"Shanne said, “You are quiet; are you sad?” “In a way. Do you know why?” She put her hand across his mouth. “Never speak of it. What must be, will be. What can never be—can never be.” Ghyl turned to look at her, trying to divine every last scintilla of her meaning. “But,” she added in a soft voice, “what can be—can be.”"

"“Tomorrow?” “Sh.” She put her hand across his lips. “Never say the word!”"

"Control is necessary and even good—so long as I do the controlling."

"Ghyl laughed also. “If I'm too serious, you're too irresponsible.” “Bah,” retorted Floriel. “Is the world responsible? Of course not! The world is random, vagrant, heedless. To be responsible is to be out of phase, to be insane!” Ghyl pondered a moment. “This is perhaps the case, in a world left to itself. But society imposes order. Living in a society, it is not insane to be responsible.”"

"Freedom, privileges, options, must constantly be exercised, even at the risk of inconvenience. Otherwise they fall into desuetude and become unfashionable, unorthodox—finally irregulationary."

"Happiness is fugitive; dissatisfaction and boredom are real."

"You emphasize morality. But the ultimate basis of morality is survival. What promotes survival is good; what induces mortifaction is bad."

"I know that the history of man is not his technical triumphs, his kills, his victories. It is a composite, a mosaic of a trillion pieces, the account of each man’s accommodation with his conscience. This is the true history of the race."

"Claghorn had long insisted that no human condition endured forever, with the corollary that the more complicated such a condition, the greater its susceptibility to change."

"The life we’ve been leading couldn’t last forever. It’s a wonder it lasted as long as it did."

"In the end, death came uniformly to all, and all extracted as much satisfaction from their dying as this essentially graceless process could afford."

"“Now it seems that Roger has once more taken up with Miss Roswyn. I can’t say that I approve, but he has not troubled to ask my advice.” She heaved a sigh. “But I am sure that the world will never go precisely to my liking.” “Does it for anyone?” asked Bernard Bickel with good-natured cynicism. “Probably not, and I must reconcile myself to the fact.”"

"He looked around the landscape. Drenched in the golden haze of late afternoon it seemed wonderfully tranquil and beautiful, though permeated with a sense of remoteness and even melancholy, like a scene remembered from one’s youth."

"“I'm sure you didn’t mean to hurt anyone.” Madoc Roswyn laughed a soft forlorn laugh. “The sad truth is that I didn’t care—which may be worse.”"

"And I understand they are, in a sense, artists? That is to say, they understand the creative process, the sublimation of fact to symbol and the use of symbol to suggest emotion?"

"We are sufficiently at the mercy of machines, Roger; if our music must necessarily be mechanical, then it is time for us to throw in the sponge, and abandon all hope for the future of humanity."

"He was neither lazy nor incompetent; he merely had occupational claustrophobia."

"Roger tried to find out all about her: he wanted, in one brief hour, to make up for a lifetime of non-acquaintance, a lifetime for all practical purposes wasted."

"Music is like a language: you cannot understand it unless you learn it, or more accurately, are born into it."

"How to know, oh how to know! All is relative ease and facility in orthodoxy, yet how can it be denied that good is in itself undeniable? Absolutes are the most uncertain of all formulations, while the uncertainties are the most real..."

"If there were no such creatures as minstrel-maidens, it would be necessary to invent them."

"“It seems that you are wrong, that you are guided by faith indeed.” The Demie fell silent. His face seemed to stiffen. “Are these not facts?” asked Joaz. “How do you reconcile them with your faith? The Demie said mildly, “Facts can never be reconciled with faith.”"

"Since we are not permitted to act, we are obliged to know."

"Gambling, in the ultimate study, stems from the passive, the submissive, the irresponsible in human nature; the gambler is one of an inferior lickspittle breed who turns himself belly-upward to the capricious deeds of Luck. Examine now the man of strength and action: he is never led by destiny. He drives on a decided course, manipulates the variables, and instead of submitting to the ordained shape of his life, creates a pattern to his own design."

"Kergan Banbeck threw up his hands, turned once more to the sacerdote. “How can I halt his nonsense? How can I make him see reason? The sacerdote reflected. “He speaks not nonsense, but rather a language you fail to understand. You can make him understand your language by erasing all knowledge and training from his mind, and replacing it with patterns of your own.”"

"“You will understand,” said the Weaponeer, “that a pattern for events exists. It is the function of such as myself to shape events so that they will fit the pattern.” He bent, with a graceful sweep of arm, and seized a small jagged pebble. “Just as I can grind this bit of rock to fit a round aperture.” Kergan Banbeck reached forward, took the pebble, tossed it high over the tumbled boulders. “That bit of rock you shall never shape to fit a round hole.” The Weaponeer shook his head in mild deprecation. “There is always more rock.” “And there are always more holes,” declared Kergan Banbeck."

"When you demand the nature of my motives, you reveal the style of your thinking to be callow, captious, superficial, craven, uncertain and impudent."

"Your thoughts move with the deft precision of worm-tracks in the mud."

"There are no absolute certainties in this universe. A man must try to whip order into a yelping pack of probabilities, and uniform success is impossible."

"“I learned a great deal,” said Beran. “And then I lost all heart for further learning.” Palafox’s eyes glinted. “Education is not achieved through the heart—it is a systematization of the mental processes.” “But I am something other than a mental process,” said Beran. “I am a man. I must reckon with the whole of myself.”"

"“Truth” is contained in the preconceptions of him who seeks to define it. Any organization of ideas whatever presupposes a judgment on the world."

"Speaking our language, you will understand us—and if you can think as another man thinks, you cannot dislike him."

"“Do you still think I’m crazy?” Her glance went to his left shoulder. “I’m not well enough acquainted with the norm of your people to judge.” Barch rose to his feet. He said thickly, “About ten more minutes of double talk, I actually would be crazy.”"

"The curious race, the Earthers. Young, only a few years removed from savagery, contaminated by the past, correspondingly exuberant and direct."

"Komeitk Lelianr said in a colorless voice, “Barch is from the planet Earth.” “Earth?” “Out in the Efrstl region.” Komeitk Lelianr looked at Barch dispassionately. “His people are socially disorganized, technically limited, ruled by emotion. But any kind of challenge seems to arouse in them a feverish energy. Burch thinks of it as dynamism. It is a necessity for action, no matter whether or not towards impossible ends. Rationality is a curiously ineffective argument against him; you are forced to think in his terms.”"

"You have no concept of Magarak’s reality; you refuse to think; you live by ready-made emotional doctrines—a substitute for thought. What is worse, you try to wrench reality to fit your ideas."

"“What’s the trouble? Given up?” “What is there to give up?” “Confidence.” She said in a soft voice, “We’re slaves; slaves have no need for confidence.” “I’m not a slave until I feel like a slave.”"

"“There is war between us that perhaps you cannot completely understand—a long-range combat of our—” she sought for a word to express a complex Lekthwan idea “— moral vitality. In the end we will win. Meanwhile many people suffer.” She shrugged. “The universe is not a paradise.”"

"The merchant voiced an inarticulate protest. Glystra glared at him, “Do you think I trust you?” “Trust?” said the merchant with a puzzled expression. “Trust? What word is that?” And he tested it several times more."

"Now was the present, now was the time containing that sweet union of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, spirit, will and imagination named Nancy."

"A barbarian is not aware that he is a barbarian."

"A man is like a rope: both break at a definite strain....The solution is not splicing the rope; it’s lessening the tension."

"The history of man is a compendium of such evil. We are an evolutionary product, descendants of predators. A few synthetic foods aside, every morsel eaten by man is taken from another living thing. We are intended for murder; we kill to exist!"

"“It is simple dog-eat-dog,” said Waylock. It’s basic battle for survival, fiercer and more brutal than ever before in the history of man. You have blinded yourself; you subscribe to false theories; you are permeated with your obsession—not only you but all of us. If we faced the facts of existence, our palliatories would be less crowded.”"

"“The crime,” said the Jacynth softly, “is abstract and fundamental: the innate depravity of extinguishing life.”"

"The void is a mouth crying to be filled, a blank mind aching for thought, a cavity desperate for shape. What is not implies what is."

"Another busy day! So let’s to business. The clock moves forward; wasted time is life defeated!"

"He’s like an imbecile with a pepper shaker; a little makes his food taste good, therefore a lot will make it wonderful."

"He must approach the subject critically, alert for contradictions, pedantry and vagueness."