Helen > Helen's Quotes

“Sometimes I think I must have a Guardian Idiot. A little invisible spirit just behind my shoulder, looking out for me...only he's an imbecile.”
― Spider Robinson, Off the Wall at Callahan's

“Librarians are the secret masters of the world. They control information. Don't ever piss one off. ”
― Spider Robinson

“ …when writing, always hook the reader with your first sentence…in love, never settle…value yourself first and this will help you to value others…life is short, so enjoy it to the fullest…everyone in the world is different, and that’s ok…”
― Spider Robinson

“Shared pain is lessened.
Shared joy is increased.
Thus we refute entropy.”
― Spider Robinson

“If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton, and a person who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron.”
― Spider Robinson

“Some guys step on a rake in the dark, and get mad and go punch somebody. Others step on a rake in the dark and fall down laughing at themselves. I know which kind of guy I'd rather be. So do my friends.”
― Spider Robinson, Callahan's Crosstime Saloon

“Just as there are laws of Conservation of Matter and Energy, so there are in fact Laws of Conservation of Pain and Joy. Neither can ever be created or destroyed. But one can be converted into the other.”
― Spider Robinson, Callahan's Crosstime Saloon

“there's nothing in the human heart or mind, no place no matter how twisted or secret, that can't be endured - if you have someone to share it with.”
― Spider Robinson, Callahan's Crosstime Saloon

“...one of the secret masters of
the world: a librarian. They
control information. Don't ever p**s one off.”
― Spider Robinson, The Callahan Touch

“This is what it is to be human: to see the essential existential futility of all action, all striving -- and to act, to strive. This is what it is to be human: to reach forever beyond your grasp. This is what it is to be human: to live forever or die trying. This is what it is to be human: to perpetually ask the unanswerable questions, in the hope that the asking of them will somehow hasten the day when they will be answered. This is what it is to be human: to strive in the face of the certainty of failure. This is what it is to be human: to persist.”
― Spider Robinson

“Well, some men learn by listening, some read, some observe and analyze — and some of us just have to pee on the electric fence.”
― Spider Robinson, Variable Star

“Shared sorrow is lessened, shared joy is increased”
― Spider Robinson, Callahan's Crosstime Saloon

“honesty is hard work.”
― Spider Robinson, Callahan's Lady

“And there's this place called college! I mean, they want you to care, dig it, care about this education trip, and they don't care enough themselves to make it as attractive as the crap game across the street!”
― Spider Robinson, Callahan's Crosstime Saloon

“...I know good design when I fail to trip over it.”
― Spider Robinson, Callahan's Secret

“Sexual intercourse vests no property rights.”
― Spider Robinson, Callahan's Secret

“Mankind is divided into two basic sorts: those who find the unknown future threatening ... and those who find it thrilling. The rupture between those two sides has been responsible for most of the bloodshed in history.”
― Spider Robinson, Variable Star

“Progress is something with no pity, and no purpose. It just happens. It chews up all you ever knew, and spits out things you can't understand, and the only value it seems to have is to make a few people a lot of money.”
― Spider Robinson, Callahan's Crosstime Saloon

“anger is always fear in disguise”
― Spider Robinson, Variable Star

“Shared pain is lessened
Shared joy is increased
Thus do we refute entropy”
― Spider Robinson

“If you've lived a bad life, they send you to Hell. But if you've been truly wicked, they give you a tour of
Heaven first...”
― Spider Robinson, Callahan's Lady

“This is what it is to be human: To see the essential existential futility of all action, all striving - and to act, to strive. This is what it is to be human: to reach forever beyond your grasp. This is what it is to be human: to live forever or die trying. This is what it is to be human: to perpetually ask the unanswerable questions, in the hope that the asking of them will somehow hasten the day when they will be answered. This is what it is to be human: to strive in the face of the certainty of failure. This is what it is to be human: to persist.”
― Spider Robinson

“I had not until then fully realized that I was odd, that there was anything strange about growing up with a single-parent genius. I thought all homes had equations scrawled with disc-marker across all the cabinets and walls, and clean laundry in the freezer, and defrosting chicken in the tool drawer. I thought everyone read a book a day and listened to hours of ancient music.”
― Spider Robinson, Variable Star

“Dreams should be forgotten when we wake. Or one day we will find ourselves unable to sleep.”
― Spider Robinson, Melancholy Elephants

“it's better than a stick in the eye”
― Spider Robinson, Callahan's Crosstime Saloon

“Shared joy is increased;
Shared pain is lessened.”
― Spider Robinson, The Callahan Chronicals

“He smiled like a sun lamp.”
― Spider Robinson, Callahan's Crosstime Saloon

“Patriotism does not mean that you think your country is perfect, or blameless, or even particularly likeable on balance; nor does it mean that you serve it blindly, go where it tells you to go and kill whom it tells you to kill. It means that you are committed to keeping it alive and making it better, that you will do whatever seems necessary (up to and including dying) to protect it whenever you, personally, perceive a mortal threat to it, military or otherwise.”
― Spider Robinson, Time Travellers Strictly Cash

“Callahan's Law:
Shared pain is lessened;
Shared joy is increased.”
― Spider Robinson

“I think of us as a people who inoculate ourselves against a plague of insanity with a powerful anti-idiotic called science fiction. I think sf is a literature which by its very nature requires that you be at least a little sane, that you know at least a little something. You must abdicate the right to be ignorant in order to enjoy science fiction, which most people are unwilling to do; and you must learn, if not actually how to think things through, at least what the trick looks like when it's done. Frequent injections will keep a lot of madness away.”
― Spider Robinson, Time Travellers Strictly Cash