The problem with aging is not that it's one damn thing after another—it's every damn thing, all at once, all the time.

Damn real live people, getting in the way of peaceful ideals.

You can’t afford anthropomorphic biases when some of the aliens most like us would rather make human hamburgers than peace.

Trust your weapon, it is almost certainly smarter than you are. Remember this and you may yet live.

What is it like when you lose someone you love?" Jane asked."You die, too. And you wait around for your body to catch up.

Part of what makes us human is what we mean to other people, and what people mean to us. I miss meaning something to someone, having that part of being human.

I'm going to go pee. If the universe is bigger and stranger than I can imagine, it's best to meet it with an empty bladder.

The universe isn't going to be conquered by legions of geriatrics. No offense.

The universe is a big place. Maybe we're not in the best neighborhood.

Relations were never good (how comfortable can you really be with a race that sees you as a nutritious part of a complete breakfast).

What we don't know can't hurt us.

The conclusion of things is the good. The good is, in other words, the conclusion at which all things arrive. Let's leave doubt for tomorrow, " Komatsu said. "That is the point.

Travel spoils you for regular life.

Even if you don't understand the language, you can still love the music.

The enormous energy of the twentieth century, enough to drive the planet into a new orbit around a happier star, was being expended to maintain this immense motionless pause.

There are so many ways to respond to music besides feeling like someone's communicating with you. It gives me a charge.

To be good to yourself ... Sometimes it seems that takes a special talent all its own.

You can't live in the past, there's nothing you can do about it.

Nobody can change your religion unless you want to and God gives you the grace. It's between you and God alone. Nobody can force you.

I'm the only person I know that's lost a quarter of a billion dollars in one year. It's very character-building.

My parents kept us sheltered from this world of Hollywood. I don't have any great memories of bouncing on Cary Grant's knee or something like that