Ben Bova Quotes

• When I started understanding how science works, it occurred to me that there just is no evidence that there is a God.

  Ben Bova

  Understanding, Evidence, Working It

  45 Copy quote

• In science there is a dictum: don't add an experiment to an experiment. Don't make things unnecessarily complicated. In writing fiction, the more fantastic the tale, the plainer the prose should be. Don't ask your readers to admire your words when you want them to believe your story.

  Ben Bova

  Believe, Writing, Add

  Ben Bova (1998). “Twice Seven: Stories”, Eos

  20 Copy quote

• A new space race has begun, and most Americans are not even aware of it. This race is not about political prestige or military power. This new race involves the whole human species in a contest against time. All of the people of the Earth are in a desperate race against disaster... To save the Earth we must look beyond it, to interplanetary space. To present the collapse of civilization and the end of the world as we know it, we must understand that our planet does not exist in isolation.

  Ben Bova

  Military, Civilization, Space

  54 Copy quote

• Don't ask your readers to admire your words when you want them to believe your story.

  Ben Bova

  Believe, Writing, Stories

  Ben Bova (1998). “Twice Seven: Stories”, Eos

  14 Copy quote

• The problem is that Americans would like to be independent of the rest of the world ... Except the world ain't that way. Trying to be independent of the rest of the world is to commit suicide.

  Ben Bova

  Suicide, Independent, America

  6 Copy quote

• Up here [in space], you're free. Really free, for the first time in your life. All the laws and rules and prejudices they've been dumping on you all your life . . . they're all down there. Up here it's a new start. You can be yourself and do your own thing . . . and nobody can tell you different.

  Ben Bova

  Being Yourself, Law, Space

  4 Copy quote

• Red tape has killed more people than bullets.

  Ben Bova

  People, Tape, Bullets

  7 Copy quote

• Feeding the starving poor only increases their number.

  Ben Bova

  Numbers, Poor, Increase

  6 Copy quote

• My first published novel was written for teenagers, and there were rules laid down by the publisher: no sex, no smoking, no swearing. I blew up entire solar systems, I consigned billions of people to horrible death; they didn't seem to mind that at all. But no hanky-panky.

  Ben Bova

  Sex, Teenager, People

  "Men on Mars, Women on Venus". Interview with Jay McDonald, Bookpage, June 1999.

  8 Copy quote

• I think it's perfectly OK to exploit the moon. Largely for two reasons: there's no life there, and it is close enough and rich enough in resources to be economically useful to Earth. In the final analysis, everything we do in space, if it does not help the people of Earth, all the people, it's not going to happen.

  Ben Bova

  Moon, Thinking, Two

  "Men on Mars, Women on Venus" by Jay McDonald, Bookpage, June 1999.

  7 Copy quote

• As long as we're tied to Middle Eastern oil we're tied to Middle Eastern politics. We're hostages to the terrorists and nutcases who want to wipe out Israel and the United States because we support Israel.

  Ben Bova

  Israel, Oil, Long

  Ben Bova (2006). “Powersat”, p.141, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• The Old Ones knew that life is not rare, but precious; not fragile, but vulnerable. Life is as deep as the seas in which it was born, as strong as the mountains that give it shelter, as universal as the stars themselves.

  Ben Bova

  Strong, Stars, Sea

  Ben Bova (2008). “Mars Life”, p.313, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• A new space race has begun, and most Americans are not even aware of it. This race is not [about] political prestige or military power. This new race involves the whole human species in a contest against time.

  Ben Bova

  Military, Moon, Space

  Ben Bova (1983). “The High Road”, Pocket

  7 Copy quote

• Omni is not a science magazine. It is a magazine about the future...Omni was sui generis. Although there were plenty of science magazines over the years...Omni was the first magazine to slant all its pieces toward the future. It was fun to read and gorgeous to look at.

  Ben Bova

  Fun, Years, Looks

  4 Copy quote

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