Jack McDevitt

If you're right, and nobody really cares what's out there, I wonder whether we're even worth saving.

— Jack McDevitt

The cultures we can look at had already grasped the essential unity of nature. No board of gods can survive that knowledge.

— Jack McDevitt

An optimist is somebody who thinks our various political and social systems, schools and churches, support groups and Boy Scout troops, jury…

— Jack McDevitt

Decisions are always made with insufficient information. If you really knew what was going on, the decision would make itself.

— Jack McDevitt

“And, in a way, we're all time travelers. Somehow, the entire temporal stream exists, but we're only conscious of a single moment.”

— Jack McDevitt

All of the important things ... will turn out to be universally shared. It's why there will be no true aliens.

— Jack McDevitt

Idiots are not responsible for what they do. The real guilt falls on rational people who sit on their hands while morons…

— Jack McDevitt

So we have progressed to the point where we can move politicians around faster than light. I'm not sure I see the…

— Jack McDevitt

When I was teaching English and trying to get kids passionate about reading, the most effective weapon I had was 'The Martian…

— Jack McDevitt

Katie commented that Americans had lost the ability to enjoy themselves. "We watch television," Dave said.

— Jack McDevitt

“We live along the shores of night, At the edge of the eternal sea.”

— Jack McDevitt

One SF prediction that I would like very much to see: Get solar collectors launched to beam energy back home, and get…

— Jack McDevitt

There's not much to be said for sightseeing. You go somewhere that has a waterfall. You have a beer, watch the water…

— Jack McDevitt

What would happen is that people like Geroge and Alyx would grow old and die chasing a dream. Although there were probably…

— Jack McDevitt

Truth, beaten down, may well rise again. But there's a reason it gets beaten down. Usually we don't like it very much.

— Jack McDevitt

Life is a walk in the fog. Most people don't know that. They're fooled by the sunlight into thinking they can see…

— Jack McDevitt

The problem is that too often the only people who can act don't want change. Power doesn't so much corrupt as it…

— Jack McDevitt

“And never forget," Michael said, "time travelers never die. No matter what you saw up ahead, about me, I'll always be here.”

— Jack McDevitt

Most of us sleepwalk through our lives. We take all its glories, its wine, food, love, and friendship, its sunsets and its…

— Jack McDevitt

The Peacekeepers had a tradition that every problem had a solution. It was a nice slogan. Wasn't true, but it sounded good.

— Jack McDevitt

So long as men and women are free, no one is safe. People will be in danger because others can't operate vehicles…

— Jack McDevitt

Man has always seen himself the peak of creation. The part of the universe that thinks. The purpose for it all. It's…

— Jack McDevitt

The uplifters are forever running around telling blockheads they would do better if they would believe in themselves. But they already do.…

— Jack McDevitt

So long as you believe in some truth you do not believe in yourself. You are a servant. A man of faith.

— Jack McDevitt

“Money bought access. But the Second American Revolution had happened, people began taking the Constitution seriously again, and the practice of renting…

— Jack McDevitt