“You damned liberals.” “I don’t know what that means.” “It means you’re too soft-hearted to ever actually do anything.” - Kim Stanley Robinson

It’s amazing what superstitions survive in fearful minds.

“Part of a team,” Ann said dully.
“Well, you are.”
“I know.” She sighed. “We’ll all say that. We’ll all go on and make the place safe. Roads, cities. New sky, new soil. Until it’s all some kind of Siberia or Northwest Territories, and Mars will be gone and we’ll be here, and we’ll wonder why we feel so empty. Why when we look at the land we can never see anything but our own faces.”

Nakedness was dangerous to the social order, she thought, because it revealed too much reality.