"It was hardly fair to his opponents, but I have never had much sympathy for the victims of gambling sharks. If they were not trying to get something for nothing, they would not expose themselves to being taken."

"In all these fights and flights I have never known that mad joy of battle of which the epics speak. Before the combat I am frightened, during it I am confused, and after it I am weary and disgusted."

"There was no harder-boiled materialist than I; I rejected Marxism as too mystical and not materialistic enough."

"“You make it sound wonderful, sir. Could I but be sure…” “Wait to be sure of anything and you will find yourself looking out through the sides of a funerary urn, your quest unaccomplished.”"

"Antis, looking up from his fire-making to watch the flying fish, remarked, “That’s an omen of change.” “What is?” “When a flying fish circles withershins.” “Oh, silly! You see omens in everything, and changes are always occurring.”"

"There must be something. No, nothing. But there must be, if she could only be clever enough to think of it. What, then? How do you know there is anything to think of? There simply must be. But that’s wretched logic; things don’t exist because you wish they did…"

"Kanadas, watching from the rail, said: “I wish I go with them.” A tear ran down his dark face. “It is against my religion to travel over sea.” “Everything’s against your religion, laddie,” I said. “Of course. That shows it is very pure, moral religion.”"

"The knowledge of how to slay each other more swiftly is no true advance in civilization."

"Alas, with what fortitude do we bear others’ misfortunes!"

"Not even a god, they say, could be at once wise and in love."

"The jackal fell into a dye pot and thought himself a peacock."

"One man’s wickedness becomes all men’s curse."

"“‘The first in banquets, but the last in battle,’” quoted Pyrron. “Still and all, he suffered from the king’s disease.” “What is that?” “Self-conceit, which, as the proverb says, leads to self-destruction.”"

"“I’ve been looking forward to serious talks with you, O philosopher, but I have been over-busy with my duties.” “You’ll be frightfully disappointed. I gnaw at people’s basic assumptions, and most folk loathe having their basic assumptions disturbed.” “I fear no truth, however painful.”"

"These folk are such liars that they think all other men are, too."

"That man has convinced me that he is a veritable philosopher. No ordinary man could be so awkward and absent-minded."

"It was very puzzling. Why had all this happened to her? In the old days, according to her researches, one blamed a jealous or capricious god for one’s undeserved misfortunes, but nobody had taken the gods seriously for generations. It was, thinkers agreed, a case of the mysterious operations of luck. Emotionally, however, blind chance was a poor substitute for a god when you wanted something on which to turn your resentment at the hard treatment accorded you by fate."

"The wise man does not defy necessity."

"Either the letter had been lost on the way; or, more likely, Menon had neglected to write it. Were I Zeus, I would appoint a special fiend to harass those who do not write the letters they have promised."

"“From all I gather, love of individuals is more important among you than love of your Community. If that’s the case, how can your Communities be well run?” “Mostly they aren’t,” said Bloch, relighting his pipe. “But we have a lot of fun.”"

"“Cold comfort,” said Bloch. “Like most oracular verse, full of vague ominous intimations of nothing in particular.”"

"I am sorry, my dear, but that is the best advice we can give you. If some irrational rule of your society prevents, so much the worse for your society."

"I’ve been saying a special prayer to Eunmar; did you know I believe in the old gods? If you try hard enough, I’ve found, you can believe anything."

"For thousands of years, priests and philosophers have told us to love mankind without giving any sound reason for loving the creatures. The mass of them are a lot of cruel, treacherous, hairless apes. They hate us intellectuals, longhairs, highbrows, eggheads, or double-domes, despite—or perhaps because—without us they would still be running naked in the wilderness and turning over flat stones for their meals. Love them? Hah!"

"I fear me that the eighteenth century, which I have idealized all these years, never really existed. The real one was far dirtier, more narrow-minded, brutal, orthodox, and superstitious than I could have ever conceived without seeing it."

"His voice had a hypnotic quality, which lulled one into a kind of passive daze. One ended with the impression that one had had a wonderful revelation but without remembering much of what the Master had actually said. Some of his assertions seem to contradict what others had told me of his doctrines; but I understood that he brought out a new doctrine every month or two, keeping his suckers too confused to think."

"It must be that Terran love of theirs. Remember the quicksand? Whatever troubles it may cause, that kind of love makes them run risks for each other they wouldn’t for anybody else."

"As the Persians say, kindness to the lion is cruelty to the lamb."

"But what argument could I offer? It was nothing but an irrational feeling—the kind of “premonition” we get from time to time but remember only on the rare occasions when it is fulfilled by the event. I had no evidence."

"We rented an apartment in a rambly wooden-frame building, a block from the beach. This was before the waterfront sprouted a host of huge condominiums, like a plague of concrete mushrooms."

"As you know, Monsieur Newbury, the civilization is but a thin crust over our savage interiors, no matter if our skins be white or black. We must try to keep this shell of egg intact."

"I once read that the Devil studied Basque for seven years and only learned two words."

"I passed that off as women’s intuition, which is wrong more often than not. People remember the times it works and forget those it fails."

"The old have nothing to pace themselves for, she’d say. This is the final sprint. Run. Run. See how far you can get before you fall."

"Age had not yet defeated her on all fronts, though it was a war of attrition she knew she was fated to lose."

"While it is true that notoriety offers certain benefits, it is not by any means confirmed that those benefits compensate for the disadvantages."

"We claim the dignity of age, she thought, but the truth is, age leaves us without any dignity at all."

"“Cultural hegemony is based on conformity,” he said, after a pause long enough that she had expected to go unanswered. “Siege mentality. Look at oppressed philosophies, religions—or religions that cast themselves as oppressed to encourage that kind of defensiveness. Logic has no pull. What the lizard brain wants, the monkey brain justifies, and when things are scary, anything different is the enemy. Can come up with a hundred pseudological reasons why, but they all boil down to one thing: if you aren’t one of us, you’re one of them.”"

"“You ever needed to disprove the existence of a Creator God,” he said, “the miracle of efficiency that the human body isn’t would be a fucking good place to start.”"

"There were idiots on every planet who considered possession more important than morality."

"Kusanagi-Jones was long past feeling guilt about lying. Conscience was one of the first things to go. If he’d ever had much of one to begin with, the job had burned it out."

"“Kill or be killed,” Vincent said, next best thing to a mantra."

"Depression is realism."

"We need what we need. Judging ourselves doesn’t change it. Sometimes a hug and a cookie right now mean more than a grand gesture at some indeterminate point in the future."

"Any government founded on a political or religious agenda more elaborate than “protect the weak, temper the strong” is doomed to tyranny."

"The world is full of the markers of abandoned empires, from Hadrian’s Wall to the Great Wall of China, from the remnants of the one in Arizona to the remnants of the one in Berlin."

"Can you imagine a planet full of assholes who used to just…cut down trees?"

"And I admit, I don’t like dying very much myself. But I look forward to Death herself, once the dying is over."