The Kraken Wakes

"In the country you can at least grow things. You do have a chance. But a city is a sort of desert of bricks and stones. Once you've used up what is there, you're done for."

"Why was I condemned to live in a democracy where every fool's vote is equal to a sensible man's?"

'Somehow running away seldom seems to work out well unless you have a pretty good idea what you're running to."

"We ourselves have a tradition of taking beatings, and then winning wars," said Bocker.

But we had learnt, as had many before us, about the bread-alone factor, one needed more than adequate food.

Wondering why one's friends chose to marry the people they did is unprofitable, but recurrent.

"Life in all its forms is strife; the better matched the opponents, the harder the struggle. The most powerful of all weapons is intelligence; any intelligent form dominates by, and therefore survives by, its intelligence."