“Dorcas, you already reek like a Marseilles cat house; don't wheedle Mike for more stinkum.”

“Jill... had explained homosexuality, after Mike had read about it and failed to grok--and had given him rules for avoiding passes; she knew that Mike, pretty as he was, would attract such. He had followed her advice and had made his face more masculine, instead of the androgynous beauty he had had. But Jill was not sure that Mike would refuse a pass, say, from Duke--fortunately Mike's male water brothers were decidedly masculine, just as his others were very female women. Jill suspected that Mike would grok a 'wrongness' in the poor in-betweeners anyhow--they would never be offered water.”

“Cats, like butterflies, need no excuse.”

“Some logics get nervous breakdowns. Overloaded phone system behaves like frightened child. Mike did not have upsets, acquired sense of humor instead. Low one. If he were a man, you wouldn't dare stoop over. His idea of thigh-slapper would be to dump you out of bed — or put itch powder in pressure suit.”

“If you don't like yourself, you can't like other people. -- Lazarus Long.”

“Talking with a Martian is something like talking with an echo. You don't get any argument but you don't get results either.”

“I woke up in bed with a man and a cat. The man was a stranger; the cat was not”