"Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats."
— H.L. Mencken (Prejudices: First Series)

"No one ever went broke under-estimating the stupidity of the American Public."
— H.L. Mencken

"Whenever serious and competent people need to get things done in the real world, all considerations of tradition and protocol fly out the window."
— Neal Stephenson

"Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it."
— George Orwell

"Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens."
— J.R.R. Tolkien (The Fellowship of the Ring)

"Science is the only religion of mankind."
— Arthur C. Clarke (Childhood's End)

"Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the idea is quite staggering. "
— Arthur C. Clarke

"It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value."
— Arthur C. Clarke