Better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy.

The old appeals to racial, sexual and religious chauvinism to rabid nationalist fervor, are beginning not to work.

As agonizing a disease as cancer is, I do not think it can be said that our civilization is threatened by it. ... But a very plausible case can be made that our civilization is fundamentally threatened by the lack of adequate fertility control. Exponential increases of population will dominate any arithmetic increases, even those brought about by heroic technological initiatives, in the availability of food and resources, as Malthus long ago realized.

Our children long for realistic maps of the future that they can be proud of. Where are the cartographers of human purpose?

A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.

We are all made up of star stuff.

I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.