Gordon R. Dickson Quotes & Sayings

For sooner or later, no matter what fantastic long-range weapons you mounted, the ground itself had to be taken - and for that there had never been anything but the man in the ranks. — Gordon R. Dickson

the faithholder is his faith. He and it make, not two, but a single thing. Since he and it are one, there's no way to take it from him. That makes him a very powerful opponent. In fact, it makes him an unconquerable opponent; since even death can't touch him in his most important part. — Gordon R. Dickson

The trick with modern warfare was not to outgun the enemy, but carry weapons he could not gimmick. — Gordon R. Dickson

Live today as if it was ur last and don't ever say it is impossible cos nothing great was achieved with ease — Gordon R. Dickson

Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage among his books. For to you kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned with the flick of a finger. — Gordon R. Dickson

Man with a crossbow in the proper position at the proper time's worth a corps of heavy artillery half an hour late and ten miles down the road from where it should be. — Gordon R. Dickson

Why should there be some sort of virtue always attributed to a frank admission of vice? — Gordon R. Dickson

A camel is a horse designed by a committee and a committee's a sweet running piece of machinery compared to any government. — Gordon R. Dickson

More blood's been spilled by the militant adherents of prophets of change than by any other group of people down through the history of man. — Gordon R. Dickson

Facing facts is definitely preferable to facing defeat. — Gordon R. Dickson

There was more to modern mining than logic. The best engineers had feel. It was a sensitivity born of experience, of talent, and even of something like love, with which they commanded, not only the mountains, but the machine they rode and directed. Now this too was added to the list of man's endeavors for which some special talent was needed. — Gordon R. Dickson

They are fools that think that wealth or women or strong drink or even drugs can buy the most in effort out of the soul of a man. These things offer pale pleasures compared to that which is greatest of them all, that task which demands from him more than his utmost strength, that absorbs him, bone and sinew and brain and hope and fear and dreams
and still calls for more. — Gordon R. Dickson

John Le Carre said that authenticity is less important than plausibility. — Gordon R. Dickson

We're painted savages, nothing more, in spite of what we like to think of as some thousands of years of civilization. Only our present paint's called clothing and our caves called buildings — Gordon R. Dickson

Unrivalled not only in its class, but in a class by itself. — Gordon R. Dickson

A faith-holder puts himself below his faith and lets it guide his actions. The fanatic puts himself above it and uses it as an excuse for his actions. — Gordon R. Dickson

I'm not an expert," said Cletus. "I'm a scholar. There's a difference. An expert's a man who knows a great deal about his subject. A scholar's someone who knows all there is that's available to be known about it. — Gordon R. Dickson

Now our world is at the present time firmly in the grip of a mechanical monster, whose head - if you want to call it that - is the World Engineer's Complex. That monster is opposed to us and can keep all too good a tab on us through every purchase we make with our credit numbers, every time we use the public transportation or eat a meal or rent a place to live. — Gordon R. Dickson

Some people like my advice so much that they frame it upon the wall instead of using it. — Gordon R. Dickson

Suppose it was even as you think," he went on, even more gently. "Suppose that all you say was a fact, and that our Elders were but greedy tyrants, ourselves abandoned here by their selfish will and set to fulfill a false and prideful purpose. No." Jamethon's voice rose. "Let me attest as if it were only for myself. Suppose that you could give me proof that all our Elders lied, that our very Covenant was false. Suppose that you could prove to me" - his face lifted to mine and his voice drove at me - "that all was perversion and falsehood, and nowhere among the Chosen, not even in the house of my father, was there faith or hope! If you could prove to me that no miracle could save me, that no soul stood with me, and that opposed were all the legions of the universe, still I, I alone, Mr. Olyn, would go forward as I have been commanded, to the end of the universe, to the culmination of eternity. For without my faith I am but common earth. But with my faith, there is no power can stay me! — Gordon R. Dickson

I, wanderer, stand awaiting the signal. — Gordon R. Dickson

Sir Brian told him in fulsome scatological terms what he could do with his lineage. — Gordon R. Dickson