Margaret St. Clair

“ Scott whispered to Frost, "Funny sort of library. People go in and people come out, but none of them is carrying anything. Of course, it could be the books don't circulate."
"It could be Thor-na'thor was lying, you mean." Frost whispered back. "It's not a library, it's the place where the Vardians go for their shots or what. Thor-na'thor must think we're awful fools." ”

“ In a word, we've eliminated from human life all the stresses and strains which can be eliminated. And that's the nearest to immortality we'll ever get."
Frost raised his eyebrows. "You heard what Thor-na'thor said. How do you account for it?"
Scott went over to the viewing plates and turned them to low power. The mass of buildings that was Tarthal leaped into visibility. "I don't account for it," he said, with his back to Frost. "We don't speak his language very well yet; we may have misunderstood. ”

“ Man knew the diameter of the earth before he was aware of the circulation of the blood, and it was more than two hundred years after the laws of moving bodies were formulated before the science of psychology was born. First the physical sciences, then biology, and at last sociology and the psychology of the depths.
"What reason is there to think that Thor-na'thor's people haven't reversed the progression and developed the life sciences first?"
"The order of development on earth wasn't accidental, but dictated by the nature of things; physics is an easier science than psychology. ”

“ Frost got out a sliver gun from a locker and pointed it at Thor-na'thor.
"Little but mighty," he said. "Thor-na'thor, this is it. Being shot by a sliver gun is rarely fatal, unless you're hit in a nerve center. But a wound from it produces tonic spasms of all the voluntary muscles. I was shot by one once; I'd rather have a major burn without anesthesia.
"Scott, hold out his hand."
Scott locked the Vardian's wrist in a tight grip and held the member out to Frost.
"Now," Frost said. "Why don't you Vardians die?" ”

“ Society has done that by a system of care which is pre-prenatal, by seeing to it that every human being grows up in the best possible environment and receives the best possible nutrition, and by prophylactic measures of all possible sorts. ”

“ One grows attached to them."
Still sipping, Thor-na'thor launched on an anecdote designed to illustrate Lilil's cleverness and quasi-human abilities. It grew into a biography, and still he sipped phyteumah from his glass. When the glass was empty, Frost poured more in it unobtrusively while Thor-na'thor talked on. The glass was refilled twice before the Vardian paused. "I regret her death," he finished.
Scott decided to plunge. "How fortunate you are spared such losses with your own people!" he said, tripping over the consonants. "You Vardians don't die, do you?" ”