Quote

Boundaries have no existence save on charts or in small minds. Nature does not draw lines.

Jack McDevitt

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Jack McDevitt
Age: 89
Born: 1935
Born: April 14
Author
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
Mind
Draws
Save
Minds
Lines
Small
Existence
Charts
Nature
Boundaries
Doe
Draw

More quotes by Jack McDevitt

Image
Idiots are not responsible for what they do. The real guilt falls on rational people who sit on their hands while morons run wild. You can opt out if you want to. Play it safe. But if you do, don't complain when the roof comes down.
Jack McDevitt
Image
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.
Jack McDevitt
Image
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.
Jack McDevitt
Image
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
Image
Life is a walk in the fog. Most people don't know that. They're fooled by the sunlight into thinking they can see what's ahead. But it's the reason they are forever getting lost or falling into ditches or committing matrimony.
Jack McDevitt
Image
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.
Jack McDevitt
Image
Katie commented that Americans had lost the ability to enjoy themselves. We watch television, Dave said.
Jack McDevitt
Image
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
Image
... the truth is that when your people don't tell you what you need to know, it's a failure of leadership.
Jack McDevitt
Image
Solitude is only a good idea if you have the right people along to share it.
Jack McDevitt
Image
When things go wrong, the standard management strategy is to decide who takes the blame. This should be an underling, as far down the chain as possible, but preferably with some visibility so people know management means business.
Jack McDevitt
Image
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.
Jack McDevitt
Image
If you're paying attention to your wardrobe, Rudy believed, your mind isn't sufficiently occupied.
Jack McDevitt
Image
Man has always seen himself the peak of creation. The part of the universe that thinks. The purpose for it all. It's no doubt a gratifying view, but the universe may have a different opinion.
Jack McDevitt
Image
If you want creative and successful children, resign yourself to jousting with rebels.
Jack McDevitt
Image
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
Image
So we have progressed to the point where we can move politicians around faster than light. I'm not sure I see the advantage.
Jack McDevitt
Image
Intelligence is like pornography. I can't define it, but I know if when I see it.
Jack McDevitt
Image
Of course, they (i. e., demons) had always been observed with some regularity, but that could usually be ascribed to an overabundance of piety or wine or imagination. Take your pick.
Jack McDevitt
Image
Sometimes the cost of integrity is the loss of a friend.
Jack McDevitt