James Blish Quotes & Sayings

She was right. Peace was the way.
She was right. But at the wrong time. — James Blish

But now the shots began - not many, but one shot is a fusillade if there have been no shots before. — James Blish

I for one refuse to believe that an enterprise so well conceived, so scrupulously produced, and so widely loved can stay boneyarded for long.
And I have 1,898 letters from people who don't believe it either. — James Blish

The omelette tasted like flannel. — James Blish

Who does it hurt? That's who the story is about. — James Blish

The boundary between the real and the unreal had been let down in Foote's mind, and between the comings and goings of the cloud-shadows and the dark errands of the ghosts there was no longer any way of making a selection. He had entered the cobwebby borderland between the human and the animal, where nothing is ever more than half true, and only as much as half true for the moment.

("There Shall Be No Darkness") — James Blish

[T]he end cannot justify the means; but if there are no other means, and the end is necessary... — James Blish

Now that I'm a free agent I mean to make my own choices, and explain them to nobody if that's what pleases me. — James Blish

True, most of the people he had known personally were pleasant people who were far from short either of money or good will -- people who would not hesitate to help someone in trouble if they could, or thought they could. By the same token, most of the fiction he had read had been about fantastically selfish, unwashed people without a grain of human kindness even toward themselves, who seemed to be distracted from prolonged acts of suicide only to strike out at the people around them. Between the two, he struck a rough sort of balance. — James Blish

In retrospect, each of the steps toward this abyss seemed irrevocable, and yet they had all been so small! — James Blish

I will be the first. As of tonight, I renounce my citizenship in the United Nations, and my allegiance to the Shelter state. From now on I will be a citizen--a citizen of no country but that bounded by the limits of my own mind. I do not know what those limits are, and I may never find out, but I shall devote my life to searching for them, in whatever manner seems good to me, and in no other manner whatsoever.
You must do the same. Tear up your registration cards. If you are asked your serial number, tell them you never had one. Never fill in another form. Stay above ground when the siren sounds. Stake out plots; grow crops; abandon the corridors. Do not commit any violence; simply refuse to obey. Nobody has the. right to compel you, as non-citizens. Passivity is the key. Renounce, resist, deny! — James Blish

Credit ... is the only enduring testimonial to man's confidence in man. — James Blish