The only people who think children are carefree are the ones who've forgotten their own childhood.

That night Demosthenes published a scathing denunciation of the population limitation laws. People should be allowed to have as many children as they like, and the surplus population should be sent to other worlds, to spread mankind so far across the galaxy that no disaster, no invasion could ever threaten the human race with annihilation. "The most noble title any child can have," Demosthenes wrote, "is Third.

Maybe she couldn't know who she was today. Maybe it was enough to know that she was no longer who she was before.

The only way to learn is by changing your mind.

Maybe we're the fools, for thinking we know things. Maybe humans are the only ones who can deal with the fact that nothing can ever be known at all.

My favourite all-time work of fiction: Lord of the Rings. My favourite all-time nonfiction book: Guns, Germs, and Steel. Ask me again next week, you'll get a different answer.

The only people who ever prize purity of ignorance are those who profit from a monopoly on knowledge.