“In the past, on Earth, it has largely been to exploit foreign resources and to expand the domestic territory.”

Above all, I would not expect a wise race, at great expense, to set loose an army of self-replicating robots.

It would be a pity if, frustrated by the price of travel, we elected to become a society that never made contact, that never gave SETI a fair chance.

Present annual world energy consumption is about equal to the annihilation energy of 4 tons of matter.

Years of science fiction have produced a mindset that it is human destiny to expand from Earth, to the Moon, to Mars, to the stars.

No one can deny the excitement of visiting another world.

The sun and its retinue of planets drift as a group through the vast gulfs of space that separate the stars.

Poetry is a domestic art, most itself when most at home.

A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.

Let us stop skewing the whole process by taking some folks who are not truly refugees in order simply to meet our foreign policy needs or domestic policy demands.

I have never understood disliking for war. It panders to instincts already catered for within the scope of any respectable domestic establishment.

But when Americans lack the most basic information about our domestic surveillance programs, they have no way of knowing whether we’re getting that balance right. This lack of transparency is a big problem.

It puts domestic problems back into proportion and adds an element of seriousness to your drab, routine life.

One thing I’ve learned, in the face of all kinds of indignities, domestic workers take so much pride in their work and love the children they care for.

Domestic employees are at the whim of their employers.