Earth Abides

by George R. Stewart

Nevil Shute’s On the Beach (1957), Pat Frank’s Alas, Babylon (1959), and Walter Miller’s A Canticle For Leibowitz (1959)

“Man has been growing more stupid for several thousand years; I myself shall waste no tears at his demise.”

Falls Rome, falls the world.”

“There are no atheists in fox holes,”

When a man loved greatly, he laid himself open.

“I am not stupid,” you say to The Son, “but there are times when a god should seem stupid!”

Perhaps rationalism—like so much else—had only been one of the luxuries which men could afford under civilization.

Men go and come, but earth abides.”