John Wyndham

"We have had a glorious past—but a glorious past is bitterness for a child with a hopeless future."

'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.

Unfortunately there were certain persons with elastic principles.

She had an exasperating feeling that there was a principle somewhere that she had missed; a principle which once grasped would make the whole thing as clear as daylight. But if there was it continued to elude her.

There was often a great deal of grown-up fuss that seemed disproportionate to causes.

The ways of the world were very puzzling. . . .

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

"One hears of the Industrial Revolution as though it were a mere phase, finished and done with. It is not, and it shows no sign of ever being completed."

"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."

WATCH THOU FOR THE MUTANT !

"This isn't a nice cosy world for anyone—especially not for anyone that's different," he said.