Hal Quotes & Sayings

Soylent Brown? It ain't people, but it comes from them. — Hal Duncan

For some the label sci-fi is just a shortand for science fiction, an alternative to sf gesturing at ... you know, that stuff we like. — Hal Duncan

People who complain often say things like, 'I'm not being negative, I'm just being realistic.' Really? How is it anymore 'realistic' to focus on and talk about things that discourage us and make us feel bad, than to focus on and talk about the POSITIVE aspects of life that make us feel GOOD? Both area equally REALISTIC, but which you choose to dwell on has a very different impact on the quality of YOUR life. — Hal Elrod

AI will begin as Artificial Idiocy. Who cares if a computer can play chess or take control of cyberspace? Can it trash Tokyo, huh, huh? — Hal Duncan

All prejudice presents itself as piety, propriety. — Hal Duncan

Being thankful and saying thanks are two habits of people who've discovered what it means to succeed in life. — Hal Urban

When we talk of flood control, we usually think of dams and deeper river channels, to impound the waters or hurry their run-off. Yet neither is the ultimate solution, simply because floods are caused by the flow of water downhill. If the hills are wooded, that flow is checked. If there is a swamp at the foot of the hills, the swamp sponges up most of the excess water, restores some of it to the underground water supply and feeds the remainder slowly into the streams. Strip the hills, drain the boglands, and you create flood conditions inevitably. Yet that is what we have been doing for years. — Hal Borland

I don't have time to wake up early. - UNKNOWN — Hal Elrod

One can revise the rules, shift the goal posts, but to do so is just to conjure a chimera and mask it as a novum. — Hal Duncan

Every time we push personal development aside, we invite personal struggle into our lives. — Hal Elrod

A man is nothing more than the things he does to get what he wants. — Hal Ackerman

A 3K word story might well be done in some caffeine-and-nicotine-fuelled 36 hour session, and at the end of it, there'll be a few passes of editing required, but I basically have a polished draft. — Hal Duncan

I cannot consider fighting in competitive Manly Fun any more than I can consider pitting my running, swimming or climbing body against other bodies. Nothing, then, or now, arouses me or will ever arouse me from a perfect disinterest in ball games. — Hal Porter

Disputes among natural philosophers are of use to science, as the quarrels of the great, and the clamors of the little, are necessary to freedom of thought and the advancement of learning. — Hal Hellman

Catch a vista of maples in that long light and you see Autumn glowing through the leaves ... The promise of gold and crimson is there among the branches, though as yet it is achieved on only a stray branch, an impatient limb or an occasional small tree which has not yet learned to time its changes. — Hal Borland

Sir, your baseball career may be over. You need to find a new profession. Gatewood answered, I've heard that before. (He had always come back. He would prove them wrong again.) (From Love and Death at the Encierro) — Hal Graff

If you want to attract, create, and sustain extraordinary levels of success and income, you must first figure out how to become the person that is capable of easily and consistently attracting, creating, and sustaining the extraordinary levels of success and income that you desire. — Hal Elrod

What is the purpose of any one workout? Enjoyment? Improvement? Coach said so? Whatever, the hour you run often is the best hour of the day. — Hal Higdon

Kind words cost little, but accomplish much. — Hal Urban

I would not piss on him was he burning in the flames of hell," Grey said politely.
One of Hal's brows flicked upward, but only momentarily.
"Just so," he said dryly. "The question, though, is whether Fraser might be inclined to perform a similar service for you."
Grey placed his cup carefully in the center of the desk.
"Only if he thought I might drown," he said, and went out. — Diana Gabaldon

When one of the down Easters boasted of not having any gray hair, but who was bald, Dad told the story of how St. Peter had given his choice of getting bald or getting gray and he chose the latter. Have never smoked, chewed nor used tea coffee or liquor except for medicinal purposes. The want of it is more than the worth of it. — Hal Turner

Once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen. - MUHAMMAD ALI — Hal Elrod

They sailed into Raguza and Hal said, as bold as brass, We've come to challenge Zavac and we plan to kick his - — John Flanagan

If a train stops at a train station, what do you think happens at a work station? — Hal Varian

And ultimately, she's told Drs. Rusk and Tavis, she'd rather have Hal abide in the security of the knowledge that his mother trusts him, that she's trusting and supportive and doesn't judge or gizzard-tear or wring her fine hands over his having for instance a glass of Canadian ale with friends every now and again, and so works tremendously hard to hide her maternal dread of his possibly ever drinking like James himself or James's father, all so that Hal might enjoy the security of feeling that he can be up-front with her about issues like drinking and not feel he has to hide anything from her under any circumstances. — David Foster Wallace

Nature seems to look after her own only up to a certain point; beyond that they are supposed to fend for themselves. — Hal Borland

Our judgments always have behind them a quality of righteousness. — Hal Stone

He looked up at Stig and Hal. 'Told you this one was a keeper.' Lydia flushed as the two boys smiled. 'Shut up. You make sure you do your stuff with those two overgrown dinner bowls you call shields. — John Flanagan

One of the problems with putting Huck Finn into a movie or on the stage is, you always make the white people stupid and racist. The point is, they don't know they're racist. — Hal Holbrook

Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air ... but only for one second without hope. — Hal Lindsey

Jim played - he had a great stretch in the middle of the round there, and Chad made that long putt on 16. Almost got that match. We ended up losing, but we almost won it, too. — Hal Sutton

Who you become today will determine what you are capable of creating tomorrow. — Hal Elrod

A burning map. Every epic, my friend Jack used to say, should start with a burning map. Like in the movies. Fucking flames burning the world away; that's the best thing about all those old films, he said
when you see this old parchment map just ... getting darker and darker in the centre, crisping, crinkling until suddenly it just ... fwoom. — Hal Duncan

Boredom is your mind and body's way of telling you you're not living up to your potential. — Hal Sparks

Brewers enjoy working to make beer as much as drinking beer instead of working. — Hal Foster

We are our own worst enemies. How banal and trite that sounds, but [ ... ] have come to believe that all the greatest truths are trite and banal, when spoken aloud in their simplest and most honest terms. Perhaps they can only be imparted in the Cant, in a language which writes itself onto your heart so that you understand not just the words but all the shattering ramifications of of a sentence which, when heard without true understanding, seems quite risibly simplistic.
We are our own worst enemies.
People die. — Hal Duncan

Make today the BEST day of your life, because there is no good reason not to. — Hal Elrod

The Bush administration made us nostalgic for ... well, any other time in history. — Hal Sparks

Hal and Richard show all the good will of Cain and Abel. — Sharon Kay Penman

He's going to kill everyone on this planet, reduce the human race to dust. There will be no one to stop him. You are the only one who can. - Aiden Deverill — Alexandra May

The outsiders have become kings and queens of the castle. It is a whole lot easier to sit outside the tent and throw firecrackers inside; it is much, much harder to sit inside the tent and govern not only your enemies, but your close friends as well. — Hal Rothman

A root, a stem, a leaf, some means of capturing sunlight and air and making food - in sum, a plant. The green substance of this earth, the chlorophyll, is all summed up in the plants. Without them we perish, all of us who are flesh and blood. — Hal Borland

We mistakenly believe that who we were is who we are, thus limiting our true potential in the present, based on the limitations of our past. — Hal Elrod

A woodland in full color is awesome as a forest fire, in magnitude at least, but a single tree is like a dancing tongue of flame to warm the heart.
— Hal Borland

How now, my sweet creature of bombast! How long is't ago, Jack, since thou saw'st thien own knee? — William Shakespeare

If we want to understand the actions of a man in the early 1860's, put yourself back there in his shoes. As a young man he began piloting steamboats on the Mississippi, a job he loved and wanted to do the rest of his life, he said. The Civil War ended traffic on the River and his job. He wrote about it in A History of A Campaign That Failed. He said: "I joined the Confederacy, served for two weeks, deserted, and the Confederacy fell." His attachment to the Southern ideal of slavery does not appear very sturdy. — Hal Holbrook

Human beings are prone to believe the things they wish were true. — Hal Clement

I think what hurt me all along was the label of 'war-time pitcher.' I've always resented that. — Hal Newhouser

Chad was in the right spot. He got a little aggressive with the third shot there. He probably didn't want that putt he had there for the par. And you don't want to put it back there where Casey and Sergio did because you have 20 feet of break there. — Hal Sutton

I hadn't really noticed that I had a hearing problem. I just thought most people had given up on speaking clearly. — Hal Linden

The art of writing is not as solitary as one might think. When it finally dawns on us one day that our task as writers is to share what we know of the human spirit, we suddenly discover that we were never truly alone. — Hal Zina Bennett

You'd be doing us both a favor.' 'This drives me bats. You know this drives me bats.' Orin and Hal's term for this routine is Politeness Roulette. This Moms-thing that makes you hate yourself for telling her the truth about any kind of problem because of what the consequences will be for her. It's like to report any sort of need or problem is to mug her. — David Foster Wallace

Considering that our habits create our life, there is arguably no single skill that is more important for you to learn and master than controlling your habits. You must identify, implement, and maintain the habits necessary for creating the results you want in your life, while learning how to let go of any negative habits which are holding you back from achieving your true potential. — Hal Elrod

No one thinks Las Vegas is real; it is illusion, but visitors willingly suspend disbelief and pretend. — Hal Rothman

If the voice of the brook was not the first song of celebration, it must have been at least an obbligato for that event. — Hal Borland

Running long offers a dress rehearsal. Running long teaches the stress of lifting feet 5,000 times per hour. Running long builds confidence. — Hal Higdon

One thing a lyricist must learn is not to fall in love with his own lines. Once you learn that, you can walk away from the lyric and look at it with a reasonable degree of objectivity. — Hal David

Give more than you get. Everyday. Everywhere. With everyone. Always. — Hal Elrod

...Alas, Babylon was to be among the first to give a public voice to the fears and anxieties associated with a nuclear attack and with threats of atomic radiation. And unlike others in the genre, he offered unmitigated hope. Randy Bragg and company not only survive the devastation that leaves vast Contaminated Zones throughout the United States, but they also apply the best in themselves to begin the re-establishment of life within a civil society. All of the atomic fears of the 1950s (and later) are there, but Frank's 'message' seems to be that we can survive even the worst catastrophe with everyday, secularized applications of faith, hope, and charity. — Hal Hager

Where names of people or places would mean little to a contemporary reader, I figured "translation errors" could create interesting new meanings. — Hal Duncan

Cheech and Chong Vs. HAL
"I can't do that Dave."
"Dave's not here, man"
"That does not compute. Dave"
"No man, Dave isn't here!!"
... "I'm sorry Dave but that is incorrect"
"No man, Dave's not here!!"
"Daisy, daisy, ... I'm self terminating now Dave ... "
"No man, dave's not ... Is he gone? — Neil Leckman

Two sounds of autumn are unmistakable ... the hurrying rustle of crisp leaves blown along the street ... by a gusty wind, and the gabble of a flock of migrating geese. — Hal Borland

Although actions may speak louder than words, it is our intentions that reveal our soul. — Hal Elrod

Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute. — Hal Abelson

The A-B-C's of Living Life's Purpose: A=Accept all things you can't change. B=Be Grateful for all that you have. C=Constantly create progress towards to your goals & dreams. — Hal Elrod

Truth knows no color; it appeals to intelligence. — James Hal Cone

Hard work pays off in the future but requires discomfort now. Laziness pays off now but guarantees discomfort in the future. — Hal Elrod

Hal, if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face, call me horse. — William Shakespeare

Replace your judgments with empathy, upgrade your complaining to gratitude and trade in your fear for love. — Hal Elrod

We insist that this stuff we call science fiction is not SCI-FI. For some in the ghetto of Genre this is axiomatic, a secret truth known only to the genre kids, that there is proper science fiction and then there's that SCI-FI shit. — Hal Duncan

I'm sort of exploring where pacifism and socialism come into conflict. How do you reconcile a passionate rejection of might and violence with an attitude of "nil paseran" - "none shall pass" - in the face of fascism? — Hal Duncan

Brain out, sponge in' fiction. — Hal Duncan

I grew up in those years when the Old West was passing and the New West was emerging. It was a time when we still heard echoes and already saw shadows, on moonlit nights when the coyotes yapped on the hilltops, and on hot summer afternoons when mirages shimmered, dust devils spun across the flats, and towering cumulus clouds sailed like galleons across the vast blueness of the sky. Echoes of remembrance of what men once did there, and visions of what they would do together. — Hal Borland

When we step on the battlefield, I will be The First Boots On and the Last Boots Off. — Hal Moore

I double-knot my shoe laces. It's a pain untying your shoes afterward-particularly if you get them wet-but so is stopping in the middle of a race to tie them. — Hal Higdon

The woman with hair of flames knelt over me. She might have been pretty if not for the anger in every corner of her face. Emerald eyes glowed with almost seeping venom as her nostrils flared.
- Lord Tristan Dracanburh, Ethandun — Alexandra May

Maybe we've been taking nova precautions for a red dwarf. — Hal Clement

Right-wing propagandists like Limbaugh and Coulter are essentially entertainers, entertainers who stimulate prejudice, selfishness and meanness the way a comedian works for laughs or a tragedian plays for tears. Theirs is a new art form, exclusive to America and bewilderingly successful. In place of traditional conservative ideology, they offer their audience partisan belligerence and a complete package of mail-order hatreds, designed for the conceptually and ethically impaired. — Hal Crowther

So I was hugely thrilled that my first scene ever on camera was with Hal Holbrook. — Anthony Edwards

Hal answered him. "We're as sure as we can be. The guard captain said he found a ball of yellow glass. What else could it be?" Jesper shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe a ball of yellow glass? — John Flanagan

There is no such thing as an average runner. We are all above average. — Hal Higdon

You can't make people laugh for more than half an hour and be consistent. — Hal Roach

From that point on, having also added the belief that affirmations really work, not only did my memory continue to improve, but I created affirmations for every area of my life that I wanted to advance I began using affirmations to improve my health, finances, relationships, overall happiness, confidence, as well as any and all beliefs, mindsets and habits that needed an upgrade. Nothing was off limits. There are no limits! — Hal Elrod

I sent Hal and Rafael to keep an eye on you, and I went to check on a commercial account in Whitehorse. Rafael called to tell me Lula went in with a rocket launcher, so I skipped Whitehorse. I pulled into the lot seconds before you destroyed Billings Foods. — Janet Evanovich

am just as worthy, deserving, and capable of achieving extraordinary success as any other person, and I will prove it today with my actions. I am destined for greatness, and today I will live in alignment with my destiny. Selling isn't about me and what I want; it is about connecting with my prospect by finding out what's important to them, and then matching my product to meet their wants and needs. — Hal Elrod

He doesn't look very smart," Diesel said. "He's not even giving me the finger."
"Can monkey's do that?" Hal asked.
Carl gave him the finger.
"Cool!" Hal said. — Janet Evanovich

Our bodies form a symbol, I think, as powerful as one of Hal's - and it occurs to me that the most meaningful symbols of all must be based on all the different ways two people can embrace. — Neal Shusterman

One sees what one wants to see when there is in mind a pre-conceived notion. — Hal Hellman

Consider the wheelbarrow. It may lack the grace of an airplane, the speed of an automobile, the initial capacity of a freight car, but its humble wheel marked out the path of what civilization we still have. — Hal Borland

Well, it was interesting because when I was going to do it the first time in my head was Leonardo DiCaprio [for Chris] and Marlon Brando was going to play the character that Hal Holbrook eventually played. But then when it wasn't to be and there was no promise that it ever would be I think some part of me didn't want to attach specifics to it anymore - actors or anything else - because I wanted to see it made that much more badly. — Sean Penn

Your level of success, will rarely exceed your level of personal development, because success is something you attract by the person you become," I stopped in my tracks. This one philosophy was going to change my entire life. — Hal Elrod

I advocate the use of force to rescue Terri Schiavo from being starved to death.
I further advocate the killing of anyone who interferes with such rescue. — Hal Turner

Now the reason that we think computer science is about computers is pretty much the same reason that the Egyptians thought geometry was about surveying instruments: when some field is just getting started and you don't really understand it very well, it's very easy to confuse the essence of what you're doing with the tools that you use. — Hal Abelson

The greatest comedies that were made by anybody were made in two reels; I don't care who it was. — Hal Roach

A powerful programming language is more than just a means for instructing a computer to perform tasks. The language also serves as a framework within which we organize our ideas about processes. — Hal Abelson

If we're talking about brain performance, the best predictor of brain speed is aerobic capacity - how well you can run up a hill is very strongly correlated with brain speed and cognitive shifting ability, — Hal Elrod

The law was given to drive us to despair over the hopelessness of ever being able to keep it. — Hal Lindsey

Screw the dialogue, let's wreck some cars. — Hal Needham

Did you take Joyce's engine?'
'My instructions were to disable the car, but one of the men bet Hal a burger he couldn't get the engine out. So Hal removed the engine. — Janet Evanovich

Losing maturity in one's fiction for the sake of marvels and monsters can also mean losing propriety, and that's not always a bad thing. — Hal Duncan