"Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life . . . whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved." Concluding lines of Origin of Species, Charles Darwin.

" 'A man, Harry said, looking at them both. 'One man alone ain't got. No man alone now.' He stopped. 'No matter how, a man alone ain't got no bloody fucking chance.' " Dying words of Harry in To Have and Have Not, Ernest Hemingway.

"Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?" On the Road, Jack Kerouac.

"The secret is not in one spot, but in the whole design, the hidden signature of the infinite, whose center is nowhere, and everywhere. Peter Pesic

"I believe in Spinoza's god who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a god who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings." Albert Einstein

"When mankind at last assumes responsibility for the creation of the values he desires, and finds the plastic stuff of reality yielding readily to his molding intelligence and will, some day he will look up from his work, surprised to find that God has taken the opportunity to disappear." Albert Eustace Haydon

"Existence itself, the act of existing, is a striving. . . and the striving is infinite." Soren Kierkegaard

"Nothing is too wonderful to be true if it be consistent with the laws of nature." Michael Faraday

"The most astounding fact I know." Neil deGrasse Tyson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D05ej8u-gU

The most beautiful fact I know, expressed by Carl Sagan (1934-1996): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnFMrNdj1yY

In memory of Michael Wagner - writer, Emmy winner, friend

In memory of Seymour (Russ) Russell - CIA, lifetime patriot, friend