"“It’s a crucifix,” Wright told me when I showed it to him. “It must have been worn by one of the people who lived here. Or maybe the arsonist lost it.” He gave a humorless smile. “You never know who’s liable to turn out to be religious.”"

"How completely, how thoroughly he has stolen my child. I have never even tried to forgive him."

"We’ve also been laughed at, argued with, booed, and threatened with hellfire—or gunfire. But Jarret’s kind of religion and Jarret himself are getting less and less popular these days. Both, it seems, are bad for business, bad for the U. S. Constitution, and bad for a large percentage of the population. They always have been, but now more and more people are willing to say so in public. The Crusaders have terrorized some people into silence, but they’ve just made others very angry."

"I’m literate, and the idea of leaving children illiterate is criminal."

"No one thought about what kind of society we were building with such stupid decisions. People who could afford to educate their children in private schools were glad to see the government finally stop wasting their tax money, educating other people’s children. They seemed to think they lived on Mars. They imagined that a country filled with poor, uneducated, unemployable people somehow wouldn’t hurt them!"

"“I’m not a demagogue.” “That’s too bad. That leaves the field to people who are demagogues—to the Jarrets of the world. And there have always been Jarrets. Probably there always will be.”"

"We keep falling into the same ditches, you know? I mean, we learn more and more about the physical universe, more about our own bodies, more technology, but somehow, down through history, we go on building empires of one kind or another, then destroying them in one way or another. We go on having stupid wars that we justify and get passionate about, but in the end, all they do is kill huge numbers of people, maim others, impoverish still more, spread disease and hunger, and set the stage for the next war. And when we look at all of that in history, we just shrug our shoulders and say, well, that’s the way things are. That’s the way things always have been."

"Jarrett would be easier to take if he cared half as much about children’s bodies and minds as he pretends to care about their souls."

"Are you Earthseed? Do you believe? Belief will not save you. Only actions Guided and shaped By belief and knowledge Will save you. Belief Initiates and guides action— Or it does nothing."

"All religions are ultimately cargo cults. Adherents perform required rituals, follow specific rules, and expect to be supernaturally gifted with desired rewards—long life, honor, wisdom, children, good health, wealth, victory over opponents, immortality after death, any desired rewards."

":And we say"

":Of ourselves—"

":Mere echoes"

":Without intent,"

":Thus, without thought,"

":An obvious lie."

":That we’ve embraced and defended"

":And because we cannot admit"

":Because we’ve defended it"

":And at last to embrace it"

":Because we’ve said it"

":Then to defend it"

":Almost by reflex"

":May be to say it,"

":And again and again"

":Even an obvious lie"

":To hear and to see"

":Repetition and pride are the keys to this."

":We see what we’re told that we see."

":What we’re permitted to see."

":What we’re told that we think."

":What we hear others say."

":All too often,"

"If you hear nonsense like that often enough for long enough, you begin to believe it."

"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"

":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"