Leigh Brackett

"Stark did not like them. There was a touch of madness in them, born of the long dark and the too-long-held faith."

"“Aren’t you even curious?” he asked. “A million worlds out there with more wonders than I could tell you in a million years, and you don’t even want to ask a question?"

"The Thyrans came on, as merciless as time."

"Stark said wearily, “I don’t think you understand.” Normally he was tolerant of tribal fancies, but he felt no great tenderness for the Outdwellers. “The stars are already defiled. They’re only suns, …"

"Under the attentiveness was fear, and something else. Anger, hate—the instinctive rejection of an intolerable truth."

"I can’t tell you if the stories are true. Men lie without meaning to. They talk as if they had been part of a thing that happened to someone they never knew and only heard of by sixth remove."

"With any luck. Stark smiled cynically. Not that he did not believe in luck. Rather, he had found it to be an uncertain ally."

"Invisibility is a condition of godhead. If folk could see them, they would know the truth, and the Lords Protector would cease to be divine."