“Never attribute to malevolence what is merely due to incompetence”

“["The Devil in the Dark"] impressed me because it presented the idea, unusual in science fiction then and now, that something weird, and even dangerous, need not be malevolent. That is a lesson that many of today's politicians have yet to learn.”

“We stand now at the turning point between two eras. Behind us is a past to which we can never return ...”

“But it had been widely argued that advanced intelligence could never arise in the sea; there were not enough challenges in so benign and unvarying an environment.”

“What are you doing, Dave?”

“What was more, they had taken the first step toward genuine friendship. They had exchanged vulnerabilities.”

“He left the unspoken question hanging in the air. How did one annoy a two- kilometre-long black rectangular slab? And just what form would its disapproval take”