"One of the most impressive discoveries was the origin of the energy of the stars, that makes them continue to burn.  One of the men who discovered this was out with his girl friend the night after he realized that nuclear reactions must be going on in the stars in order to make them shine. She said "Look at how pretty the stars shine!" He said, "Yes, and right now I am the only man in the world who knows why they shine." She merely laughed at him. She was not impressed with being out with the only man who, at that moment, knew why stars shine. Well, it is sad to be alone, but that is the way it is in this world."
Richard Feynman, The Feynman Lectures

"Two people meet for the first time.  They do things to and with each other.  They speak, they gesture, they touch.  In the process, each forms a conception of the other, and of self in relation to the other.  Mutual feelings arise.  Each affects the other in some way [and this in turn influences how they will interact at the start of their next meeting]."
Donald Peterson, "A Functional Approach to the Study of Person-Person Interactions"

"Screw you guys... I'm going home."
Eric Cartman

"...The more you truly feel for people in distress, the more selfish you are being in alleviating that distress.  Only those who do good out of cold, unmoved conviction are 'true' altruists."
Matt Ridley, The Origins of Virtue

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, and die gallantly.  Specialization is for insects."
"From the Notebooks of Lazarus Long", Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

"There's was a love that transcended time, ran roughshod over moral dogmas, guffawed in the face of adversity, rent asunder the shackles of social convention and took a sledgehammer to the crumbling walls of religious doctrine: a passionate love, a tender love, a selfless love, an undying love: not bad for two gerbils born on opposite sides of the glass partition."
Winner of the 2000 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, Romance Category

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Pi

"Thus the Romans, seeing inconveniences from afar, always found remedies for them and never allowed them to continue so as to escape war, because they knew that war may not be avoided but is deferred to the advantage of others.  So they decided to make war with Philip and Antiochus in Greece in order not to have to do so in Italy; and they could have avoided both one and the other for a time, but they did not want to.  Nor did that saying ever please them which is every day in the mouths of the wise men of our times -- to enjoy the benefit of time -- but rather, they enjoyed the benefit of their virtue and prudence.  For time sweeps everything before it and can bring with it good as well as evil and evil as well as good."
Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

"The situation encountered in dealing with silver atoms directly from the hot oven may be compared with that of a graduating class in which 50% of the graduating seniors are male, the remaining 50% female. When we pick a student at random, the probablity that the particular student is male (or female) is 0.5. Whoever heard of a student referred to as a coherent linear supeposition of male and female with a particular phase relation?"
J.J. Sakurai, Modern Quantum Mechanics

"As is well known, all collectors are prepared to steal or murder if it is a question of getting another piece for their collection; but this does not lower their moral character in the least."
Karel Capek, The War with the Newts

"...In this way we ate a Newt called Hans; he was an able and intelligent animal with a special bent for scientific work; and even refined chemical analysis could be entrusted to him. We used to have long conversations with him in the evenings, amusing ourselves with his insatiable thirst for knowledge. With deep regret we had to put Hans to death, because my experiments on trepanning him made him blind. His meat was dark and spongy, but did not cause any unpleasant effects. It is clear in the case of war Newt flesh could form a welcome and cheap substitute for beef.
"From the Reports of Dr. Woodellmann", Karel Capek, The War with the Newts