What do I have to say to the universe? A soul ought to have something to say to the universe if it's going to be immortal.

The only people who have the long view are some scientists and some science fiction writers.

All around the Mediterranean you'll find cultures that believe men can't control themselves and shouldn't have to try.

Boys play with death as though it were a game, cutting their teeth on daggers.

I have always lived in a world in which I'm just a spot in history. My life is not the important point. I'm just part of the continuum, and that continuum, to me, is a marvelous thing. The history of life, and the history of the planet, should go on and on and on and on. I cannot conceive of anything in the universe that has more meaning than that.

Mankind accepts good fortune as his due, but when bad occurs, he thinks it was aimed at him, done to him, a hex, a curse, a punishment by his deity for some transgression, as though his god were a petty storekeeper, counting up the day's receipts.

As vocabulary is reduced , so are the number of feelings you can express, the number of events you can describe, the number of the things you can identify! Not only understanding is limited, but also experience. Man grows by language. Whenever he limits language he retrogresses!