The only people who have the long view are some scientists and some science fiction writers. Sheri S. Tepper More Quotes by Sheri S. Tepper More Quotes From Sheri S. Tepper Mankind accepts good fortune as his due, but when bad occurs, he thinks it was aimed at him, done to him, a hex, a curse, a punishment by his deity for some transgression, as though his god were a petty storekeeper, counting up the day's receipts. Sheri S. Tepper punishment deities thinking Nothing limits intelligence more than ignorance; nothing fosters ignorance more than one's own opinions; nothing strengthens opinions more than refusing to look at reality. Sheri S. Tepper ignorance reality looks I think... girls have a hard time being interesting. It’s actually easier to be famous, or notorious, than it is to be interesting. In our world, girls climb very well until they hit puberty-sexual maturity-and then they begin to fall out of the tree. They start role-playing instead of thinking, flirting instead of learning. They start admiring how smart the boys are-or how athletic or how handsome-instead of concentrating on their own intelligence. Sheri S. Tepper smart girl fall What do I have to say to the universe? A soul ought to have something to say to the universe if it's going to be immortal. Sheri S. Tepper immortal soul ifs To me, fantasy has always been the genre of escape, science fiction the genre of ideas. So if you can escape and have a little idea as well, maybe you have some kind of a cross-breed between the two. Sheri S. Tepper two science ideas We live in a time like dreaming.... The edges of our lives flutter and change as we watch them. Listen to the dream. Sheri S. Tepper our-lives dream watches We'll tell him his mother waits for him in heaven, I suppose." "Is that a lie?" "It's what we tell fools and children." She sighed. "Postulating a heaven gives man an out for having been unable to retain the paradise he was given here on earth. Sheri S. Tepper mother lying children Other people's risks are statistical. When it's your risk, your own child, it isn't statistical anymore. Sheri S. Tepper risk children people Though this new forest grew mightily, elsewhere the mighty jungles fell. Elsewhere the coastal rain forests that furred the body of the world were torn and riven. Elsewhere the last of the old growth the last of the world's own garment were ripped away. It was in this time, now, that the mother of us all was stripped naked and left to die in shame of her children, she who had been robed in glory like this, adorned like this. I bent my head upon the roots and wept, sorrowing for the trees. Sheri S. Tepper mother rain children I tell you, lad, that men will believe is one says, "The Gods say..." They will believe if one says, "I had a Vision..." They will believe if one says, "It was told me on a tablet of hidden gold..." But, if one says, "History teaches," then they will not believe. Sheri S. Tepper vision men believe As vocabulary is reduced , so are the number of feelings you can express, the number of events you can describe, the number of the things you can identify! Not only understanding is limited, but also experience. Man grows by language. Whenever he limits language he retrogresses! Sheri S. Tepper vocabulary numbers men I will raise up prophets to make conflicting pronouncements that inevitably will be garbled in transcription, resulting in mutually exclusive definitions of orthodoxy from which the open-minded will flee in dismay. Sheri S. Tepper orthodoxy definitions open-minded Conflict acting on intelligence creates imagination. Faced with conflict, creatures are forced to imagine what will happen, where the next threat will come from. If there has never been conflict, imagination never develops. Wits arise in answer to danger, to pain, to tragedy. No one ever got smarter eating easy apples. Sheri S. Tepper apples pain imagination The sidesaddle was designed to protect a maiden's virginity, while risking the maiden's neck. Rather much for rather little, I thought. Sheri S. Tepper maidens necks littles To the Chasmites, truth is determined by how well it fits their expectations, and doesn't that sound familiar? They have consistently refused to have a god contest, and I fear they will have to encounter the godlet rather forcibly before they believe there is anything there at all. Sheri S. Tepper expectations sound believe All around the Mediterranean you'll find cultures that believe men can't control themselves and shouldn't have to try. Sheri S. Tepper trying men believe I'm not sure a world run by women would be any better. They're human beings! Sheri S. Tepper would-be running world [T]he scripture worshippers put the writings ahead of God. Instead of interpreting God's actions in nature, for example, they interpret nature in the light of the Scripture. Nature says the rock is billions of years old, but the book says different, so even though men wrote the book, and God made the rock and God gave us minds that have found ways to tell how old it is, we still choose to believe the Scripture. Sheri S. Tepper writing believe book I have always lived in a world in which I'm just a spot in history. My life is not the important point. I'm just part of the continuum, and that continuum, to me, is a marvelous thing. The history of life, and the history of the planet, should go on and on and on and on. I cannot conceive of anything in the universe that has more meaning than that. Sheri S. Tepper important goes-on world The expression of divinity is in variety. Sheri S. Tepper divinity variety expression
