Alfred Bester Quotes

One of the things that everybody knows about space travel but never mentions is its aphrodisiac quality.

Be grateful that you only see the outward man. Be grateful that you never see the passions, the hatreds, the jealousies, the malice, the sicknesses... Be grateful you rarely see the frightening truth in people.

The mind is the reality. You are what you think.

Gully Foyle is my name And Terra is my nation Deep space is my dwelling place The stars my destination

Don't ask the world to stop moving because you have doubts.

Millions for nonsense, but not one cent for entropy.

Faith in faith' he answered himself. 'It isn't necessary to have something to believe in. It's only necessary to believe that somewhere there's something worthy of belief

"There's got to be more to life than just living," Foyle said to the robot. "Then find it for yourself, sir. Don't ask the world to stop moving because you have doubts." "Why can't we all move forward together?" "Because you're all different. You're not lemmings. Some must lead, and hope that the rest will follow." "Who leads?" "The men who must... driven men, compelled men." "Freak men." "You're all freaks, sir. But you always have been freaks. Life is a freak. That's its hope and glory."

I'm a great believer in people and their untapped potential.

This was a Golden Age, a time of high adventure, rich living and hard dying... but nobody thought so. This was a future of fortune and theft, pillage and rapine, culture and vice... but nobody admitted it. This was an age of extremes, a fascinating century of freaks... but nobody loved it.

Most science fiction, quite frankly, is silly nonsense.

Life is a freak. That’s its hope and glory.

The man who gives his own decisions priority over society is a criminal.

The appeal of science fiction has always been its iconoclasm . . . But in order to be an iconoclast, an author must be more than merely aware of the idol he wishes to destroy. He must be intimate with it and understand it in all its aspects. This means that he must have devoted serious thought to it, and have beliefs of his own which will stand up in the place of the broken idol. In other words, any child can complain, but it takes an adult to clash with accepted beliefs . . . an adult with ideas.

The whole point of extravagance is to act like a fool and feel like a fool, but enjoy it.

This was an age of extremes, a fascinating century of freaks... but nobody loved it.

We always do what's natural, only sometimes we shouldn't do it.

I'm not much interested in extrapolating science and technology; I merely use extrapolation as a means of putting people into new quandaries which produce colorful pressures and conflicts.

It's been suggested that most women fail to write significantly because the female mind is viscerotonic, and occupied almost exclusively with the moment-to-moment reality of emotions. If this is true, literature's loss is science fiction's gain, for Out of Bounds, Judith Merril's collection of short stories, is a warm and colorful rendering of the minutiae of the future.

If you can have everything at fifty that you wanted when you were fifteen, you're happy.

Intellect is the ability to avoid belaboring the obvious.

Tenser, said the Tensor. Tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun.

You pigs, you. You rut like pigs, is all. You got the most in you, and you use the least. You hear me, you? Got a million in you and spend pennies. Got a genius in you and think crazies. Got a heart in you and feel empties. All a you. Every you.

That's me," he said, motioning to the robot. "That's all of us. We prattle about free will, but we're nothing but response...mechanical reaction in prescribed grooves.

I challenge you, me. Die or live and be great.