“Happiness can depend as easily on useless things as on useful ones.”

“No one can know a false thing, one can only believe it with certainty until it is contradicted. (Page 7)”

“Saving the human race is a frantic one. Or a tedious one. It all depends on what stage of the process you're taking part in.”

“(Rigg) had often complained that all these languages were useless, and Father had only said, "A man who speaks but one language understands none.”

“...What I depend on is a vigorous audience that can discover sweetness and light, beauty and truth, beyond the ability of the artist, on his own, to create them.”

“The criminal misuse of time was pointing out the mistakes. Catching them―noticing them―that was essential. If you did not in your own mind distinguish between useful and erroneous information, then you were not learning at all, you were merely replacing ignorance with false belief, which was no improvement. The part of the man's statement that was true, however, was about the uselessness of speaking up. If I know that the teacher is wrong, and say nothing, then I remain the only one who knows, and that gives me an advantage over those who believe the teacher.”

“I'll have that someday, thought Peter. Someone who'll kiss me good-bye at the door. Or maybe just someone to put a blindfold over my head before they shoot me. Depending on how things turn out.”