...his face bore an expression that mingled haughty disdain with a tender, ardent sympathy, as if he would love all things if only his nature could let him forget their defects.

As for what it's against - the story is against those who pervert and misuse religion, or any other kind of doctrine with a holy book and a priesthood and an apparatus of power that wields unchallengeable authority, in order to dominate and suppress human freedoms.

You going to be a scientist when you grow up?” That sort of question deserved a blank stare, which it got.

When you live for many hundreds of years, you know that every opportunity will come again.

There is another consequence of any belief in a single god, and that is that it is a very good excuse for people to behave very badly.

Argue with anything else, but don't argue with your own nature.

I don't know where my ideas come from, but I know where they come to. They come to my desk, and if I'm not there, they go away again.