Keith Laumer

I was still alive, but that was a mere detail, subject to change. (p. 13)

— Keith Laumer

Adventure has been defined as somebody else having a difficult time, a long way away. (p. 17)

— Keith Laumer

The last burst picked me up and threw me a thousand miles into an open grave and the mud showered down on me and a giant tombstone fell out of the sky to mark the place, but I didn’t care any more, because I was far away, in that place where the heroes and the cowards lie together with a fine impartiality, waiting for eternity to pass, slowly, like a procession of snails creeping across an endless desert toward a distant line of mountains. (p. 18)

— Keith Laumer

“You’re talking to yourself.”“It’s all right. I’m not listening.” (p. 78)

— Keith Laumer

“All right. Let’s begin with the world situation.”“I’d prefer a more cheerful subject—like cancer.”

— Keith Laumer

Yours is not to reason why, eh? I guess you’re lucky at that. It’s not dying that hurts—it’s living.

— Keith Laumer

“Why do you fight this war?”The alien mind howled out its war slogan—as incomprehensible as an astrologer’s jargon.

— Keith Laumer

Out of the synthesis of opposites, a cancerous growth called Beauty came into being; obscene antisurvival concepts named Loyalty, Courage, Justice were born into the universe.Wherever the elemental Purities encountered this monstrous hybrid, a battle of extermination was joined. Good could compromise with Evil, but neither could meet with the half-breed, Art.

— Keith Laumer

Rules had been made, and even enforced from time to time. When the first absolute prohibition of time meddling came along, it was already far too late.

— Keith Laumer

“Take it easy, girl,” I said, and patted her shoulder; I knew my touching her would chill her down again. Not a nice thing to know, but useful.

— Keith Laumer

Don’t go female on me now. We don’t have time for nonsense.

— Keith Laumer

“Are you all right?” Mellia said.“It’s nothing a month in the intensive care unit wouldn’t clear up.”

— Keith Laumer

Sure—that’s the concept. It wouldn’t be the first concept that had to be modified in the face of experience.

— Keith Laumer

One nice thing about working with a piece of machinery: you don’t waste time trying to justify your actions.

— Keith Laumer

Less than total control is no control at all. You will obey my instructions, Mr. Ravel. In every detail. Or I will scrap the project.

— Keith Laumer

It was a nasty little village, poverty-stricken, ugly, hostile, much like little towns in all times and climes.

— Keith Laumer

The Karg looked at her with the interested expression of a coroner who sees his customer twitch.

— Keith Laumer

Too late, I realized how I had trapped myself. I had let sleep in as a guest, and death had slipped through the door.

— Keith Laumer

“Impossible!” he said, as if he believed it—or as if he wanted awfully badly to believe it.

— Keith Laumer

An idea was beginning to get through, and he wasn’t liking it very well.

— Keith Laumer