All human behavior has a reason. All behavior is solving a problem.

People were so naive about plants, Ellie thought. They just chose plants for appearance, as they would choose a picture for the wall. It never occurred to them that plants were actually living things, busily performing all the living functions of respiration, ingestion, excretion, reproduction---and defense.

This novel is fiction, except for the parts that aren't.

The planet has survived everything, in its time. It will certainly survive us.

Increasingly, people perceive no difference between the narcissistic self-serving reporters asking questions, and the narcissistic self-serving politicians who evade them.

The purpose of history is to explain the present - to say why the world around us is the way it is. History tells us what is important in our world, and how it came to be. It tells us what is to be ignored, or discarded. That is true power - profound power. The power to define a whole society.

All your life people will tell you things. And most of the time, probably ninety-five percent of the time, what they'll tell you will be wrong.