“The advance of our technology is coincidental with the loss of our appetite for ethical questions that ought to attend the implications of these new powers. . . In the name of diversity, any idea is regarded as worthy as any other; any nonsense is entitled to a forum, a full hearing, and equal time.”

“The flush toilet, more than any single invention, has 'civilized' us in a way that religion and law could never accomplish.”

“Grief is the price we pay for being close to one another. If we want to avoid our grief, we simply avoid each other.”

“Grief is the tax we pay on our attachments...”

“Our properties within our own territories [should not] be taxed or regulated by any power on earth but our own.”

“The beggarly question of parentage--what is it, after all? What does it matter, when you come to think of it, whether a child is yours by blood or not? All the little ones of our time are collectively the children of us adults of the time, and entitled to our general care. That excessive regard of parents for their own children, and their dislike of other people's, is, like class-feeling, patriotism, save-your-own-soul-ism, and other virtues, a mean exclusiveness at bottom.”

“It’s not that any sufficiently advanced technology is magic, it’s that any technology taking place beyond the threshold of our senses is.”