Gregory Benford quotes - page 3

I would have to look, try to find a bridge that would make plausible what I knew but could scarcely prove. The standards of science are austere, unforgiving-and who would have it differently? I would have to hedge, to take one step back for each two forward, to compare and suggest and contrast, always sticking close to the data. And despite what I thought I knew now, the data would have to lead, they would have to show the way. (Gregory Benford)
Hubris. They disliked questions unless there were clear answers. They believed so much in their method that they conjured up certainty out of undeniable risk. View quote
Gregory Benford
Thunder impresses, but it's lightning does the work. View quote
Gregory Benford
Archeology is mostly a process of making associations between objects, and every discovery opens up possible resonances with things we already have. Sometimes, simply wandering through a museum or a site can open your eyes. View quote
Gregory Benford
This was what never failed to stir her-the unfathomable gulf between today's thinking and the way the ancients thought. They were truly alien, not merely innocent agrarians with a foolish faith. View quote
Gregory Benford
In popularizing a scientific development it was always crucial to sail the narrow strait between the Scylla of professional contempt and the Charybdis of public befuddlement. View quote
Gregory Benford
Once introduced into this world, life would never leave-there was no end to the explosive, consuming, voracious lust of long chain molecules to link and match and make of themselves yet more and more and again more. View quote
Gregory Benford
There was something about such reflex stupidity that never failed to irritate him. View quote
Gregory Benford
A science fiction writer is-or should be-constrained by what is, or logically might be. That can mean simple fidelity to facts (which, in science, are always more important than theories-though Lord knows the two help shape each other, undermining the convenient, complacent separation of observer and observed). To me it also means heeding the authentic, the actual and concrete. Bad fiction uses the glossy generality; good writing needs the smattering of detail, the unrelenting busy mystery of the real. View quote
Gregory Benford
Maybe is not a theory, you know, it is merely maybe. View quote
Gregory Benford
Nothing could be sure it was itself the original. So the only intelligent course lay in enjoying whatever life a being felt-living like a mortal, in the moment. (Gregory Benford)
Still, Claire hated Charlotte Brontë's comment that she would have given all her talent to be beautiful. That condemned you always to play somebody else's game-and, when your looks failed-finally to lose. View quote
Gregory Benford
Major Sánchez grunted. "Nice word, ‘trivial.' Means you got it-cojones-you got no worry. If you don't-”. View quote
Gregory Benford
She stood up. "Professional? Ha! My father used to say, you have to be able to tell a tracheotomist from a cutthroat. Well, I can.”. View quote
Gregory Benford
If you were damned certain you weren't looking for something, there was a very good chance you wouldn't see it. View quote
Gregory Benford
She always dressed well, but he recognized the signs of insecurity; certitude was inversely proportional to the amount of makeup. View quote
Gregory Benford
Somehow to them, the press was always the judge of things scientific. View quote
Gregory Benford
Only fools get to join. View quote
Gregory Benford
Marches don't stop markets. View quote
Gregory Benford
Schools praised diversity but were culturally the same. Different skin color, same opinions. View quote
Gregory Benford
Science is about continuity of ideas, a web of connections. (Gregory Benford)
I started out with nothing and still have most of it left. View quote
Gregory Benford
She could not understand why people feared new ideas. She was frightened by the old ones. View quote
Gregory Benford
Wars don't determine who's right, only who's left. View quote
Gregory Benford
When you have a Ph. D., you call them hypotheses, not guesses. View quote
Gregory Benford