"One of the principal functions of a friend is to suffer (in a milder and symbolic form) the punishments that we should like, but are unable, to inflict upon our enemies"

"that the goal was somewhere beyond, somewhere outside the present human sphere; that the purpose of life was not the maintenance of well-being, but some intensification and refining of consciousness, some enlargement of knowledge"

"men who moved through the caste system as a fish through water—so utterly at home as to be unaware either of themselves or of the beneficent and comfortable element in which they had their being"

“Translating from one language to another, unless it is from Greek and Latin, the queens of all languages, is like looking at Flemish tapestries from the wrong side, for although the figures are visible, they are covered by threads that obscure them, and cannot be seen with the smoothness and color of the right side.”

― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote

Ogres out of a paleontology exhibit, at their task of making a cup from an enemy’s skull, the whole family industriously scooping out the contents—the raw brains—first, to eat. Then useful utensils of men’s leg bones. Thrifty, to think not only of eating the people you did not like, but eating them out of their own skull. The first technicians! Prehistoric man in a sterile white lab coat in some Berlin university lab, experimenting with uses to which other people’s skull, skin, ears, fat could be put to. Ja, Herr Doktor. A new use for the big toe; see, one can adapt the joint for a quick-acting cigarette lighter mechanism. Now, if only Herr Krupp can produce it in quantity…

Чрезвычайное Происшествие

As always, a short story might be short but is definitely full of important aspects.

First, alien life survivability. On the one hand, just because we cannot survive in a certain climate, like vacuum, does not mean other forms of alien life would not be able to. Also, just because the climate and the atmosphere is friendly to us, does not mean it would not be deadly to alien life. This is why the “flies” came unexpectedly from “outside” and water, which is imperative for the survival of everything on Earth, would be deadly to them.

Second, we finally hear the concern about bringing something deadly back to Earth. Even those that went to the moon had to be placed into quarantine upon return, just to be safe. So I am happy to see the mention of the necessary fail-safes.  

“Else, how could we flood village and city with our information? The people must learn how well I govern them. How would they know if we didn’t tell them?”