Quote

Civilization has given us enormous successes: going to the moon, technology. But then this is the civilisation that took us to debt, environmental crisis, every single crisis. We need a civilization where we say goodbye to these things.

Civilization is unbearable, but it is less unbearable at the top.

All civilization has from time to time become a thin crust over a volcano of revolution.

In order for us to have a future that's exciting and inspiring, it has to be one where we're a space-bearing civilization.

We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology.

We're busily wrecking the chances for future generations at a rapid rate of knots by not recognizing the damage we're doing to the natural environment, bearing in mind that this is the only planet that we know has any life on it.

If you could drive straight down, into a tunnel bored through the crust of the planet, you'd hit this molten mess in about an hour. It's called the asthenosphere - a sluggish sea, several hundred miles thick, on which floats the Earth's cool epidermis - the so-called tectonic plates.

History shows us that other highly developed forms of civilization have collapsed. Who knows whether the same fate does not await our own?

A civilization that only looks inward will stagnate. We have to keep looking outward; we have to keep finding new avenues for human endeavor and human expression.