“You know how to split atoms, how to send explorers to the moon, how to splice genes, but you don’t know how people ought to live.”

I will wrest the garden from the hands of the gods and order it anew so that it serves only my growth, and that will be good. And because these things are good, they must be done at any cost.

“Famine isn’t unique to humans. All species are subject to it everywhere in the world. When the population of any species outstrips its food resources, that population declines until it’s once again in balance with its resources. Mother Culture says that humans should be exempt from that process, so when she finds a population that has outstripped

According to the Takers, all sorts of useful information can be found in the universe, but none of it pertains to how people should live.

THERE ARE TIMES WHEN HAVING too much to say can be as dumbfounding as having too little.

“You’re captives of a civilizational system that more or less compels you to go on destroying the world in order to live.”

The Takers are a profoundly lonely people. The world for them is enemy territory, and they live in it like an army of occupation, alienated and isolated by their extraordinary specialness.”

We were never meant to be the only players on this stage. Apparently the gods intend this planet to be a garden filled with creatures that are self-aware and intelligent.”

“Next, the Takers systematically destroy their competitors’ food to make room for their own. Nothing like this occurs in the natural community. The rule there is: Take what you need, and leave the rest alone.”