Yes,I'm afraid you're right. Trial and error isn't a bad way to learn how to build an aircraft,but it can be a disastrous way to learn how to build a civilization.

If the world is saved, it will not be saved by old minds with new programs but by new minds with no programs at all.

Indigenous people believe that Man belongs to the World; civilized people believe that the World belongs to Man.

If you can’t discover what’s keeping you in, the will to get out soon becomes confused and ineffectual - "Ishmael

The premise of the Taker story is 'the world belongs to man'. … The premise of the Leaver story is 'man belongs to the world'.

The world of the Takers is one vast prison, and except for a handful of Leavers scattered across the world, the entire human race is now inside that prison.

Don't try to drive the homeless into places we find suitable. Help them survive in places they find suitable.

There is no one right way to live.

[A]ny species that exempts itself from the rules of competition ends up destroying the community in order to support its own expansion.

Don't wait. Where do you expect to get by waiting? Doing is what teaches you. Doing is what leads to inspiration. Doing is what generates ideas. Nothing else, and nothing less.

No one species shall make the life of the world its own.' … That's one expression of the law. Here's another: 'The world was not made for any one species.

Tell yourself the stories you need to tell. But don't be fooled by them. Never live your own lies.

Ambition is a drug that turns it's addicts into potential madmen.

Religion and philosophy are to be preserved distinct. We are not to introduce divine revelations into philosophy, nor philosophical opinions into religion.

They always win who side with God.

When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.

For me, it's really important to be able to compete on the highest level.

I have frequently gained my first real insight into the character of parents by studying their children.

I was part of Quintuplets, I played a cat - this is my first drama.

There is probably no greater idler than myself. And I would consider myself a lazy-bones if I did not write so many volumes, and if I did not admire my diligence once I begin writing.

All great truths begin as blasphemy. Every single revolutionary idea that has ever been visited upon the human experience began as an idea which was rejected.