I suspect that religion is a necessary evil in the childhood of our particular species. And that's one of the interesting things about contact with other intelligences: we could see what role, if any, religion plays in their development. I think that religion may be some random by-product of mammalian reproduction. If that's true, would non-mammalian aliens have a religion?

Some things have eternal value, and compassion is one of them. I hope we never lose that. Compassion for humans as well as animals.

It was one thing to have guessed it, another to have had that guess confirmed beyond possibility of refutation.

But please remember: this is only a work of fiction. The truth, as always, will be far stranger.

Across the gulf of centuries, the blind smile of Homer is turned upon our age. Along the echoing corridors of time, the roar of the rockets merges now with the creak of the wind-taut rigging. For somewhere in the world today, still unconscious of his destiny, walks the boy who will be the first Odysseus of the Age of Space.

Now I understand,” said the last man.

Death focuses the mind on the things that really matter: why are we here, and what should we do?