Quotes from Douglas E. Richards

Some of your human religious philosophers have conjectured that the need for external stimulation is the very reason God created the universe, and humanity, in the first place. To have a purpose. To combat loneliness. To ensure there is something that exists outside of itself.

Are you kidding?" said Girdler. "Politicians would sell their daughters to male prisons to hold on to power. As far as I've been able to tell, they're the lowest form of life on the planet." "Lower than pond scum?" asked Heather with a twinkle in her eye. "Comparing them to pond scum is an insult to pond scum," said Girdler emphatically.

She was pacifistic and empathetic by nature, but she was also a survivor, and her spirit and sense of fight were climbing back off the mat, with a vengeance, right before his eyes.

No one wants to share their man, after all," continued Knight calmly when Jenna's scream subsided. "Even if the person they're sharing with is themselves. So now that he's all yours, Jenna, how about it?

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; A time to kill, and a time to heal." —Partial excerpts from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, King James Bible "Time flies like an arrow . . . but fruit flies like a banana." —Unknown (often attributed to Groucho Marx)

Would a coward or a thief remain a coward or a thief, even if his memory slate was wiped clean? Or could he somehow become courageous and noble? Could not knowing you had a history of cowardice allow you to suddenly become brave? Were bravery and altruism learned qualities or innate ones?

All objects moved through space-time at the exact same rate.

The physicist glared at him defiantly but allowed herself to be carried without further theatrics.

Who wouldn't want to go back in time and correct a mistake, right a wrong, change how things turned out? Who wouldn't want to have another chance to win the girl, or hit the home run? To kill Hitler, or invest in Apple or Facebook when they were just emerging? The

Emerging Possibilities for Space Propulsion Breakthroughs, and it had first appeared in a NASA publication, Interstellar Propulsion Society Newsletter, in July of 1995.

Kira knew that contrary to popular belief, humans were happiest, not during lengthy periods of leisure, but when they were growing as people. When they were achieving. When they were striving to overcome difficult and worthwhile challenges, and then overcoming them. When they were feeding a sense of accomplishment and self-esteem through effort. Even the accomplishments of menial labor brought a sense of personal satisfaction far greater than most realized.

We all come from an uninterrupted line of humanity's winners. Like gunfighters in the Old West, just being alive means that you're undefeated.

He half expected to receive a rocket-propelled suppository at any moment, but none came.

since you're awake and dressed, why isn't your phone on?" She asked the question as if it was one of the deepest mysteries of the cosmos. As if the idea of not having a phone on and by one's side every waking instant was inconceivable.

She really had cast a spell on him.

I'm sure you remember how we survived the alien invasion in H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds," she continued. "Our bacteria got them. Given my job, the final passage of this novel is my all-time favorite. Wells wrote that the moment the invaders landed, and I quote, 'our microscopic allies began to work their overthrow. It was inevitable.

And while looks deteriorated with time, a great personality and great chemistry only strengthened

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a gift. That's why they call it the present.

Hitler and Himmler were nothing if not masters of imagery, symbolism, and propaganda, and Himmler's acquisition of the renaissance castle in 1934 was inspired in the Nazi Party's sick and twisted way. Whatever the case, it was well known that Himmler adored the castle, intending for it to serve as the central site for the cult of the SS. Rumor had it that he dreamed it would one day become "The Center of the World" in the Nazi SS religion.

Truth and reality had come to mean very little when compared to political correctness and political expediency.

Yeah. Last week was a good year for wine," she replied with a grin. "I

During times of scarcity at least, yes. This is one probable explanation for why most life on Earth, including ours, is programmed to die." Desh's

Wortzman displayed Nietzsche's words to remind him of the need to cling to his own humanity as tightly as he could, despite the temptations to do otherwise. He turned toward them now, re-reading them as he had done on so many occasions. Battle not with monsters, Lest ye become a monster. And if you gaze into the abyss, The abyss gazes back into you.

Rory, open the panic room door," he ordered. "Authorization code: my ass must really be in trouble.