Every new planet we find is a step closer to answering the age-old question: Are we alone in the universe?

To men like that, time was a surfeit, a barrel they watched slowly drain. When really, he thinks, it’s a glowing puddle you carry in your hands; you should spend all your energy protecting it.

The power of a man, to take it universally, is his present means, to obtain some future apparent good.

One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.