“We are what we imagine ourselves to be. ”

“Their imaginations were flywheels on the ramshackle machinery of the awful truth.”

“I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I foughtin a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians andbody snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened,though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest,low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d'etat imaginable.”

“We don't make bicycles anymore. It's all human relations now. The eggheads sit around trying to figure out new ways for everyone to be happy. Nobody can get fired, no matter what; and if somebody does accidentally make a bicycle, the union accuses us of cruel and inhuman practices and the government confiscates the bicycle for back taxes and gives it to a blind man in Afghanistan.”

“You know — we've had to imagine the war here, and we have imagined that it was being fought by aging men like ourselves. We had forgotten that wars were fought by babies. When I saw those freshly shaved faces, it was a shock. "'My God, my God — ' I said to myself, 'It's the Children's Crusade.”

“- Why me?- That is a very Earthling question to ask, Mr. Pilgrim. Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber?- Yes.- Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why.”

“If what Jesus said was good, what can it matter whether he was God or not?”