I suspect we would be wise," he said without looking up, "to avoid declaring what God will or will not allow. - Jack McDevitt

The cultures we can look at had already grasped the essential unity of nature. No board of gods can survive that knowledge.

Never look for complexity in diplomatic decisions. With very few exceptions, actions always devolve—and that’s the exact term—from someone’s self-interest. Not the national self-interest, by the way. We are talking here about individual careers.

The only people he knew of who would have leveled material advantage so that no one had any were of course those who had none to start with.