John Brunner
John Brunner
stress kind share
Extremism. It is an almost infallible sign — a kind of death-rattle — when a human institution is forced by its members into stressing those and only those factors which are identificatory, at the expense of others which it necessarily shares with competing institutions because human beings belong to all of them.
eye cynical pay
"Pay him what was promised", said the caliph. "And put out his eyes."
firsts machines use
First you use machines, then you wear machines, and then ...? Then you serve machines.
trouble excuse explaining
Don't bother explaining--I've heard all the excuses and the trouble is most of them are true.
labels
I'm myself, not a label.
mind excellence different
As its best, SF is the medium in which our miserable certainty that tomorrow will be different from today in ways we cant predict, can be transmuted to a sense of excitement and anticipation, occasionally evolving into awe. Poised between intransigent scepticism and uncritical credulity, it is par excellence the literature of the open mind.
hate people dangerous
People who hate in concrete terms are dangerous. People who manage to hate only in abstracts are the ones worth having for your friends.
technology zanzibar buttons
It's supposed to be automatic, but actually you have to push this button.
mind want facts
It's not because my mind is made up that I don't want you to confuse me with any more facts. It's because my mind isn't made up. I already have more facts than I can cope with.
change two fool
There are two kinds of fools. One says, "This is old, and therefore good." And one says, " This is new, and therefore better.
teaching learning slow-down
To go faster you must slow down.
evil phenomenon humans
If there is such a phenomenon as absolute evil, it consists in treating another human being as a thing.
running powerful airplane
We've been slaves to our tools since the first caveman made the first knife to help him get his supper. After that there was no going back, and we built till our machines were ten million times more powerful than ourselves. We gave ourselves cars when we might have learned to run; we made airplanes when we might have grown wings; and then the inevitable. We made a machine our God.