#idea

Science fiction is a dialogue, a tennis match, in which the Idea is volleyed from one side of the net to the other. Ridiculous to say that someone 'stole' an idea: no, no, a thousand times no. The point is the volley, and how it's carried, and what statement is made by the answering 'statement.' In other words — if Burroughs initiates a time-gate and says it works randomly, and then Norton has time gates confounded with the Perilous Seat, the Siege Perilous of the Round Table, and locates it in a bar on a rainy night — do you see both the humor and the volley in the tennis match? ↗

— C.J. Cherryh

#science-fiction #tennis #writing #science

Some false representations contravene the law; some do not. ... The sensibilities of no two men are the same. Some would refuse to sell property without carefully explaining all about its merits and defects, and putting themselves in the purchasers' place and inquiring if he himself would buy under the circumstances. But such men never would be prosperous merchants. ↗

— Clarence Darrow

#honesty #idealistic #moral-clarity #success #successful

When things get too complicated, it sometimes makes sense to stop and wonder: Have I asked the right question? ↗

— Enrico Bombieri

#inventions #math #perspective #science #science

Some ideas are not born of logic and good sense. They are made of clouds and cobwebs. They sprout from nowhere and feed on excitement, sprinkled with adventure juice and the sweet flavor of the forbidden. The psyche moves from the realms of the ordinary and takes a delicate step towards the unknown. We know we shouldn't and that is exactly why we do. ↗

— Brigid Lowry

#ideas #logic #why-we-do #logic

Because if we were all created idealists, then life was bound to be one relentless disappointment. But then, there was also music. We unlearned the lies with one hand and repeated them with the other. ↗

— Nikolai Grozni

#lies #life

Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea for ever. ↗

— Will Self

#journals #memory #notebook #writing #information

Jesus--if Kilgore Trout could only write!" Rosewater exclaimed. He had a point: Kilgore Trout's unpopularity was deserved. His prose was frightful. Only his ideas were good. ↗

— Kurt Vonnegut

#thought-experiments #writing-craft #experience

Whatever their future, at the dawn of their lives, men seek a noble vision of man's nature and of life's potential. ↗

— Ayn Rand

#philosophy #life

In my brain were stored a thousand pictures. ↗

— Hermann Hesse

#life-of-the-mind #thoughts #life

We tend to take whatever’s worked in our particular set of circumstances (big family, small family, AP, Ezzo, home school, public school) and project that upon everyone else in the world as the ideal. ↗

— Rachel Held Evans

#parenting #projection #family