Top 15 Quotes & Sayings by John W. Campbell

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American writer John W. Campbell.

Last updated on December 24, 2024.

John Wood Campbell Jr. was an American science fiction writer and editor. He was editor of Astounding Science Fiction from late 1937 until his death and was part of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Campbell wrote super-science space opera under his own name and stories under his primary pseudonym, Don A. Stuart. Campbell also used the pen names Karl Van Kampen and Arthur McCann. His novella Who Goes There? was adapted as the films The Thing from Another World (1951), The Thing (1982), and The Thing (2011).

American - Writer | June 8, 1910 - July 11, 1971

Source: Wikipedia

That's the trouble with languages. They have to be learned.

John W. Campbell

Generally, a desirable, practically attainable idea, suggested in prophecy, has a chance of forcing itself into reality by its very existence.

John W. Campbell

Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.

John W. Campbell

Science is not a sacred cow-but there are a large number of would-be sacred cowherds busily devoting quantities of time, energy and effort to the task of making it one, so they can be sacred cowherds.

John W. Campbell

Immunity corrupts; absolute immunity corrupts absolutely.

John W. Campbell

Too darned good a machine can be a menace, not a help.

John W. Campbell

No literature is sound, no philosophy of action workable, if it doesn't take a hard look at itself.

John W. Campbell

There's nothing quite so stultifying as having someone around who has all the answers-and gives them to you.

John W. Campbell

It was the law that if a white man was caught trying to educate a Negro slave, he was liable to prosecution entailing a fine of fifty dollars and a jail sentence. . . Our ignorance was the greatest hold the South had on us. We knew we could run away, but what then?

John W. Campbell

History does not always repeat itself. Sometimes it just yells, 'Can't you remember anything I told you?' and lets fly with a club.

John W. Campbell

Never accept the initial premise of the opposition.

John W. Campbell

Write me a creature that thinks as well as a man or better than a man, but not like a man.

John W. Campbell

We presuppose two things: that there is yet to be learned infinitely more than is now known, and that man can learn it.

John W. Campbell

Pioneering basically amounts to finding new and more horrible ways to die

John W. Campbell

Man studied birds for centuries, trying to learn how to make a machine to fly like them. He never did do the trick; his final success came when he broke away entirely and tried new methods.

John W. Campbell

Top 15 Quotes & Sayings by John W. Campbell

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