However far modern science and techniques have fallen short of their inherent possibilities, they have taught mankind at least one lesson; nothing is impossible.

A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind.

Unfortunately, once an economy is geared to expansion, the means rapidly turn into an end and "the going becomes the goal."

Iron and coal dominated everywhere, from grey to black: the black boots, the black stove-pipe hat, the black coach or carriage, the black iron frame of the hearth, the black cooking pots and pans and stoves. Was it a mourning? Was it protective coloration? Was it mere depression of the senses? No matter what the original color of the paleotechnic milieu might be it was soon reduced by reason of the soot and cinders that accompanied its activities, to its characteristic tones, grey, dirty-brown, black.

One's worst enormities remain within, and it is only one's vulgar commonplaces of error and folly that turn into murders and suicides, treasons, infidelities, and betrayals.

Only when love takes the lead will the earth, and life on earth, be safe again. And not until then.

The ultimate gift of conscious life is a sense of the mystery that encompasses it.