As for the depiction of the Catholic church, it's not meant to be a prediction

You've probably heard about the theory of steam-engine time - that even after the steam engine had been invented, it had to wait until people were ready to make use of it. The same thing happens in literary circles. The truth is, I'm not terribly interested in Victorian times; I'm interested in Victorian writers. I'm interested in most eras of history, but not the Victorian Era especially. I was interested in the John Franklin Expedition. I was interested in these last five weird years of Dickens' life. And I just have to take the age that comes with all that when I write about it.

The love of violence is an aspect of our humanity. Even the weak wish to be strong primarily so they can wield the whip.

If everyone could understand the working of a psychopath's mind, we undoubtedly would be closer to insanity ourselves.

God is found in this Life ... to wait for another is folly.

Books ... were merely nodes in a near-infinite matrix of information that exists in four dimensions, evolving toward the idea of the concept of the approximation of the shadow of Truth vertically through time as well as longitudinally through knowledge.

Mobs have passions, not brains.