79+ Larry Niven Quotes On God, Universe And Bible

Larry Niven was an American science fiction writer. He is best known for his stories set in the Known Space universe, which includes the Ringworld series. His work has been nominated for multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, and he has won the Nebula Award for Best Novelette and the Hugo Award for Best Short Story. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Larry Niven on life, love, god.

Top 10 Larry Niven Quotes

1. Ethics change with technology.
2. SF isn't a genre; SF is the matrix in which genres are embedded, and because the SF field is never going in any one direction at any one time, there is hardly a way to cut it off.
3. The human species really could have faced global thermonuclear war. During seventy years of Cold War we grew used to it.
4. In hindsight it may even seem inevitable that a socialist society will starve when it runs out of capitalists.
5. In the world of words the imagination is one of the forces of nature.
6. You learn by writing short stories. Keep writing short stories. The money's in novels, but writing short stories keeps your writing lean and pointed.
7. One mark of a good officer, he remembered, was the ability to make quick decisions. If they happen to be right, so much the better.
8. The Gods do not protect fools. Fools are protected by more capable fools.
9. It's very difficult for a black man to get out of South-Central Los Angeles, and get out civilized....The only men I know who have escaped, all began reading Robert Heinlein at age ten.
10. I'd visit the near future, close enough that someone might want to talk to Larry Niven and can figure out the language; distant enough to get me decent medical techniques and a ticket to the Moon.

Larry Niven Short Quotes

• I do suspect that privacy was a passing fad.
• Mother Nature doesn't care if you're having fun.
• Everything starts as somebody's day dream.
• Never fire a laser at a mirror.
• Anything beats an expensive stack of paper.
• In challenging a kzin, a simple scream of rage is sufficient. You scream and you leap.
• If one must explain a magic trick, one should do so after the show is over.
• Half of wisdom is learning what to unlearn.
• In general, I don't know when inspiration will pop up.
• I don't have a strong interest in history.

Larry Niven Quotes About Life

Boredom is my worst enemy. It's killed a lot of my friends, but it won't get me. When I get bored, I go risk my life somewhere. — Larry Niven

I've spent a lot of my life among people brighter than myself. — Larry Niven

But... watching Steven Barnes taught me to treat my life like an art form. — Larry Niven

Treat your life like something to be sculpted. — Larry Niven

Larry Niven Quotes About Love

Love was a delicious blend of warm and cold. There was comfort in making love. It solved no problems: but one could run away from problems. — Larry Niven

I'm not predicting; I just love playing with superconductors. — Larry Niven

I love superconductors. — Larry Niven

Larry Niven Quotes About Space

Once every hundred years, the Los Angeles smog rolls away for a single night, leaving the air as clean as interstellar space. That way the gods can see if Los Angeles is still there. If it is, they roll the smog back so they won't have to look at it. — Larry Niven

The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn't have a space program. — Larry Niven

The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn't have a space program. And if we become extinct because we don't have a space program, it'll serve us right! — Larry Niven

Building one space station for everyone was and is insane: we should have built a dozen. — Larry Niven

We should not have assumed that a political space station could be built. — Larry Niven

Larry Niven Quotes About Stories

The reader has certain rights. He bought your story. Think of this as an implicit contract. He's entitled to be entertained, instructed, amused; maybe all three. If he quits in the middle, or puts the book down feeling his time has been wasted, you're in violation. — Larry Niven

I've got five or six unpublished stories kicking around looking for somebody to buy them. — Larry Niven

And every friend I've got has been writing Mars stories. It was pretty clear I'd never catch up. — Larry Niven

The brightest minds in our field have been trying to find a definition of science fiction for these past seventy years. The short answer is, science fiction stories are given as possible, not necessarily here and now, but somewhere, sometime. — Larry Niven

Larry Niven Famous Quotes And Sayings

There were timelines branching and branching, a mega-universe of universes, millions more every minute. Billions? Trillions? The universe split every time someone made a decision. Split, so that every decision ever made could go both ways. Every choice made by every man, woman, and child was reversed in the universe next door. — Larry Niven

As for AIDS, it's a plague. We are human, we get plagues. They come along every so often, kill off two thirds of the population; in the next generation it's a quarter; after that it's a childhood disease. — Larry Niven

That's the thing about people who think they hate computers. What they really hate is lousy programmers. — Larry Niven

The Product of Freedom and Security is a constant (F X S = k). Giving up freedom for security is beginning to look naive. — Larry Niven

Bruce Sterling is one terrific writer and he's relatively new, but I don't know how long he's been doing it; he probably doesn't need the publicity anymore! — Larry Niven

I have a kind of psychic invisibility. As long as I can stay scared, I can keep people from seeing me. That's what we have to count on. — Larry Niven

I am trying to prevent a bloodbath. Is that clear enough for you? I'm trying to prevent a civil war that could kill half the people in this world. — Larry Niven

There is a technical, literary term for those who mistake the opinions and beliefs of characters in a novel for those of the author. The term is 'idiot'. — Larry Niven

The best advice I was ever given was on my twenty-first birthday when my father said, Son, here's a million dollars. Don't lose it. — Larry Niven

Sometimes there's no point in giving up. — Larry Niven

In a collaboration, each author will do 75% of the work. — Larry Niven

Consider the true picture. Think of myriads of tiny bubbles, very sparsely scattered, rising through a vast black sea. We rule some of the bubbles. Of the waters we know nothing. — Larry Niven

We need to take command of the solar system to gain that wealth, and to escape the sea of paper our government is becoming, and for some decent chance of stopping a Dinosaur Killer asteroid. — Larry Niven

I'd repair our education system or replace it with something that works. — Larry Niven

We learn only to ask more questions. — Larry Niven

The value of a thing is what that thing will bring. -Legal Maxim — Larry Niven

Never tell a computer to forget it. — Larry Niven

There is no cause so good or noble that it will not attract fuggheads; and the fuggheads will get all the press. — Larry Niven

A civilization has the ethics it can afford — Larry Niven

Anything you don't understand is dangerous until you do understand it. — Larry Niven

Species evolve to meet the environment. An intelligent species changes the environment to suit itself. As soon as a species becomes intelligent, it should stop evolving. — Larry Niven

Any damn fool can predict the past. — Larry Niven

Everything starts as somebody's daydream. — Larry Niven

The Unexpected always comes at the most awkward times. — Larry Niven

The perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum. — Larry Niven

Jesus Pietro wasn't used to dealing with ghosts. It would require brand new techniques. Grimly he set out to evolve them. — Larry Niven

We're looking as far ahead as we can, and we don't get penalized for mistakes. — Larry Niven

It is a cardinal sin to bore the reader. — Larry Niven

The majority is always sane. — Larry Niven

My problem with new writers is that it takes me five or six years to memorise the right names. — Larry Niven

Psi and/or magical powers, if real, are nearly useless. — Larry Niven

For each human being there is an optimum ratio between change and stasis. Too little change, he grows bored. Too little stability, he panics and loses his ability to adapt. One who marries six times in ten years won't change jobs. One who moves often to serve his company will maintain a stable marriage. A woman chained to one home and family may redecorate frantically or take a lover or go to many costume parties. — Larry Niven

How much intelligence does it take to sneak up on a leaf? — Larry Niven

Anything that can go wrong, will — Larry Niven

Never be embarrassed or ashamed by anything you choose to write. — Larry Niven

Stupidity is always a capital crime. — Larry Niven

I never got good at predicting what millions of people will suddenly decide is rational. — Larry Niven

Fear is the brother of hate. — Larry Niven

I do not believe they've run out of surprises. — Larry Niven

Hopeless causes are the only ones worth fighting for. The fight for the taxpayer is the most hopeless of them all. — Larry Niven

Intelligence is just a tool to be used toward a goal, and goals are not always chosen intelligently. — Larry Niven

The witnessing of titanic events is always dangerous, usually painful, and often fatal. — Larry Niven

Spray a book with insect spray, drop it in a bag, add some mothballs and seal it. Put it in another bag and seal it. Another. The packages piled up on the floor, each a book sealed in four plastic envelopes. — Larry Niven

Life Lessons by Larry Niven

1. Larry Niven's writing emphasizes the importance of taking risks and pushing boundaries in order to achieve success. He encourages readers to be resilient in the face of adversity, and to remain open to new experiences and opportunities.
2. Niven also emphasizes the importance of collaboration and teamwork in order to reach goals. He encourages readers to work together and share their knowledge and skills in order to reach their goals.
3. Finally, Niven emphasizes the importance of having a positive outlook and a sense of humor in order to cope with life's challenges. He encourages readers to stay optimistic and to find joy in the small moments of life.