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Alexei Panshin Quotes

Maturity is the ability to sort the portions of truth from the accepted lies and self-deceptions that you have grown up with.

Maturity is the ability to sort the portions of truth from the accepted lies and self-deceptions that you have grown up with.

Alexei Panshin
Lying, Maturity, Self
Alexei Panshin (1982). “Rite of passage”, Pocket

Population pressure is the ultimate cause of every war.

Alexei Panshin
War, Population, Pressure
Alexei Panshin (1982). “Rite of passage”, Pocket

Brains are no good if you don't use them.

Alexei Panshin
Brain, Use, Ifs
"Rite of Passage". Book by Alexei Panshin, 1968.

I finished by saying that it struck me that all the ethical systems I was discussing were after the fact. That is, that people act as they are disposed to, but they like to feel afterwards that they were right and so they invent systems that approve of their dispositions.

Alexei Panshin
People, Facts, Ethical
Alexei Panshin (1982). “Rite of passage”, Pocket

You can't stamp on people and not get hurt in return.

Alexei Panshin
Hurt, People, Return
Alexei Panshin (1982). “Rite of passage”, Pocket

It appears that the ground of being which underlies and sustains us despite our various inadequate and conflicting stories must be extremely tolerant, generous, and forgiving. All things considered, it wouldn't hurt if we were, too.

Alexei Panshin
Hurt, Forgiving, Stories

Some people get a feeling of power from being unpleasant.

Alexei Panshin
People, Feelings
Alexei Panshin, Leo Dillon, Diane Dillon (1968). “Rite of passage”

If I had the opportunity, I would make the proposal that no man should be killed except by somebody who knows him well enough for the act to have impact. No death should be like nose blowing. Death is important enough that it should affect the person who causes it.

Alexei Panshin
Opportunity, Men, Impact
Alexei Panshin, Leo Dillon, Diane Dillon (1968). “Rite of passage”

There's no reason to trade insults. We have our way of life and they have theirs. I wouldn't live as they do, but disrespect seems pointless. I'm sure there are good people among them.

Alexei Panshin
People, Disrespect, Way
Alexei Panshin (1982). “Rite of passage”, Pocket

Everybody should espouse three or four harmless crank theories for the pure pleasure of having something harmless to be cranky about. And when a theory of this sort proves correct, it is a true moment for celebration.

Alexei Panshin
Four, Three, Celebration

There is a lesson that I learned at twelve - the world does not end at the edge of a quad. There are people outside. The world does not end on the Fourth Level. There are people elsewhere. It took me two years to learn to apply the lesson - that neither does the world end with the Ship. If you want to accept life, you have to accept the whole bloody universe. The universe is filled with people, and there is not a single solitary spear carrier among them.

Alexei Panshin
Years, Two, People
Alexei Panshin (1982). “Rite of passage”, Pocket

This is what makes science so hard, and ultimately so fun. Think of the limits of what we know as a great suite of rooms inhabited by vast numbers of incredibly busy, incredibly messy, nearsighted people, all of whom are eccentric recluses.

Alexei Panshin
Fun, Thinking, Numbers

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