The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury

We Earth Men have a talent for ruining big, beautiful things.
The only reason we didn’t set up hot-dog stands in the midst of the Egyptian temple of Karnak is because it was out of the way and served no large commercial purpose.

I feel as if I’d been out in a pounding rain for forty-eight hours without an umbrella or a coat.
I’m soaked to the skin with emotion.

Life was now good and needed no arguments.

... dead cities have a way of making you want to whisper, to watch the sun go down.

You don’t question Providence.
If you can’t have the reality, a dream is just as good.

Marriage made people old and familiar, while still young.

Can one man be right, while all the world thinks they are right?

The animal does not question life. It lives.
Its very reason for living is life; it enjoys and relishes life.

Your insanity is beautifully complete!

Drink to me only with thine eyes,
and I will pledge with mine,

she sang, softly, quietly, slowly.

Or leave a kiss within the cup,
and I'll not ask for wine...

... nighttime was the time of change and affliction.

Anybody with any sense wanted to get away from Earth.

It’s not every day you get a second chance.

The war was as removed and far off as two flies battling to the death in the arch of a great high and silent cathedral.
And just as senseless.

It’s a world and we get a second chance.
Nobody told us why.
But then nobody told us why we were on Earth, either.
That other Earth, I mean.
The one you came from.
How do we know there wasn’t another before that one?

His eyes glowed with a dark, quiet look of loneliness.