John W. Campbell Quotes

• History does not always repeat itself. Sometimes it just yells, 'Can't you remember anything I told you?' and lets fly with a club.

  John W. Campbell

  Doe, Clubs, Remember

  Analog Science Fiction and Fact Magazine, 1965.

  12 Copy quote

• Man studied birds for centuries, trying to learn how to make a machine to fly like them. He never did do the trick; his final success came when he broke away entirely and tried new methods.

  John W. Campbell

  Men, Bird, Trying

  John W. Campbell Jr. (1955). “Who Goes There?: And Other Stories”

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• Immunity corrupts; absolute immunity corrupts absolutely.

  John W. Campbell

  Absolutes, Immunity

  Analog Science Fiction and Fact Magazine, 1970.

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• We presuppose two things: that there is yet to be learned infinitely more than is now known, and that man can learn it.

  John W. Campbell

  Learning, Men, Two

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• Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.

  John W. Campbell

  Home, Editors, Writing And Reading

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• Write me a creature that thinks as well as a man or better than a man, but not like a man.

  John W. Campbell

  Writing, Men, Thinking

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• Never accept the initial premise of the opposition.

  John W. Campbell

  Assessment, Accepting, Initials

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• Generally, a desirable, practically attainable idea, suggested in prophecy, has a chance of forcing itself into reality by its very existence.

  John W. Campbell

  Reality, Ideas, Chance

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• That's the trouble with languages. They have to be learned.

  John W. Campbell

  Statistics, Language, Trouble

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• Science is not a sacred cow-but there are a large number of would-be sacred cowherds busily devoting quantities of time, energy and effort to the task of making it one, so they can be sacred cowherds.

  John W. Campbell

  Science, Numbers, Effort

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• No literature is sound, no philosophy of action workable, if it doesn't take a hard look at itself.

  John W. Campbell

  Philosophy, Sound, Looks

  John W. Campbell (2011). “Cloak of Aesir”, p.6, Hachette UK

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• There's nothing quite so stultifying as having someone around who has all the answers-and gives them to you.

  John W. Campbell

  Giving, Answers, Statistics

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• Pioneering basically amounts to finding new and more horrible ways to die

  John W. Campbell

  Way, Horrible, Findings

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• Too darned good a machine can be a menace, not a help.

  John W. Campbell

  Machines, Statistics, Helping

  John W. Campbell (2011). “Cloak of Aesir”, p.6, Hachette UK

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• It was the law that if a white man was caught trying to educate a Negro slave, he was liable to prosecution entailing a fine of fifty dollars and a jail sentence. . . Our ignorance was the greatest hold the South had on us. We knew we could run away, but what then?

  John W. Campbell

  Running, Ignorance, Men

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