deluded or not, supporters of superstition and pseudoscience are human beings with real feelings, who, like the skeptics, are trying to figure out ho… - Carl Sagan

Над масата, на която дрънчеше телефаксът, висеше огледало. В него тя видя една жена, нито млада, нито стара. Нито майка, нито дъщеря. Бяха прави да й спестят истината. Не беше достатъчно напреднала, за да получи сигнала, да го разчете. Бе прекарала цялата си кариера в усилие да осъществи контакт с най-отдалечените и чужди странници, докато в собствения си живот едва ли бе осъществила контакт с когото и да било. С ярост бе отхвърляла митовете на другите за сътворението, сляпа пред лъжата за нейното собствено. Беше проучвала вселената през целия си живот, а бе пропуснала най-ясното послание: за малки същества като нас огромното пространство е поносимо само чрез обичта.

In those cultures lacking unfamiliar challenges, external or internal, where fundamental change is unneeded, novel ideas need not be encouraged. Indeed, heresies can be declared dangerous; thinking can be rigidified; and sanctions against impermissible ideas can be enforced — all without much harm. But under varied and changing environmental or biological or political circumstances, simply copying the old ways no longer works. Then, a premium awaits those who, instead of blandly following tradition, or trying to foist their preferences on to the physical or social Universe, are open to what the Universe teaches.

She began to understand why lovers talk baby talk to one another. There was no other socially acceptable circumstance in which the children inside her were permitted to come out. If the one-year-old, the five-year- old, the twelve-year-old, and the twenty-year-old all find compatible personalities in the beloved, there is a real chance to keep all of these sub-personas happy. Love ends their long loneliness. Perhaps the depth of love can be calibrated by the number of different selves that are actively involved in a given relationship.