As artists and traders in medieval cities began to form organizations, they instituted tough initiation ceremonies. Journeymen in Bergen, Norway, were shoved down a chimney, thrown three times into the sea, and soundly whipped. Such rites made belonging to the guild or corporation more precious to those who were accepted, and survived.
Isaac AsimovGod, how that stings! I've spent a lifetime loving science fiction and now I find that you must expect nothing of something that's just science fiction.
Isaac AsimovThe saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
Isaac AsimovHowever much the creationist leaders might hammer away at their scientific and philosophical points, they would be helpless and a laughing-stock if that were all they had. It is religion that recruits their squadrons. Tens of millions of Americans, who neither know nor understand the actual arguments for - of even against - evolution, march in the army of the night, their Bibles held high. And they are a strong and frightening force, impervious to, and immunized against, the feeble lance of mere reason.
Isaac Asimov