Goodreads helps you follow your favorite authors. Be the first to learn about new releases!
Start by following L. Ron Hubbard.
Showing 1-30 of 100
“Ideas and not battles mark the forward progress of mankind.”
―
―
“When reading a book, be very certain that you never go past a word you do not fully understand. The only reason a person gives up a study or becomes confused or unable to learn is because he or she has gone past a word that was not understood.”
―
―
“To love in spite of all is the secret of greatness. And may very well be the greatest secret in this universe.”
―
―
“You don't get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion.”
―
―
“One's attitude toward life makes every possible difference in one's living. You know, you don't have to study a thousand ancient books to discover that fact. But sometimes it needs to be pointed out again that life doesn't change so much as you. ...
The day when you stop building your own environment, when you stop building your own surroundings, when you stop waving a magic hand and gracing everything around you with magic and beauty, things cease to be magical, things cease to be beautiful. Well, maybe you've just neglected somewhere back in the last few years to wave that magic hand.”
―
The day when you stop building your own environment, when you stop building your own surroundings, when you stop waving a magic hand and gracing everything around you with magic and beauty, things cease to be magical, things cease to be beautiful. Well, maybe you've just neglected somewhere back in the last few years to wave that magic hand.”
―
“A culture is only as great as its dreams, and its dreams are dreamed by artists.”
―
―
“Choice is the keynote of self-determinism. To determine anything, you must have the choice to determine. Choice to determine means that you must have the power of decision.
Decision and time have a lot in common. When we have clean, clear decision, we have clean, clear time. And when we have indecision, there is an unclarity about time.”
―
Decision and time have a lot in common. When we have clean, clear decision, we have clean, clear time. And when we have indecision, there is an unclarity about time.”
―
“Happiness and strength endure only in the absence of hate. To hate alone is the road to disaster. To love is the road to strength. To love in spite of all is the secret of greatness. And may very well be the greatest secret in this universe.”
―
―
“The wise man tests before he talks. The critic but follows the fad of a cynical and apathetic age.”
―
―
“What is generally missed, is that my writing financed research.”
―
―
“Freedom is for honest people. No man who is not himself honest can be free – he is his own trap.”
―
―
“A civilization is as great as its dreams, and its dreams are dreamt by artists.”
―
―
“Scientology does not teach you. It only reminds you. For the information was yours in the first place.”
― Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought
― Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought
“Anything you shun will have won.”
―
―
“I'll not always be here on guard. The stars twinkle in the Milky Way and the wind sighs for songs across the empty fields of a planet a Galaxy away.
You won't always be here.
But before you go, whisper this to your sons and their sons - "The work was free. Keep it so.”
―
You won't always be here.
But before you go, whisper this to your sons and their sons - "The work was free. Keep it so.”
―
“Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man wants to make a million dollars, the the best way would be to start his own religion.”
―
―
“Learning locked in mildewed books is of little use to anyone and therefore of no value unless it can be used.”
―
―
“All real difficulty stems from no responsibility. Full responsibility is not fault; it is recognition of being cause.”
―
―
“bureaucracy is trouble everybody has. It’s a system evolved so that nobody in it is ever responsible for anything.”
― The Invaders Plan
― The Invaders Plan
“A man is known by the company who he keeps”
―
―
“Stress the right of the individual to select only what he desires to know, to use any knowledge as he wishes, that he himself owns what he has learned.”
―
―
“It's true,' replied Doris with a sniff in Bessy's direction to make her sensible of a victory, even if a minor one. 'It is amazing how so many people go insane. One day a man is a normal, friendly husband and the next he suddenly becomes a raging schizoid and slays his wife and himself as well. The result of what cause? Why, perhaps he chanced to find some schoolgirl treasure of another beau who had been his greatest rival and is stunned to discover that she secretly retains this. But usually the matter is not so simple, you know. Next to nothing may happen, jarring awake some sleeping monstrosity in a man's complex mental machinery and turning him from a sane person to a mentally sick individual. It is wholly impossible to say when a man is sane, for' -she tittered- 'scarce one of us is normal.'
'You mean - it might happen to any of us?'
'Of course,' said Doris, charmed by all this interest. 'One moment we are seated here, behaving normally and the next some tiny thing, a certain voice, a certain combination of thoughts may throw out the balance wheel of our intellects and we become potential inmates for asylums the rest of our lives. No, not one of us knows when the world will cease to be a normal, ordinary place. You know, no one ever knows when he goes insane: He supposes it is the world altering, not himself. Rooms become peopled with strange shapes and beings, sounds distort themselves into awful cries and, poof! we are judged insane.'
'Poof -' said Jacob, feeling weak and ill.
("He Didn't Like Cats")”
―
'You mean - it might happen to any of us?'
'Of course,' said Doris, charmed by all this interest. 'One moment we are seated here, behaving normally and the next some tiny thing, a certain voice, a certain combination of thoughts may throw out the balance wheel of our intellects and we become potential inmates for asylums the rest of our lives. No, not one of us knows when the world will cease to be a normal, ordinary place. You know, no one ever knows when he goes insane: He supposes it is the world altering, not himself. Rooms become peopled with strange shapes and beings, sounds distort themselves into awful cries and, poof! we are judged insane.'
'Poof -' said Jacob, feeling weak and ill.
("He Didn't Like Cats")”
―
“Man is an endangered species.”
―
―
“Man,” said Terl, “is an endangered species.”
― Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000
― Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000
“HOW TO DRIVE A WRITER CRAZY
“1. When he starts to outline a story, immediately give him several stories just like it to read and tell him three other plots. This makes his own story and his feeling for it vanish in a cloud of disrelated facts.
"2. When he outlines a character, read excerpts from stories about such characters, saying that this will clarify the writer's ideas. As this causes him to lose touch with the identity he felt in his character by robbing him of individuality, he is certain to back away from ever touching such a character.
"3. Whenever the writer proposes a story, always mention that his rate, being higher than other rates of writers in the book, puts up a bar to his stories.
"4. When a rumor has stated that a writer is a fast producer, invariably confront him with the fact with great disapproval, as it is, of course, unnatural for one human being to think faster than another.
"5. Always correlate production and rate, saying that it is necessary for the writer to do better stories than the average for him to get any consideration whatever.
"6. It is a good thing to mention any error in a story bought, especially when that error is to be editorially corrected, as this makes the writer feel that he is being criticized behind his back and he wonders just how many other things are wrong.
"7. Never fail to warn a writer not to be mechanical, as this automatically suggests to him that his stories are mechanical and, as he considers this a crime, wonders how much of his technique shows through and instantly goes to much trouble to bury mechanics very deep—which will result in laying the mechanics bare to the eye.
"8. Never fail to mention and then discuss budget problems with a writer, as he is very interested.
"9. By showing his vast knowledge of a field, an editor can almost always frighten a writer into mental paralysis, especially on subjects where nothing is known anyway.
"10. Always tell a writer plot tricks, as they are not his business.”
―
“1. When he starts to outline a story, immediately give him several stories just like it to read and tell him three other plots. This makes his own story and his feeling for it vanish in a cloud of disrelated facts.
"2. When he outlines a character, read excerpts from stories about such characters, saying that this will clarify the writer's ideas. As this causes him to lose touch with the identity he felt in his character by robbing him of individuality, he is certain to back away from ever touching such a character.
"3. Whenever the writer proposes a story, always mention that his rate, being higher than other rates of writers in the book, puts up a bar to his stories.
"4. When a rumor has stated that a writer is a fast producer, invariably confront him with the fact with great disapproval, as it is, of course, unnatural for one human being to think faster than another.
"5. Always correlate production and rate, saying that it is necessary for the writer to do better stories than the average for him to get any consideration whatever.
"6. It is a good thing to mention any error in a story bought, especially when that error is to be editorially corrected, as this makes the writer feel that he is being criticized behind his back and he wonders just how many other things are wrong.
"7. Never fail to warn a writer not to be mechanical, as this automatically suggests to him that his stories are mechanical and, as he considers this a crime, wonders how much of his technique shows through and instantly goes to much trouble to bury mechanics very deep—which will result in laying the mechanics bare to the eye.
"8. Never fail to mention and then discuss budget problems with a writer, as he is very interested.
"9. By showing his vast knowledge of a field, an editor can almost always frighten a writer into mental paralysis, especially on subjects where nothing is known anyway.
"10. Always tell a writer plot tricks, as they are not his business.”
―
“Men who know are secure and Men who don’t know believe in luck.”
―
―
“A bitter hatred was lifting his lip from his teeth.”
―
―
“A culture is only as great as its dreams and its dreams are dreamed by artists.”
―
―
“Force yourself to laugh and you'll soon find something to laugh about. A being causes his own feelings. Splurge on it!”
―
―
“You don’t get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion.”
―
―
