Clifford D. Simak

“I have never been able to accept the doctrine of the blank slate, the idea that all men are born equal and that their differences are due to environment alone.”

“A time will come when the man in the street will realize that the moon is not a piece of green cheese.”

“Civilization is a flimsy thing, a veneer that can be stripped off in a moment.”

“A man can't run away from himself.”

“Laughter is the only medicine, the only sane solution.”

“Mankind is a lonely creature, a lonely creature in a lonely universe.”

“The human race is a monotonous affair. Most people spend the greatest part of their time working in order to live, and what little freedom remains to them is so dreadful that they do their utmost to get rid of it.”

“The answer is that there is no answer.”

“The world is not a piece of real estate.”

“History is a treadmill, returning to the same place, again and again.”

“Any man who is a man may not, in honor, submit to threats.”

“We are what we have been, and what we will be is what we are now.”

“Life is a thing of many stages and moving parts, not a garden that can be planned and planted.”

“Intelligence is a luxury, and in a time of crisis it is the first thing to be sacrificed.”

“The trouble with a secret is that it is a secret. And it is hard to keep.”

“There's one thing I know. I've been a newspaperman for a long time. There's nothing so corrupting as power.”