Doctor Edmund L. Harrison (Ed Harrison) Quotes in Player Piano
“What am I going to do? Farm, maybe. I’ve got a nice little farm.”
“Farm, eh?” Harrison clucked his tongue reflectively. “Farm. Sounds wonderful. I’ve thought of that: up in the morning with the sun; working out there with your hands in the earth, just you and nature. If I had the money, sometimes I think maybe I’d throw this—”
“You want a piece of advice from a tired old man?”
“Depends on which tired old man. You?”
“Me. Don’t put one foot in your job and the other in your dreams, Ed. Go ahead and quit, or resign yourself to this life. It’s just too much of a temptation for fate to split you right up the middle before you’ve made up your mind which way to go.”
“What have you got against machines?” said Buck.
“They’re slaves.”
“Well, what the heck,” said Buck. “I mean, they aren’t people. They don’t suffer. They don’t mind working.”
“No. But they compete with people.”
“That’s a pretty good thing, isn’t it—considering what a sloppy job most people do of anything?”
“Anything that competes with slaves becomes a slave,” said Harrison thickly, and he left.
Doctor Edmund L. Harrison (Ed Harrison) Quotes in Player Piano
“What am I going to do? Farm, maybe. I’ve got a nice little farm.”
“Farm, eh?” Harrison clucked his tongue reflectively. “Farm. Sounds wonderful. I’ve thought of that: up in the morning with the sun; working out there with your hands in the earth, just you and nature. If I had the money, sometimes I think maybe I’d throw this—”
“You want a piece of advice from a tired old man?”
“Depends on which tired old man. You?”
“Me. Don’t put one foot in your job and the other in your dreams, Ed. Go ahead and quit, or resign yourself to this life. It’s just too much of a temptation for fate to split you right up the middle before you’ve made up your mind which way to go.”
“What have you got against machines?” said Buck.
“They’re slaves.”
“Well, what the heck,” said Buck. “I mean, they aren’t people. They don’t suffer. They don’t mind working.”
“No. But they compete with people.”
“That’s a pretty good thing, isn’t it—considering what a sloppy job most people do of anything?”
“Anything that competes with slaves becomes a slave,” said Harrison thickly, and he left.