This page features some of our favorite quotes from the arts.
Dune
Control the coinage and the courts. Leave the rest to the rabble.
~The Padashah Emperor, Shaddam IV
Startide Rising
By David Brin
* They stand in my road
* The mad, ancient, nasty things
* Tell them, “move, or else!”
~Captain Creideiki
Infinity’s Shore
By David Brin
* Fortune smiles again,
* On our weary band of knaves.
* Welcome, friends, to Ifni’s Shore.
~Kaa
* Not by Ifni’s name,
* But her creative employer—
* I wish to God I knew.
~Hannes Suessi
* When winter sends ice
* Growling across the north seas
* Wimps love the gulf stream!
~Makanee
* Legends told by whales
* Call one trait admirable—
* Adaptability!
~Makanee
* In summer sunlight,
* Fish attract like edible
* Singularities! *
~Kaa
* Passing an abyss, or bright reef,
* Or black hole—what sustains us?
* Our navigator! *
~Peepoe
* Can the burning stars
* Shout their joy more happily
* Than this simple fin? *
~Kaa
* Advance description
* Leaves the unwary stunned by
* Serendipity! *
~Peepoe
* Amid the starlanes,
* Snowballs sometimes thrive near flame….
* Don’t you feel Lucky? *
~Dr. Gillian Baskin
* Crooks and foul liars
* Lacking imagination,
* Cruelly steal ideas! *
~Captain Creideiki
* Can any purpose
* Under moon-pulled tides explain
* Such anomalies? *
~Kaa
* As warning shots go,
* ( Acts speak much louder than words!)
* That was a doozy. *
~Lt. T’sht
* Converging nature
* Begins and ends, lives and dies,
* Where tide meets shoal and sky… *
~Captain Creideiki
* Cornered by orcas,
* With our backs against sharp coral,
* Watch them eat plankton! *
~Kaa
*Are we ready? Or not?
* Yanked from blissful dreaming,
* Hear the call of depths! *
~Akeakemai
* Listen to the crash
* Of breakers on yonder reef,
* And tell me this ain’t real! *
~Dolphin
Heaven’s Reach
By David Brin
* Even when you have left
* Old Ones, Transcendents,
* and gods far behind,
* Who can truly say they are
* beyond Heaven’s Reach? *
~Captain Creideiki
Star Trek, “Return to Tomorrow”
Character: Captain James T. Kirk
“And let’s not kid ourselves that there is no potential danger in this. They used to say if man could fly, he’d have wings. But he did fly. He discovered he had to. Do you wish that the first Apollo mission hadn’t reached the moon or that we hadn’t gone on to Mars or the nearest star? That’s like saying you wish that you still operated with scalpels and sewed your patients up with catgut like your great - great - great - great - grandfather used to. I’m in command. I could order this. But I’m not … because … Dr. McCoy is right in pointing out the enormous danger potential in any contact with life and intelligence as fantastically advanced as this. But I must point out that the possibilities, the potential for knowledge and advancement is equally great. Risk… risk is our business!! That’s what this starship is all about. That’s why we’re aboard her!”
Gene Roddenberry: The Last Conversation
By Yvonne Fern
Fern: What do you fear?
Roddenberry: I have a great fear that our human leaders will fail to understand that a world such as Star Trek is possible, that all the glorious things– not that Star Trek represents, but that the human being represents– will fall on deaf ears. That frightens me. There’s always a chance that not enough humans will understand and appreciate themselves enough to make a great change in the human equation.