To think I have spent my life on absolute muck.

Mysticism is, in essence, little more than a certain intensity and depth of feeling in regard to what is believed about the universe.

There is no nonsense so errant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.

Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.

My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race. I cannot, however, deny that it has made some contributions to civilisation. It helped in early days to fix the calendar, and it caused Egyptian priests to chronicle eclipses with such care that in time they became able to predict them. These two services I am prepared to acknowledge, but I do not know of any others.

At first it seems obvious, but the more you think about it the stranger the deductions from this axiom seem to become; in the end you cease to understand what is meant by it.

Perhaps the nuclear physicists have come so near to the ultimate secrets that He thinks it time to bring their activities to a stop. And what simpler method could He devise than to let them carry their ingenuity to the point where they exterminate the human race?