Author: Ben Bova

Cites

• Leigh Hunt (1)
  • IN: Power Play (2012) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Jenny kissed me when we met, Jumping from the chair she sat in. Time, you thief, who love to get Sweets into your list, put that in. Say i'm weary, say i'm sad; Say that health and wealth have missed me; Say i'm growing old, but add-- Jenny kissed me!
    FROM: "Jenny Kiss'd Me", (1838), Poem, UK
• Buzz Aldrin (2)
  • IN: Mercury and Prometheans (2005) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: History will remember the inhabitants of [the twentieth] century as the people who went from Kitty Hawk to the moon in sixty-six years, only to languish for the next thirty in low-Earth orbit. At the core of the risk-free society is a self-indulgent failure of nerve.
    FROM: NULL, (None), NULL, US
  • IN: Mercury (2005) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: History will remember the inhabitants of [the twentieth] century as the people who went from Kitty Hawk to the moon in sixty-six years, only to languish for the next thirty in low-Earth orbit. At the core of the risk-free society is a self-indulgent failure of nerve.
    FROM: Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 astronaut, (None), Speech, US
• Stephen Webb (2)
  • IN: Mercury and Prometheans (2005) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: A species with all its eggs in one planetary basket risks becoming an omelet.
    FROM: Where is Everybody, (2002), Speech, NULL
  • IN: Mercury (2005) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: A species with all its eggs in one planetary basket risks becoming an omelet.
    FROM: Where Is Everybody, (2002), Book, UK
• James Clerk Maxwell (1)
  • IN: Saturn (2003) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: There are some questions in Astronomy to which we are attracted … on account of their peculiarity … [rather] than from any direct advantage which their solution would afford to mankind… I am not aware that any practical use has been made of Saturn’s Rings… But when we contemplate the Rings from a purely scientific point of view, they become the most remarkable bodies in the heavens… When we have actually seen that great arch swing over the equator of the planet without any visible connection, we cannot bring our minds to rest.
    FROM: On the Stability of the Motion of Saturn's Rings, (1859), Book, UK
• Edward O. Wilson (1)
  • IN: Saturn (None) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: As the new century begins … we may be ready to settle down before we wreck the planet. It is time to sort out Earth and calculate what it will take to provide a satisfying and sustainable life for everyone into the indefinite future… For every person in the world to reach present U.S. levels of consumption would require [the resources of] four more planet Earths.
    FROM: NULL, (2002), NULL, US
• Stephen Drury (1)
  • IN: The Precipice (2001) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: The modern tropics and their fringes support more than half the world’s population, numbered in the billions. Many already live at the fringe of survival, dependent on food aid transported from the grain belts of more temperate zones. Even a small climatic shift… would physically compress the geographical limits for cereal cropping… I leave it to your imagination what such a pace of climate change would entail for most people.
    FROM: Stepping Stones: Evolving the Earth and Its Life, (1999), Book, NULL
• Carleton S. Coon (2)
  • IN: The Precipice (2001) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: …some men have already embarked on a bold new adventure, the conquest of outer space. This is a healthy sign, a clear indication that some of us are still feral men, unwilling to domesticate ourselves by any kind of bondage, even that of the spatial limitations of our planet’s surface.
    FROM: The Story of Man, (1954), Book, US
  • IN: Moonwar (1997) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Once we have lived through the rapid changes that are now marking our transition from the third to the fourth phase of history, from a period of diversification to one of unification, we shall be squarely faced with a number of serious problems… It has been shown by many social experiments that man cannot control every facet of life. All we can do is to try to isolate the factors that are the keys to the entire structure, and to work on them. These are basically: the conservation of natural resources; power-production; population-control; the full utilization of brainpower; and education. The details of the social structure will fall into place automatically as the end product of all these forces; as they always have done… Political unification of the world is not the first necessary step. By the time it has become possible without turmoil, it will also have become unnecessary.
    FROM: NULL, (None), NULL, NULL
• Jacques Brel (1)
  • IN: Moonrise (1996) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: We have power, you and I, But what good is that now? We would build a new world if we only knew how.
    FROM: Alone (Seul), (1960), Song, Belgium
• John A. Garraty (1)
  • IN: Vengeance of Orion (1988) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: The great invasions which destroyed late Bronze Age civilization came from two directions. From the northwest a variety of tribes, called by the Egyptians the “sea peoples,” began raiding the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean … [by] 1200 B.C. the Hittite empire was destroyed… While these invasions from the northwest swept over Greece, Asia Minor, and the Mediterranean coasts, other hordes of invaders came from the southeast, from the fringes of theArabian desert … The movement began early: the Israelites were already in Palestine before 1220 B.C
    FROM: The Columbia History of the World, (1972), Book, US
• Rudyard Kipling (1)
  • IN: Orion Among the Stars (1995) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Yes, makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep Is cheaper than them uniforms, an’ they’re starvation cheap… For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an “Chuck him out, the brute!” But it’s “Saviour of ’is country,” when the guns begin to shoot…
    FROM: Tommy, (1890), Poem, England/ India
• Carl von Clausewitz (1)
  • IN: The Silent War (2004) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Everything is very simple in war, but the simplest thing is difficult… War is the province of uncertainty; three-fourths of the things on which action in war is based lie hidden in the fog of a greater or lesser certainty.
    FROM: On War, (1832), Book, Germany/Poland
• NULL (1)
  • IN: The Starcrossed (1975) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: May he fly high and strike terror in the hearts of the unjust.
    FROM: NULL, (None), NULL, NULL
• Pierre-Simon de Laplace (1)
  • IN: Orion in the Dying Time (1990) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: An intelligence knowing, at a given instance of time, all forces acting in nature, as well as the momentary position of all things of which the universe consists, would be able to comprehend the motions of the largest bodies of the world and those of the lightest atoms in one single formula, provided his intellect were sufficiently powerful to subject all data to analysis; to him nothing would be uncertain, both past and future would be present in his eyes.
    FROM: A philosophical essay on probabilities, (1814), Essay, France
• Thucydides (1)
  • IN: Moonwar (1997) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: War is an evil thing, but to submit to the dictation of other states is worse… Freedom, if we hold fast to it, will ultimately restore our losses, but submission will mean permanent loss of all that we value… To you who call yourselves men of peace, I say: You are not safe unless you have men of action on your side.
    FROM: History of the Peloponnesian War, (-431), Book, Greece
• Homer (1)
  • IN: The Hittite (2010) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Zeus now addressed the immortals: “What a lamentable thing it is that men should blame the gods and regard us as the source of their troubles when it is their own wickedness that brings them sufferings worse than any which Destiny allots them.
    FROM: The Iliad, (-8), Poem, Greece
• Charles Darwin (1)
  • IN: Leviathans of Jupiter (2011) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: But ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.
    FROM: The Descent of Man, (1871), Book, UK
• William Shakespeare (1)
  • IN: Mercury (2005) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: When, in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state…
    FROM: When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes (Sonnet 29), (1609), Poem, UK
• Oscar Wilde (1)
  • IN: The Rock Rats (2002) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Yet each man kills the thing he loves, By each let this be heard, Some do it with a bitter look, Some with a flattering word, The coward does it with a kiss, The brave man with a sword! Some kill their love when they are young. And some when they are old; Some strangle with the hands of Lust, Some with the hands of Gold: The kindest use a knife, because The dead so soon grow cold.
    FROM: The Ballad of Reading Gaol, (1898), Poem, Ireland
• Alfred Tennyson (1)
  • IN: The Aftermath (2007) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: I wage not any feud with Death For changes wrought on form and face; No lower life that earth’s embrace May breed with him, can fright my faith.
    FROM: In Memoriam A. H. H., (1850), Poem, UK
• Bible (2)
  • IN: Jupiter (2000) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.
    FROM: Bible, Psalm 22, (-165), Bible, NULL
  • IN: New Earth (2013) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
    FROM: Bible, Matthew 6:34, (100), Bible, NULL
• Abraham Lincoln (1)
  • IN: Orion and King Arthur (2011) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
    FROM: NULL, (None), [NA], US
• Lee Dubridge (1)
  • IN: Voyagers (1981) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Either we are alone or we are not; either way is mind boggling.
    FROM: NULL, (None), NULL, US
• Michael Faraday (1)
  • IN: Voyagers (1981) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Nothing is too wonderful to be true.
    FROM: The Life and Letters of Faraday (1870) Vol. II, (1870), Book, UK
• Franklin D. Roosevelt (1)
  • IN: Voyagers (1981) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.
    FROM: The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944–45 (1950), (1950), Speech, US
• W. C. Fields (1)
  • IN: The Sam Gunn Omnibus (2007) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: A thing worth having is a thing worth cheating for.
    FROM: Cuthbert J. Twillie in "My Little Chickadee", (1940), Film, US
• Sir Humphry Davy (1)
  • IN: New Earth (2013) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Nothing is so fatal to the progress of the human mind as to suppose our views of science are ultimate; that there are no new mysteries in nature; that our triumphs are complete; and that there are no new worlds to conquer.
    FROM: Humphry Davy: Science & Power (1998) by David Knight, (1998), Book, UK
• William James (1)
  • IN: Titan (2006) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all. And often enough our faith beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result come true.
    FROM: The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897), (1897), Essay, US
• Galileo (1)
  • IN: Mars Life (2008) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
    FROM: Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina, (1615), Letter, Italy
• Seneca (1)
  • IN: Test of Fire (1982) Fiction, Science Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.
    FROM: De Providentia, (64), Essay, Italy
• Arthur Kantrowitz (1)
  • IN: The Immortality Factor (1995) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: When a conjecture inspires new hopes or creates new fears, actions is indicated. There is an important assymetry between hope, which leads to actions which will test its basis, and fear, which leads to restriction of options frequently preventing any attempt at [testing]. As we know only too well, many of our hopes do not survive their test. However, fears accumulate untested. Our inventory of untested fears has always made humanity disastrously vulnerable to thought control. Independent science's greatest triumph was the reduction of that vulnerability. [Italics added]
    FROM: NULL, (1994), NULL, US
• Paul Johnson (1)
  • IN: The Immortality Factor (1995) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Now it is a characteristic of such intellectuals that they see no incongruity in moving from their own discipline, where they are acknowledged masters, to public affairs, where they might be supposed to have no more right to a hearing than anyone else. Indeed they always claim that their special knowledge gives them valuable insights.
    FROM: Intellectuals, (1988), Book, UK
• David McCullough (1)
  • IN: Power Play (2012) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: In the nineteenth century, a German-born engineer named John Fritz, working at the Cambria Iron Company in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, captured the [can-do] spirit when, after working for months to finish the first Bessemer steel machinery in this country, he came to the plant one morning and said, “Alright, boys, let’s start her up and see why she doesn’t work.” The desire to find out what’s not working, fix it, and then maybe get it to work is an American quality and our guiding star.
    FROM: American Heritage, (2008), NULL, US
• Ambrose Bierce (1)
  • IN: Power Surge (2015) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.
    FROM: The Devil's Dictionary, (1906), NULL, US
• Ronald Reagan (1)
  • IN: Power Surge (2015) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.
    FROM: NULL, (1977), Conversation, US
• Ernest Hemingway (1)
  • IN: Farside (2013) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Yes, we, said Maera. We kill the savage's bulls, and the drunkard's bulls, and the riau-riau dancer's bulls. Yes. We kill them. We kill them all right. Yes, yes, yes.
    FROM: Chapter XIII, (1925), Short Story, US
• Spalding Gray (1)
  • IN: Death Wave (2015) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Everybody knows they are going to die, but no one really believes it.
    FROM: NULL, (None), NULL, US
• Heraclitus of Ephesus (1)
  • IN: Farside (2013) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Character determines destiny.
    FROM: NULL, (-500), NULL, Greece