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Lives loss through an ‘act of God’ are regretted, perhaps deeply regretted, but they do not arouse our wildest passions. It is otherwise with lives that are forfeited through deliberate human agency. The word ‘deliberate’ is important here. One deliberate murder can produce a sharper reaction than ten thousand deaths on the roads.

— Fred Hoyle The Black Cloud (1957)

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More quotes by Fred Hoyle

Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away if your car could go straight upwards.

Losing power, utterly and completely, is the most dreadful prospect that a politician can think of. It overshadows everything else.

The Black Cloud (1957)

It’s only too easy to read your own state of mind into what other people say.

The Black Cloud (1957)

The two men were mentally too dissimilar for more than a half hour of conversation between them to be possible.

The Black Cloud (1957)

All people are the same, pretty well irrespective of color, creed, or the way they happen to grunt out their language.

Encounter with the Future (1965)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Fred Hoyle (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.