We’ll all say that. We’ll all go on and make the place safe. Roads, cities. New sky, new soil. Until it’s all some kind of Siberia or Northwest Territories, and Mars will be gone and we’ll be here, and we’ll wonder why we feel so empty. Why when we look at the land we can never see anything but our own faces.

The only part of an argument that really matters is what we think of the people arguing. X claims a, Y claims b. They make arguments to support their claims with any number of points. But when their listeners remember the discussion, what matters is simply that X believes a and Y believes b. People then form their judgment on what they think of X and Y.

A lot of scientists act on their beliefs and so do things that look crazy to the rest of us.

Every moment an epiphany arrives and cleaves the mountain asunder

Very few people ever bother to find out what other people really think. They are willing to accept whatever they are told about anyone sufficiently distant.

In the beginning was the dream, and the work of disenchantment never ends.

Below the 40th latitude there is no law; below the 50th no god; below the 60th no common sense and below the 70th no intelligence whatsoever.