WIST Quotations

Heinlein, Robert A. -- Starship Troopers, ch. 13 [Hughes] (1959)

Dave — Wed, 29 May 2024 16:04:02 +0000

Bugs, Mr. Rico! Zillions of ’em!

Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Starship Troopers, ch. 13 [Hughes] (1959)
(Source)

Reporting to Lieutenant Juan Rico an Arachnid assault while on Planet P. The line is not in the 1997 movie.

Ascherson, Neal -- “If we teach children morality, what will we say about the arms trade?” The Independent (21 Jan 1996)

Dave — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 00:15:36 +0000

My own view is that to expel a political asylum-seeker because his country threatens to cancel business contracts with Britain is absolutely wrong. And it is not only wrong but dangerous in the long term to us all. This is because of one of the Laws of Politics that I wrote long ago into my little black notebook: “The way a state treats its aliens is the way it would treat its own subjects if it dared”.

Neal Ascherson (b. 1932) Scottish journalist and writer
“If we teach children morality, what will we say about the arms trade?” The Independent (21 Jan 1996)
(Source)

Kelly, Walt -- “Pogo” [Porky Pine] (20 Jun 1959)

Dave — Wed, 05 May 2021 16:31:01 +0000

I been readin’ ’bout how maybe they is planets peopled by folks with ad-vanced brains. On the other hand, maybe we got the most brains … maybe our intellects is the universe’s most ad-vanced. Either way, it’s a mighty soberin’ thought.

Walt Kelly (1913-1973) American animator and cartoonist [Walter Crawford Kelly, Jr.]
“Pogo” [Porky Pine] (20 Jun 1959)

Often paraphrased: "Thar’s only two possibilities: Thar is life out there in the universe which is smarter than we are, or we’re the most intelligent life in the universe. Either way, it’s a mighty sobering thought."

More information:

Wells, H.G. -- The War of the Worlds, Book 1, ch. 1 (1898)

Dave — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 01:48:33 +0000

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days. At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. And early in the twentieth century came the great disillusionment.

H. G. Wells (1866-1946) British writer [Herbert George Wells]
The War of the Worlds, Book 1, ch. 1 (1898)
(Source)

Adams, Douglas -- Hitchhiker’s Guide No. 2, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, ch. 19 (1980)

Dave — Tue, 20 Sep 2016 04:02:50 +0000

It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination.

Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Hitchhiker’s Guide No. 2, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, ch. 19 (1980)
(Source)

Moore, Alan -- In Dez Vylenz (dir), The Mindscape of Alan Moore, film (2005)

Dave — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 13:38:11 +0000

Yes, there is a conspiracy, indeed there are a great number of conspiracies, all tripping each other up. … The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theories is that conspiracy theorists actually believe in the conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is chaotic. The truth is, that it is not the Jewish banking conspiracy, or the grey aliens, or the twelve-foot reptilioids from another dimension that are in control, the truth is far more frightening: no-one is in control, the world is rudderless.

Alan Moore (b. 1953) British writer
In Dez Vylenz (dir), The Mindscape of Alan Moore, film (2005)
(Source)

Discussing his research about conspiracy theories while writing "Shadowplay: The Secret Team" (1988).

Feynman, Richard -- The Meaning of It All (1998)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

I have argued flying saucers with lots of people. … I was interested in this: they keep arguing that it is possible. And that’s true. It is possible. They do not appreciate that the problem is not to demonstrate whether it’s possible or not, but whether it’s going on or not. Whether it’s probably occurring or not, not whether it could occur.

Richard Feynman (1918-1988) American physicist
The Meaning of It All (1998)
(Source)