Hothouse

The misfortune of a young man who returns to his native land after years away is that he finds his native land foreign; whereas the lands he left behind remain for ever like a mirage in his mind. However, misfortune can itself sow seeds of creativity. ---- Afterword to "Hothouse" Brian Aldiss

Life on the big slope was endurable, and sometimes more than just endurable, for the human spirit was a genius for making mountains out of molehills of happiness.

This shall be home, where danger was my cradle, and all we have learned will guard us!

To be a standard shape is not all in life.

The time was one of great organization and aspiration, of communities, communes, and committees.

Death, after all, had many shapes; everyone knew it: it was the way.

She strengthened her will by saying “It is the Way.

They would tear the wiltmilt to living pieces until nothing of it remained—and if they happened on a human at the same time … well, it was the way.

Nor could she frame deeper words herself; human understandings trickled shallow these days. It was the way.

Whistling, Lily-yo directed her dumbler back up to the home branch. Nothing now could be done for Clat. It was the way.