Apes had it worked out. No ape would philosophize, "The mountain is, and is not." They would think, "The banana is. I will eat the banana. There is no banana. I want another banana.

In theory it was, around now, Literature. Susan hated Literature. She'd much prefer to read a good book.

Are you a philosopher? Where's your sponge?

If you try to to take my bananas from me, I will reclaim them from your cold dead hands.

When you can flatten entire cities at a whim, a tendency towards quiet reflection and seeing-things-from-the-other-fellow's-point- of-view is seldom necessary.

Oh, a very useful philosophical animal, your average tortoise. Outrunning metaphorical arrows, beating hares in races... very handy.

Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things.