When beauty is universal, it loses its power to move the heart, and only its absence can produce any emotional effect.

If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run-and often in the short one-the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative.

Any path to knowledge is a path to God-or Reality, whichever word one prefers to use

It was the mark of a barbarian to destroy something one could not understand.

. . . the newspapers of Utopia, he had long ago decided, would be terribly dull.

Finally, I would like to assure my many Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim friends that I am sincerely happy that the religion which Chance has given you has contributed to your peace of mind (and often, as Western medical science now reluctantly admits, to your physical well-being). Perhaps it is better to be un-sane and happy, than sane and un-happy. But it is the best of all to be sane and happy. Whether our descendants can achieve that goal will be the greatest challenge of the future. Indeed, it may well decide whether we have any future.

Isn't killing people in the name of God a pretty good definition of insanity?