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Lester del Rey Quotes (1915-1993)
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About Lester del Rey
Lester del Rey (June 2, 1915 – May 10, 1993) was an American science fiction author and editor.
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“Stupidity, greed, misdirected aggression—or sum it up and call it man.”
““You really are a pig,” she decided coldly.
“You’ve got your snout in the trough here too,” he reminded her.”
“You’ve got your snout in the trough here too,” he reminded her.”
“Evolution’s logical, unlike religion. Even the Church will agree with that. You have to take religion on faith and you can’t test it by common sense.”
“The present molders of the code seemed to have a clear knowledge of just how difficult to make something, to add to its fascination, without making it impossible.”
“He walked on in silence for a while, thinking of all that he had seen. And the sum of his thought was a sickness against the whole hypocritical system that was despoiling an incredibly rich planet.”
“A single tiny cell had decided the fate of a population pressed so close to the ultimate limit of the planet’s resources that there was no margin for error. Facing such risks, how could any sane and responsible ruling group dare to demand still more mouths to cry for food? It was a shabby, horrible way to run a world.”
“An accident of careless handling at a dumping point had touched off a great atomic explosion, somewhere in central Europe. That country had thought itself attacked during the disarmament hiatus, and had struck at China, which had bombarded Russia, which thought it was being attacked by America. The confusion was straightened out in less than two hours, but by then two-thirds of the world had been killed.”
““But it won’t stay at this level. Not with the Eleventh Commandment. They won’t stop, even when there are a hundred billion.”
Epstein shook his head. “They won’t get there. At the present time, conditions make the death rate about equal to the birthrate. Sooner or later, everything reaches its own level. Oh, if the Australian scheme goes through, we may reach a twenty billion total. Beyond that, the more children get born, the worse conditions get—which brings up the death rate and cuts the figure back again.”
“And leaves the misery rate at a maximum.””
Epstein shook his head. “They won’t get there. At the present time, conditions make the death rate about equal to the birthrate. Sooner or later, everything reaches its own level. Oh, if the Australian scheme goes through, we may reach a twenty billion total. Beyond that, the more children get born, the worse conditions get—which brings up the death rate and cuts the figure back again.”
“And leaves the misery rate at a maximum.””
Lester del Rey Quotes by Topic
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Lester del Rey on Religion
“Evolution’s logical, unlike religion. Even the Church will agree with that. You have to take religion on faith and you can’t test it by common sense.”
Lester del Rey on Scientology
“The secret feeling that you’re basically superior to your fellow man is probably more human than anything, except the related doubt that you’re superior to anyone. Racism is based on the need to believe in superiority, and one of the basic factors underlying many neuroses is the doubt of even equality. L. Ron Hubbard has capitalized on this situation in a book—printed by Hermitage House—Dianetics, available to all at $4.00 per copy. It isn’t at all surprising that the book has been a best seller, since it gives the credulous reason to believe that he can really be the superman he always felt he was. It also purports to be a science, which is the current catch-word to replace the older black-magic in the popular mind. The fact that it lacks a fundamental scientific basis has little to do with the average, untrained reader’s idea that he is being scientific in trying out the “experiments”—totally without controls or any basis of objective evaluation—in the book.”
About Lester del Rey
Lester del Rey (June 2, 1915 – May 10, 1993) was an American science fiction author and editor.