J. B. Priestley

"Ive been up and down and round about," said the Commodore, "and Ive seen a lot of religions at work. And I dont like them. With all due respect, padre. As a matter of fact Im not thinking about the Church of England, which is something different, something intended to keep the English decent and fairly comfortable and not likely to go tearing off into religion and making nuisances of themselves—"

"I suppose -- in the last resort -- you trust life -- or you dont. Well -- I dont. Theres something malicious . . . corrupt . . . cruel . . . at the heart of it. We dont belong. Were a mistake."

"Those no-sooner-have-I-touched-the-pillow people are past my comprehension. There is something suspiciously bovine about them."

"I have lived longer than you. I have thought more, and I have suffered more. And I tell you there is more truth to the fundamental nature of things in the most foolish fairy tales than there is in any of your complaints against life."

"Remember what we once were and what we thought wed be. And now this. And its all we have, Allan, its us. Every step weve taken -- every tick of the clock -- making everything worse. If this is all life is, whats the use? Better to die, like carol, before you find it out, before Time gets to work on you. Ive felt it before, Allan, but never as Ive done tonight. Theres a great devil in the universe, and we call it Time."

"But then we assume on our paper that nobody thinks. Which is all right. But where were wrong—and of course Im not really including myself but mean the top boys—is in thinking that our readers, dumb as they are, take us seriously."