Formal courtesy between husband and wife is even more important than it is between strangers.

To be matter-of-fact about the world is to blunder into fantasy - and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful.

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.

I was there to see beautiful naked women. So was everybody else. It's a common failing.

Whoring is like military service...okay in the upper brackets, not so good lower down.

But space travel can't ease the pressure on a planet grown too crowded not even with today's ships and probably not with any future ships-because stupid people won't leave the slopes of their home volcano even when it starts to smoke and rumble. What space travel does do is drain off the best brains: those smart enough to see a catastrophe before it happens, and with the guts to pay the price-abandon home, wealth, friends, relatives, everything-and go. That's a tiny fraction of one percent. But that's enough.

The more you love, the more you can love--and the more intensely you love. Nor is there any limit on how many you can love. If a person had time enough, he could love all of that majority who are decent and just.