“Nature is monstrously unjust. There is no substitute for talent. Industry and all the virtues are of no avail.”

“I’m not denying their kindness,” said the Rani. “But after all kindness isn’t the only virtue.”

“And that," put in the Director sententiously, "that is the secret of happiness and virtue — liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny.”

“Nature, or anything that reminds me of nature, disturbs me; it is too large, too complicated, above all too utterly pointless and incomprehensible.”

“We shall be permitted to live on this planet only for as long as we treat all nature with compassion and intelligence.”

“Today alcohol and tobacco are available, and people spend considerably more on these very unsatisfactory euphorics, pseudo-stimulants and sedatives than they are ready to spend on the education of their children.”

“That we are not much sicker and much madder than we are is due exclusively to that most blessed and blessing of all natural graces, sleep.”