Ringworld Quotes

“The gods do not protect fools. Fools are protected by more capable fools.”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“Humans," said the puppeteer, "should not be allowed to run loose. You will surely harm yourselves.”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“Exercise is wonderful," said Louis. "I could sit and watch it all day.”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“The perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“For two hundred and fifty years the kzinti had not attacked human space. They had nothing to attack with. For two hundred and fifty years men had not attacked the kzinti worlds; and no kzin could understand it. Men confused them terribly.”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“On a world built to ordered specification, there was no logical reason for such a mountain to exist. Yet every world should have at least one unclimbable mountain.”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“Long ago, Louis Wu had stood at the void edge of Mount Lookitthat. The Long Fall River, on that world, ends in the tallest waterfall in known space. Louis's eyes had followed it down as far as they could penetrate the void mist. The featureless white of the void itself had grasped at his mind, and Louis Wu, half hypnotized, had sworn to live forever. How else could he see all there was to see?
Now he reaffirmed that decision.”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“Music had played suddenly through the cabin, complex and lovely, rich in minor tones, like the sad call of a sex-maddened computer. Nessus whistled.”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“The puppeteer unrolled completely. 'Did I hear you call me cute?”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“Louis suggested that the ship be called 'Lying Bastard'. For their own reasons, Teela and Speaker agreed. For his own reason, Nessus did not object.”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“The luck of Teela Brown.”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“Nothing that works is silly.”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“They do not use lasers, they do not use radio, they do not use hyperwave. What are they using for communication? Telepathy? Written messages? Big mirrors?" "Parrots," Louis suggested. He got up to join them at the door to the control room. "Huge parrots, specially bred for their oversized lungs. They're too big to fly. They just sit on hilltops and scream at each other.”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“Gradually he was learning the size, the scale of the Ringworld. It was unpleasant, like all learning processes. He”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“Once Louis Wu had sworn to live forever.”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“From afar he saw what Speaker was doing, and he called "Hold it! That's not necessary." Speaker had drawn the modified digging tool. He said, "Does it have to be necessary?”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“so that the ship was falling toward the sun; and then he swung the nose inward and began to increase velocity”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“It does not disturb me to play a god," he said. "It disturbs me to play a god badly.”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“Because she was designed human, before Nessus made her something else. Tanj him! Do you see what he did? He created god in his own image, his own idealized image, and he got Teela Brown. "She's just what any puppeteer would give his soul to be. She can't be injured. She can't even be uncomfortable, unless it's for her own benefit.”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“Then you can go home to the puppeteer worlds and tell them that mucking with human breeding habits is a chancy business. Tell them that enough Teela Browns could make a hash of all the laws of probability. Even basic physics is nothing more than probability at the atomic level. Tell them the universe is too complicated a toy for a sensibly cautious being to play with.”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“Skill. She must know more anatomy than most professors. A doctorate in Prostitution? There was more to the oldest profession than met the eye. Louis Wu could recognize expertise in any field. This woman had it.”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“She risks her own life, Louis thought, then blames me for not getting angry. An attention-getting device? How long has she been doing it? Anyone else would die young, with a habit like that!”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“Louis Wu hardly noticed this triumph of practicality over honor, intelligence over xenophobia.”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“The air smelled of ozone and puppeteers.”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“Danger doesn't exist for Teela Brown,”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“Remember the Finagle Laws. The perversity of the universe tends toward a maximum. The universe is hostile." "But”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“The gods do not protect fools. Fools are protected by more capable fools. She'd”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“Nessus sprawled bonelessly in his couch. He looked ridiculously, ludicrously comfortable.”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“But you've never even been as far as the Moon.”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

“One kzin alone sounded like a catfight. Four kzinti in heated argument sounded like a major feline war, with atomics.”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld