Quotes from Robert Masello

No thanks." Lucas watched the boy hop back onto the street and hold out the tinfoil for his friends' inspection.

Russell-Einstein Manifesto. Published in London on July 9, 1955,

any other. The world had been

This is from a biography of Saint Anthony, written by Ambrose in the fourth century." His finger underlining the words, he read aloud, " 'And Anthony told the monks that followed him, "When, therefore, the demons come by night to you and wish to tell the future, or they say, 'We are the angels,' give no heed, for they lie . . .

obelus, the mathematical sign for division,

She had hoped, in vain, that her voice would not falter. When she tried to reach out to him, he pulled away, still holding on to the tiller with dead-white fingers. "No, no," he said, drawing back in horror. "Don't touch me." His eyes were wild, the stubble on his pale young cheeks flecked

The natural world was a tightly integrated web, and every time humans messed with it, there were as many unintended consequences as there were intentional. But that was a lesson nobody ever seemed to learn.

Lieutenant," Toussaint said, stepping out of the jeep, "it looks like the welcome wagon is on its way.

that every man knows and marks his birthday each year, but can take no notice of his deathday, though it comes round with the same regularity.

The odds are good," she'd said, surveying all the men, "but the goods are odd.

And if they shamelessly stand their ground, capering and changing their form or appearance, fear them not, nor shrink, nor heed them as though they were good spirits. For the presence either of the good or evil, by the help of God can easily be distinguished.

It is as if mankind is trying to . . . obliterate itself, and every beautiful thing that it has made.

Pascal's wager, to her mind: Although an atheist, Pascal said he would make a deathbed confession to God. If there was no God to hear it, what difference did it make? But if there was . . .

Sir William Curzon Wyllie?

Kindness—such a simple thing—but in such short supply, he reflected, that one would have thought it had to be imported to London from somewhere as far away as the Saharan desert,

is like a falcon. Despite its loyalty to the falconer, it longs to fly free. When my time comes, let my soul soar into the wind and the sky. Wherever its natural home is meant to be, that's where it will go." Although she had found such

Can't say that I like this all that much," Toussaint said, his rifle raised now and at the ready. "Feels like a trap to me.

He was trying to mix fact and faith, science and sorcery,

He was trying to mix fact and faith, science and sorcery, into one palatable, if volatile, brew.

I know," she said. "And isn't that strange? We've come to a place where the sun never sets, but it offers so little in the way of warmth." Michael

twenty yards to go—he could see a laundry truck rumbling by on the street—and

The soul," he'd said one night by a campfire in the Valley of the Kings, "is like a falcon. Despite its loyalty to the falconer, it longs to fly free. When my time comes, let my soul soar into the wind and the sky. Wherever its natural home is meant to be, that's

A plethora of the continent's brightest lights had also taken flight. Not just Einstein, but Hans Bethe, Max Born, Erwin Schrödinger, Eugene Wigner, Otto Stern, Lise Meitner, Robert Frisch, Enrico Fermi, Edward Teller, Maria Goeppert-Mayer—the list went on and on.

Although an atheist, Pascal said he would make a deathbed confession to God. If there was no God to hear it, what difference did it make? But if there was . . .