The Midwich Cuckoos

'Cruelty is as old as life itself.'

'In point of fact our ascendancy has been so complete that we are rarely called upon to kill wolves nowadays - in fact, most of us have quite forgotten what it means to have to fight in a personal way against another species. But, when the need arises we have no compunction in fully supporting those who slay the threat whether it is from wolves, insects, bacteria, or filterable viruses; we give no quarter, and certainly expect no pardon.'

'The dove is not a coward to fear the hawk; it is simply wise.'

'Nobody,' she said, 'nobody but a child, or a child-minded person, expects life to be fair.'

'I wonder if a sillier and more ignorant catachresis than "Mother Nature" was ever perpetrated? It is because Nature is ruthless, hideous, and cruel beyond belief that it was necessary to invent civilisation. One thinks of wild animals as savage, but the fiercest of them begins to look almost domesticated when one considers the viciousness required of a survivor in the sea; as for the insects, their lives are sustained only by intricate processes of fantastic horror. There is no conception more fallacious than the sense of cosiness implied by "Mother Nature". Each species must strive to survive, and that it will do, by every means in its power, however foul — unless the instinct to survive is weakened by conflict with another instinct.'

'If you want to keep alive in the jungle, you must live as the jungle does. . . .'

'The wise lamb does not enrage the lion,' he said. 'It placates him, plays for time, and hopes for the best.'

'The law punishes the criminal after he has been successful: it is no use to us.'

'And, after all, what is a planet but an island in space?'