The Martian Chronicles Art and Culture Quotes

How we cite our quotes: ("Story Name," Paragraph)

Quote #10

"Life on Earth never settled down to doing anything very good. Science ran too far ahead of us too quickly, and the people got lost in a mechanical wilderness, like children making over pretty things, gadgets, helicopters, rockets; emphasizing the wrong items, emphasizing machines instead of how to run the machines. Wars got bigger and bigger and finally killed Earth." ("The Million-Year Picnic," 123)

The father in the final story echoes Spender: we need art and culture to help keep our scientific advances in check. Without art, he argues, the destruction of the world is inevitable. Well, okay—but we think the nuclear bombs might have had something to do with that, too.