“To discover that intelligence can arise is not in itself surprising, for we already knew that this is possible. It has happened here on Earth. What is surprising is to discover that an intelligent race can survive its technology. We now know that at least one other race has. It has passed the point of being able to destroy itself, as we are able now, and has gone on to some further stage; and that is new. This fact gives us hope. And it also gives us a purpose, and certain obligations. For what we know now that we did not know before is that the human race is not necessarily under sentence of death, and so certain childish and dangerous follies can be abandoned.”
They were looking at him in perplexity and surprise, but not, at least, in hostility. And the TV cameras, those remarkable amplifiers of the voice, were rolling. What he said would be heard. “So we may now set behind us the kamikaze society,” he said, gaining confidence with every word, “and now, with your permission, I will tell you what it appears to me we must do, in order to survive and take our place in this congeries of cultures that we now know to exist among the stars.”
Syzygy Page 27