"We were snatched away and given alone into the hands of people who believed that it was their duty to break us and remake us in the Christian American image. And, of course, breaking people is much easier than putting them together again. So much agony caused, so much evil done in God’s name."

"Now I have been raped. It happened twice. Once on Monday, and again yesterday. It is my Christmas gift from Christian America."

"When vision fails Direction is lost. When direction is lost Purpose may be forgotten. When purpose if forgotten Emotion rules alone. When emotion rules alone, Destruction...destruction."

"Beware: Ignorance Protects itself Ignorance Promotes suspicion. Suspicion Engenders fear. Fear quails, Irrational and blind, Or fear looms, Defiant and closed. Blind, closed, Suspicious, afraid, Ignorance Protects itself, And protected, Ignorance grows."

":::into slavery."

":::and those you love"

":::is to sell yourself"

":To be led by a tyrant"

":::to be lied to."

":::is to ask"

":To be led by a liar"

":::to be stolen."

":::your most precious treasures"

":::is to offer up"

":To be led by a thief"

":::who control the fool."

":::by the opportunists"

":::is to be led"

":To be led by a fool"

":::by all that the coward fears."

":::is to be controlled"

":To be led by a coward"

":::with wisdom and forethought."

"If everyone could feel everyone else’s pain, who would torture?"

"Civilization is to groups what intelligence is to individuals. It is a means of combining the intelligence of many to achieve ongoing group adaptation."

"All struggles Are essentially Power struggles. Who will rule, Who will lead, Who will define, refine, confine, design, Who will dominate. All struggles Are essentially Power struggles, And most are no more intellectual than two rams knocking their heads together."

"The Destiny of Earthseed Is to take root among the stars."

"A tree Cannot grow In its parents’ shadows."

"It’s better to teach people than to scare them, Lauren. If you scare them and nothing happens, they lose their fear, and you lose some of your authority with them."

"I realize I don’t know very much. None of us knows very much. But we can all learn more. Then we can teach one another. We can stop denying reality or hoping it will go away by magic."

"People have changed the climate of the world. Now they’re waiting for the old days to come back’"

"Sometimes I write to keep from going crazy. There’s a world of things I don’t feel free to talk to anyone about."

"A victim of God may, Through learning adaption, Become a partner of God, A victim of God may, Through forethought and planning, Become a shaper of God. Or a victim of God may, Through shortsightedness and fear, Remain God’s victim, God’s plaything, God’s prey."

"Intelligence is ongoing, individual adaptability. Adaptations that an intelligent species may make in a single generation, other species make over many generations of selective breeding and selective dying. Yet intelligence is demanding. If it is misdirected by accident or by intent, it can foster its own orgies of breeding and dying."

"Dad decided not to vote for Donner after all. He didn’t vote for anyone. He said politicians turned his stomach."

"People here in the neighborhood are saying she had no business going to Mars, anyway. All that money wasted on another crazy space trip when so many people here on earth can’t afford water, food, or shelter"