Betawolf

“The life of the grownups had caught me, at first by a lock of hair or a finger, but soon it would have caught and bound me completely, the life lived according to goals, according to numbers, the life of order and jobs, or professions and examinations; soon the hour would strike for me too, soon I would be undergraduate, graduate student, minister, professor, would pay calls with a high hat and leather gloves to go with it, would no longer understand children, would perhaps envy them. But actually in my heart I didn't want any of this, I did not want to leave my world where things were good and precious. There was, to be sure, a completely secret goal for me when I thought about the future. The one thing I ardently wished for was to become a magician.”
― Hermann Hesse, Autobiographical Writings

“Fire-priests have an uncomplicated theology; immolating people purifies them from sin, so the more people you burn to death the less sin there is in the world, and the more holy you are for doing it”
― Graydon Saunders, The March North

“Applied physics and chemistry bring more grist to the mill; applied biology will also be capable of changing the mill itself.”
― Julian Huxley, Essays of a Biologist

“At the time, science had declared humans unique, since we were so much better at identifying faces than any other primate. No one seemed bothered by the fact that other primates had been tested mostly on human faces rather than those of their own kind.”
― Frans de Waal, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?