Mayo was again awakened by the clatter of dispossessed ducks.

The law makes the silliest damned fuss about death. People die by the thousands everyday; but simply because someone has had the energy and enterprise to assist old D’Courtney to his demise, the law insists on turning him into an enemy of the people. I think it’s idiotic, but please don’t quote me.

There was the taste of a strand of cool pearls in his mouth.

You can tell when a Hollywood historical film was made by looking at the eye makeup of the leading ladies, and you can tell the date of an old science fiction novel by every word on the page. Nothing dates harder and faster and more strangely than the future.

We were mugged by some senior citizens on the way from the chopper to the main gate, but no great harm done; they were using vintage revolvers.

Any man was capable of jaunting provided he developed two faculties, visualization and concentration. He had to visualize, completely and precisely, the spot to which he desired to teleport himself; and he had to concentrate the latent energy of his mind into a single thrust to get him there. Above all, he had to have faith.

We don’t punish criminals in our enlightened age, we cure ’em; and the cure is worse than punishment.

Century also had shelves of obsolete printed books.

Every child in the world imagines that its phantasy world is unique to itself. Psychiatry knows that the joys and terrors of private phantasies are a common heritage shared by all mankind. Fears, guilts, terrors, and shames could be interchanged, from one man to the next, and none would notice the difference.

Every man nurses the secret belief that were he God he could do the job much better.