“And yet, even while they baffled him, they aroused within his heart a feeling he had never known before. When- which was not often, but sometimes happened- they burst into tears of utter frustration or despair, their tiny disappointments seemed to him more tragic than Man’s long retreat after the loss of his Galactic Empire. That was something too huge and remote for comprehension, but the weeping of a child could pierce one to the heart.Alvin had met love in Diaspar, but now he was learning something equally precious, and without which love itself could never reach its highest fulfillment but must remain forever incomplete. He was learning tenderness.”

“In accordance with the terms of the Clarke-Asimov treaty, the second-bestscience writer dedicates this book to the second-best science-fictionwriter.[dedication to Isaac Asimov from Arthur C. Clarke in his book Report on Planet Three]”

“Those wanderers must have looked on Earth, circling safely in the narrow zone between fire and ice, and must have guessed that it was the favourite of the Sun's children.”

“Our lifetime may be the last that will be lived out in a technological society.”

“The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax return. It's the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.”

“It is not easy to see how the more extreme forms of nationalism can long survive when men have seen the Earth in its true perspective as a single small globe against the stars.”

“I don't pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about.”

“It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God - but to create him.”

“I have a fantasy where Ted Turner is elected President but refuses because he doesn't want to give up power.”

“New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can't be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it's not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along!”

“The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion.”