“God has to be a sadist to give people life.”

“Bren MacGuff: Well, honey, doctors are sadists who like to play God and watch lesser people scream... ”

“Some people give time, some money, some their skills and connections, some literally give their life's blood. But everyone has something to give.”

“God gives us time. And who has time for God?”

“Bridge-players tell me that there must be some money on the game 'or else people won't take it seriously'. Apparently it's like that. Your bid - for God or no God, for a good God or the Cosmic Sadist, for eternal life or nonentity - will not be serious if nothing much is staked on it. And you will never discover how serious it was until the stakes are raised horribly high, until you find that you are playing not for counters or for sixpences but for every penny you have in the world.”

“[I]n a place with absolutely no private or personal life, with the incessant worship of a mediocre career-sadist as the only culture, where all citizens are the permanent property of the state, the highest form of pointlessness has been achieved.”