What would happen is that people like Geroge and Alyx would grow old and die chasing a dream. Although there were probably worse things to do with one's life.

It is not faith per se that creates the problem; it is conviction, the notion that one cannot be wrong, that opposing views are necessarily invalid and may even be intolerable.

The uplifters are forever running around telling blockheads they would do better if they would believe in themselves. But they already do. That is why they are blockheads.

The measure of a civilization is in the courage, not of its soldiers, but of its bystanders.

... the truth is that when your people don't tell you what you need to know, it's a failure of leadership.

We could never know who we truly were until we heard the whispers of the stars.

Boundaries have no existence save on charts or in small minds. Nature does not draw lines.

Man has always seen himself the peak of creation. The part of the universe that thinks. The purpose for it all. It's no doubt a gratifying view, but the universe may have a different opinion.

Show me what a people admire, and I will tell you everything about them that matters.

Universal deities ... never seem to smile. Not in any culture. What's the point of having omnipotence if you don't enjoy it?

The problem is that too often the only people who can act don't want change. Power doesn't so much corrupt as it breeds conservatism.

When you perceive through your senses, the object may be, of the outside world, but you see the object, inside of you, in your awareness field.

A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind.

The space program needs a goal, and the goal should be humans to Mars.

I think I really produce my best work in Iran.

Tiny tweaks can lead to big changes.

It's not the cards that you have all the time that makes you a winner or a loser.

Whiskey just naturally likes me but beer likes me better.

I am no longer going to become a fictional character to please people. That's too much work.

Quintana of Charyn's body was a map of hatred.