're paying attention to your wardrobe, Rudy believed, your mind isn't sufficiently occupied.
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... the truth is that when your people don't tell you what you need to know, it's a failure of leadership.
Jack McDevitt
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Tides are like politics. They come and go with a great deal of fuss and noise, but inevitably they leave the beach just as they found it. On those few occasions when major change does occur, it is rarely a good news.
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If you want creative and successful children, resign yourself to jousting with rebels.
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The problem is that too often the only people who can act don't want change. Power doesn't so much corrupt as it breeds conservatism.
Jack McDevitt
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Sometimes the cost of integrity is the loss of a friend.
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If you're right, and nobody really cares what's out there, I wonder whether we're even worth saving.
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The Peacekeepers had a tradition that every problem had a solution. It was a nice slogan. Wasn't true, but it sounded good.
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We could never know who we truly were until we heard the whispers of the stars.
Jack McDevitt
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So long as men and women are free, no one is safe. People will be in danger because others can't operate vehicles responsibly or shoot straight. Because physicians are sometimes incompetent and lawyers dishonest. But most of all they will be in danger from ideas. It is the price we willingly pay to be free. Nor would we have it any other way.
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Courage is perhaps our most admirable trait. The man, or woman, who possesses it is able to plunge ahead, despite dangers, despite warnings, despite hazards of all kinds, to attack the task at hand. Often, it is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Jack McDevitt
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So we have progressed to the point where we can move politicians around faster than light. I'm not sure I see the advantage.
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An optimist is somebody who thinks our various political and social systems, schools and churches, support groups and Boy Scout troops, jury trials and congressional committees, are on the up-and-up. That they are intended for the benefit of the members. The reality is that they are designed to keep everyone in line.
Jack McDevitt
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Faith is conviction without evidence, and sometimes even in the face of contrary evidence. In some quarters, this quality is perceived as a virtue.
Jack McDevitt