From the Bookshelf of Central Library SF Book Group…

No country can develop without science... Without arts and general culture, the country loses its capacity for self-criticism, begins to encourage faulty tendencies, starts to constantly spawn hypocrites and scum, develops consumerism and conceit in its citizens, and eventually again becomes a victim of its more sensible neighbors. Persecute bookworms all you like, prohibit science, and destroy art, but sooner or later you'll be forced to think better of it... (146)

"The essence of man," Budach said, chewing slowly, "lies in his astonishing ability to get used to anything. There's nothing in nature that man could not learn to live with... Probably God, as he was creating man, guessed the torment he was condemning him to and gave him an enormous reserve of strength and patience. It is difficult to say whether this is good or bad. (205)