Gregory Benford Quotes

Fame is the accumulation of misunderstandings around a well-known name

Humans and animals regard each other across a gulf of mutual incomprehension. With aliens, that has to go double.

Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, is the reverse.

Civilization was a defense against nature’s raw power.

Between people long-married there is a diplomacy of the eyes

A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

In a tough situation, don't avoid acting just because it's easier or comfortable. Don't lapse into a passive state. People who give up, die.

Human life is a voyage on a sea of meaning, not a net of information.

But a lady forced is never a lady won

To be a leader meant that sometimes you had to look away from the pain

...the movies are most people's exposure to ideas about the future.

Redwing had read somewhere that one of his favourite writers, Ernest Hemingway, had been asked what was the best training for a novelist. He had said “an unhappy childhood.” Redwing had enjoyed a fine time growing up, but he wondered if this whole expedition was unfolding more like a novel, and would be blamed on one person, one character, the guy in charge: him. Maybe you got a happy childhood and then an unhappy adulthood, and that’s how novels worked.

I know that humans are fond of seeing their kind rendered in other media.