The universe is a perilous place. We do our best. Everything else is unimportant. — Robert Silverberg

“The cages are ready in case any of the enemies are captured.”

“You mean us?”

“Yes. Enemies.” Muller’s eyes glittered with sudden paranoid fury; it was alarming how easily he slipped from rational discourse to that cold blaze. “Homo sapiens. The most dangerous, the most ruthless, the most despicable beast in the universe!”

“You say it as if you believe it.”

“I do.”

I have lost my sense of a universe. They say this is the richest era of human existence; but I think a man can be richer in knowing every atom of a single golden island in a blue sea than by spending his days striding among all the worlds.

You can make no meaningful evaluations of the universe without the confidence that you are seeing it clearly.