Three Books of Known Space Quotes

“But the more property a man has, the less likely he is to want to commit a crime. It gives the crew something to protect,”
― Larry Niven, Three Books of Known Space

“It turns out that if you show a man something and measure his pupil with a camera, you can tell whether it interests him.”
― Larry Niven, Three Books of Known Space

“Sometimes the only sensible thing to do is panic!”
― Larry Niven, Three Books of Known Space

“Eight point three light-years from Sol, almost directly between Sol and Tau Ceti, lie the twin red dwarf stars L726-8.”
― Larry Niven, Three Books of Known Space

“infantry, which means killing on foot and doesn’t have anything to do with children”
― Larry Niven, Three Books of Known Space

“Aristarchus”
― Larry Niven, Three Books of Known Space

“Police, maybe; but what’s wrong with privately owned police?”
― Larry Niven, Three Books of Known Space

“What can a government do for people that people can’t do for themselves?”
― Larry Niven, Three Books of Known Space

“discretion is the better part of cowardice.”
― Larry Niven, Three Books of Known Space

“He had a compass, so he would not walk in circles.”
― Larry Niven, Three Books of Known Space

“his jaws opened wide and his lips pulled back from the needle fangs in a smile more terrible than Tyrannosaurus rex chasing a paleontologist,”
― Larry Niven, Three Books of Known Space

“Putting a monkey wrench in machinery is often the only way to force somebody to repair, replace, or redesign the machinery. Especially legal or social machinery.”
― Larry Niven, Three Books of Known Space

“and I thought, suppose he was in space and something went wrong. He might have put himself in slow time to wait for rescue. And rescue never came.”
― Larry Niven, Three Books of Known Space

“Never had there been a nudist as hairy as this. Not just a five o’clock shadow, but a full beard all over, so to speak.”
― Larry Niven, Three Books of Known Space