But if two people do almost nothing except search for one another, it's hardly surprising if they run across each other by chance.

The of sitting a telescope in space was obviously not to get closer to the stars and planets the telescope was to study. That would have been about as daft as standing on tip-toe to get a better picture of the craters on the moon. The whole idea of a space telescope is to study space from a point outside the earth' atmosphere that gives that impression, in roughly the same way the ripping surface of a lake can give the impression that the stones beneath are wavy and indistinct. Or the reverse: from the bottom of a swimming pool it's not easy to see what's happening above the surface.

But what is a person, George? How much is a person worth? Are we nothing but dust that is whipped up and spread to the winds?

We are the universe.

Perhaps we aren’t fully developed. The physical development of human beings necessarily had to precede the psychological. Perhaps the physical nature of the universe is merely a necessary external material for its own self-awareness.

Look at the world, Georg, look at the world before you've filled yourself with too much physics and chemistry.

But sorrow can also be contagious. Fear is different. It isn't as communicable as laughter or sadness, and a good thing too. Fear is almost entirely a lonely thing.

I can wait until my heart bleeds with sorrow.

Although I've always been easily led by my imagination, I was, and I remain, a rational person.