Raymond F. Jones > Quotes

“Everyone's a knucklehead at one point or another.”
― Raymond Jones

“Mart had been of the total conviction that life was wholly soluble in terms of the external world. If a man had something good and useful to do in shaping the world to his own dream, he would be a sane and happy man.”
― Raymond F. Jones, Noise Level

“Charles Bascomb was a man who loved figures—the genuine, Arabic kind, that is.”
― Raymond F. Jones, The Non-Statistical Man

“Always it had been the same; leaders arose holding before men the illusion of vast, glorious promises while they carefully led them into hells of lost dreams and broken promises.”
― Raymond F. Jones, The Alien

“He came to an inner dividing cover at the centre of the catalogue. For the first time, the centre cover announced, Electronic Service-Unit 16 offers a complete line of interocitor components. In the following pages you will find complete descriptions of components which reflect the most modern engineering advances known to interocitor engineers. “Ever hear of an interocitor?” “Sounds like something a surgeon would use to remove gallstones.” “Maybe we should order a kit of parts and build one up,” said Cal whimsically. “That would be like a power engineer trying to build a high-power communications receiver from the Amateur’s Handbook catalogue section.” “Maybe it could be done.”
― Raymond F. Jones, This Island Earth

“the news blared abruptly with its perpetual urgency that made him wonder how the commentators endured the endless flow of crises. The President had been impeached again—the third one in six months. There were no candidates for his office. A church had been burned by its congregation. Two mayors had been assassinated within hours of each other. It was the same news he had heard six months ago. It would be the same again tomorrow and next month. The story of a planet repudiating all leadership. A lawlessness that was worse than anarchy, because there was still government”
― Raymond F. Jones, The Alien

“The only reality consists of human beings trying to solve difficult problems. Their results, which seem to be solutions to some of those problems, we call science. Science has no life of its own. It does not deserve to be spoken of as an entity in its own right. There are only people, whom we call scientists, and their accomplishments are severely limited by their quite meager abilities. Meager, when viewed in comparison with the magnitude of the problems they attack.”
― Raymond F. Jones, The Year When Stardust Fell