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

When you choose one way out of many, all the ways you don't take are snuffed out like candles, as if they'd never existed.

Was there only one world after all which spent its time dreaming of others?

We measure the value of a civilized society by the number of #‎ libraries it opens, not the number it closes down.

There is time, and there is beyond time. History belongs to time, but truth belongs to what is beyond time. In writing of things as they should have been, you are letting truth into history. You are the word of God.

Lee saw the fireball and head through the roar in his ears Hester saying, "That's the last of 'em Lee." He said, or thought, "Those poor men didn't have to come to this, nor did we." She said, "We held 'em off. We held out. We're a-helping Lyra." Then she was pressing her little proud broken self against his face, as close as she could get, and then they died.

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