I wanted man to become a master! So he wouldn't have to live from hand to mouth! I didn't want to see another soul grow numb slaving over someone els… - Karel Čapek

I wanted man to become master! So he wouldn’t have to live from hand to mouth! I didn’t want to see another soul grow numb slaving over someone else’s machines! I wanted there to be nothing, nothing, nothing left of that damned mess of a social hierarchy! I abhorred degradation and suffering! I was fighting against poverty! I wanted a new generation of mankind! I wanted ... I thought ...

I had written the sentence, 'You mustn't think that the evolution that gave rise to us was the only evolutionary possibility on this planet. . . . that cultural developments could be shaped through the mediation of another animal species. If the biological conditions were favorable, some civilization not inferior to our own could arise in the depths of the sea. . . . Would it do the same stupid things mankind has done? Would it invite the same historical calamities? What would we say if some animal other than man declared that its education and its numbers gave it the sole right to occupy the entire world and hold sway over all creation?

It suddenly occurred to me that every move on the chessboard is old and has been played by somebody at some time. Maybe our own history has been played out by somebody at some time, and we just move our pieces about in the same moves to strike in the same way as people have always done.

Ha valamit használna vele, a kertész minden áldott nap térdre hullana, s ilyenformán imádkoznék: Uram, add, hogy mindennap essen, mondjuk, éjféltől hajnali háromig, de kérlek, csendes, meleg esőt szeretnék, hogy jól beszivárogjon a földbe. Úgy tedd, hogy ne essen a szurokszegfűre, ternyére, napvirágra, levendulára meg mindazokra a növényekre, amelyek - mint tudod, hisz végtelen a te bölcsességed - szárazságtűrő fajok. Ha akarod, felírom a nevüket egy cédulára. Add, hogy a napocska egész nap süssön, de ne mindenhová (például ne a gyöngyvesszőre, se a tárnicsra, se az istenfára, se a rododendronra), és ne is perzseljen. Add, hogy sok legyen a harmat, és kevés a szél, elég a giliszta, de ne legyen levéltetű és csiga, se lisztharmat. Tedd meg, hogy hetente egyszer hígított trágyalé és galambtrágya hulljon alá az égből. Ámen.