“What's the survival value of obsessing on a sunset?”

“If the rest of your brain were conscious, it would probably regard you as the pointy-haired boss from Dilbert”

“After four thousand years we cant even prove that reality exists beyond the mind of the first-person dreamer.”

“Once there were three tribes. The Optimists, whose patron saints were Drake and Sagan, believed in a universe crawling with gentle intelligencespiritual brethren vaster and more enlightened than we...”

“You cant turn a sunset into a string of grunts without losing something.”

“The most altruistic and sustainable philosophies fail before the brute brain stem imperative of self-interest.”

“Of the two powers, the two categories that take possession of us when we enter the world, space is by far the less mysterious. . . . Space is, after all, solid, monolithic. . . . Time, on the other...”

“The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary master...”

“A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe", a part limited in time and space.”

“Witches are naturally nosy, said Miss Tick, standing up. Well, I must go. I hope we shall meet again. I will give you some free advice, though.Will it cost me anything?What? I just said it was free...”

“How can you be one of the stars of heaven, when the stars are innumerable? What star number do you have?”

“His words were full of hope and threat. Like the stars.”