Did God truly build and populate a small planet for His own purposes; perhaps merely to relieve His boredom? - Michael Moorcock

I am dead," said Corum, "and would be grateful if you would allow me to be dead in peace.

Here information and philosophies were exchanged, together with all manner of goods. This was a court whose energies were not devoted to maintaining itself unchanged for eternity, but to every kind of new idea and lively, humane discussion, which welcomed fresh thought not as a threat to its existence but as a very necessity to its continued well-being, whose wealth was devoted to experiment in the arts and sciences, to supporting those who were needy, to aiding thinkers and scholars. The Bright Empire’s brightness would come no longer from the glow of putrefaction but from the light of reason and good will.

My instinct shouted “Conspiracy” but my head reasoned “Coincidence”.