He shook his head violently, pulled himself together and swallowed a s — Robert Sheckley

"“Could he be an imposter?” the venerable priest mused. “No, I suppose not. So he must be from some other universe. That’s the usual explanation for the inexplicable.”"

"We denizens of Earth have a common vice: We take what we’re offered, whether we need it or not. You can get into a lot of trouble that way."

"I poured Franklin another cup of coffee and he looked at me, his big eyes pleading. The deadheads always look like that when we reach this point. They think that Mars is like Alaska in the ’70s, or Antarctica in 2000; a frontier for brave, determined men. But Mars isn’t a frontier. It’s a dead end."

"It was one hell of an inspection when you went around finding how many sane men you had left."

"Kettelman bristled. Nothing got him angrier than when people implied he was paranoid. It made him feel persecuted."

"After many centuries we have rediscovered nature’s way of keeping populations in hand. Nature does it the old-fashioned way, by killing people."