“The laws of history are as absolute as the laws of physics, and if the probabilities of error are greater, it is only because history does not deal with as many humans as physics does atoms, so that individual variations count for more.”

“A matter of physics—Length and Tension—How does the performer make it sing above the laws of sound?”

“Yet it is unassailably true that so long as we lack omniscience and do not know all of the future, all our generalizations are fallible or only probable. And the history of human error shows that a general consensus, or widespread and unquestioned feeling of certainty, does not preclude the possibility that the future may show us to be in error.”

“There is nothing that living things do that cannot be understood from the point of view that they are made of atoms acting according to the laws of physics.”

“History does not care about the suffering of the individual. Only the outcome of their struggles.”

“But define 'completely ridiculous shit,'" Duvall said. "Does space travel count? Contact with alien races? Does quantum physics count? Because I don't understand that crap at all. As far as I'm concerned, quantum physics could have been written by a hack.”