Sleepers of Mars

"No one but a fool would say that a man who seethes inside like a volcano is calm.

I only know that when I see a man so tormented and cheated, and with such a look in his eyes, he is dangerous."

"What did I tell you?" said my neighbour excitedly. "Force of mind, that's what those people use; that's why their hands are vestigial. Pure will-power."

The dwarf seemed to hear him, for he looked towards us.

"I am surprised," he sneered, "that you even know of such a thing as will-power. I judged by your reflexes that you had only instincts."

Those are the methods of Earth; that is the honour of great companies, as you will know to your cost should you have dealings with them. They'll use you, and then break you. . . .

"But it is the old story of new generations refusing to be bound by the promises of their forefathers."

"Truth is not altered by belief or disbelief."

"There are some forms of knowledge which it is unwise to spread; men are not yet ready to handle them."

"The English," [Vinski] remarked at length, "have a saying that possession is nine points of the law. It is just the kind of sentiment one would expect to find in a capitalist country."

Many men on earth have the vanity to believe in another life.

"We have been but little molested, for we have not the things which most men value."

"It was curious that, in facing the man, I felt none of the distaste one has for an abnormality."

"And it all comes of this gallivanting about the Universe. I never did think much of it. Stick to your own planet, is what I say; it's quite big enough. But will they? Not so's you'd notice it. They go flinging themselves into space, and then what happens?" He paused aggrievedly.