Mankind has only one science… its the science of discontent.

Anything outside yourself, this you can see and apply your logic to it. But it's a human trait that when we encounter personal problems, these things most deeply personal are the most difficult to bring out for our logic to scan. We tend to flounder around, blaming everything but the actual, deep-seated thing that's really chewing on us.

The person who takes the banal and ordinary and illuminates it in a new way can terrify. We do not want our ideas changed.

What is important for a leader is that which makes him a leader. It is the needs of his people.

Then, as his planet killed him, it occurred to Kynes that his father and all the other scientists were wrong, that the most persistent principles of the universe were accident and error.

I cry for those not yet dead.

The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future.