Earth Abides

by George R. Stewart

They would pay the penalty which in the history of the world, he knew, had always been inflicted upon organisms which specialized too highly.

Take away family and job, friends and church, all customary amusements and routines, hope too—and life became walking death.

All those qualities which had permitted him to be by himself and survive through the bad days, alone—all those qualities now came up to work against him.

She never talked about herself. Once or twice he tried to draw her out with questions, thinking that she might need to tell things. But she did not respond easily, and he decided that she had already made her adjustment in her own way. She had drawn the veil across the view toward the past; now she looked forward only.

“Genius is the capacity for seeing what is not there.” Of course, like every other definition of genius, that one could be shot to pieces also, because it obviously included the madman, as well as the genius.

What a strange thing then is this great civilization, that no sooner have men attained it than they seek to flee from it!

Then in the next year Ish realized more than ever that Em walked no longer with that regal grace; suddenly when he looked at her, he saw strange lines in her face, not the lines of old age, but the lines of pain. Behind the darkness of the cheeks there was not the glow of red but an ashy gray. Deep within him he felt chill and fear, and he knew that this also had come close to its end.