In fact there was only one species on the planet more intelligent than dolphins, and they spent a lot of their time in behavioural research laboratories running around inside wheels and conduction frighteningly elegant and subtle experiments on man. The fact that once again man completely misinterpreted this relationship was entirely according to these creatures’ plans.

Dirk was, for one of the few times in a life of exuberantly prolific loquacity, wordless.

I come in peace...Take me to your lizard.

If you stick a Babel fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language.

Plenty of people did not care for him much, but then there is a huge difference between disliking somebody - maybe even disliking them a lot - and actually shooting them, strangling them, dragging them through the fields and setting their house on fire.

Nobody likes a whistler, particularly not the divinity that shapes our ends.

If there's any real truth, it's that the entire multidimensional infinity of the Universe is almost certainly being run by a bunch of maniacs.