"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."

"The world is full of people who, if they got to Heaven, would complain about the tune of the harps and the dampness of the clouds."

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

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

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

"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 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.”"

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

"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!"

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

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

"He wouldn’t be much of a diplomat if he couldn’t lie with a straight face."

"“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.”"

"“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.”"

"“Hypocrite,” she said. But she laughed. “Doesn’t it get tiring being so damned morally superior all the time?”"

"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."

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

"Strike two for Utopia. The problem with the damned things always comes when you try to introduce actual people into your philosophical constructs."

"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."

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

"I said, “It just seems weird that I’m in bed with somebody I’ve never met.” As I said it I realized how foolish it was. Anytime you’re in bed with somebody, you’re in bed with everybody who came before you—everybody who hurt them, healed them, shaped them. All those ghosts are in the room."

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

"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."

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

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

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

"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."

"“Pray, sir,” said she, “tell me only, where am I?” “Why, in Hell, to be sure,” said he, with a hearty laugh. “Oh, thank goodness!” cried she. “I thought I was in Buenos Aires.”"

"Now, producers are known to be God-like creatures, and the chief point of resemblance is that they must either create new stars or have no public."

"It is a sad reflection on life that when there is only one thing to do it is always extremely unpleasant."

"She was complete in every particular, and all of the highest quality; she was a picture gallery, an anthology of the poets, a precipitation of all that has ever been dreamed of love: her goodly eyes like Saphyres shining bright, her forehead yvory white, her cheeks lyke apples which the sun hath rudded, her lips lyke cherryes charming men to bite, her brest lyke to a bowle of creame uncrudded, her paps lyke a lyllies budded, her snowie neck lyke to a marble towre; and all her body like a pallace fayre, ascending up, with many a stately stayre, to honours seat and chastities sweet bowre."

"There is no bore like a despairing lover."

"“That does not take you to Hell,” said Louis, “but only to Barons Court. The mistake is pardonable.”"

"Alice and Irwin were as simple and as happy as any young couple in a family-style motion picture. In fact, they were even happier, for people were not looking at them all the time and their joys were not restricted by the censorship code."

"“You lovers,” said his companion, “are surprised by nothing, except first that your mistress should fancy you, and next, that they should fancy someone else.”"

"“Selfishness and greed,” said he, “have made the world what it is today.”"