How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"We have a duty this night. We are students of nature as well as its products, all of us, including this creature. Born of the same divine mind, if you believe in such things, for how could it be otherwise? We are soldiers for science, and we will do our duty." (1.91)
The doc is just trying to get Will Henry to buck up, but the juxtaposition of science and faith that he sets up is pretty interesting. We are all a product of nature, and the same "divine mind" created us all. Does that mean God is nature?
Quote #2
"Will Henry, what is our enemy?"
His eyes were bright, the color in his cheeks high, symptoms of his peculiar mania that I had seen a dozen times before. On its face, the answer to his question—barked in a tone more reminiscent of a command—was obvious. I pointed a quivering finger at the suspended Anthropophagus.
"Nonsense!" he said with a laugh. "Enmity is not a natural phenomenon, Will Henry. Is the antelope the lion's enemy? Does the moose or elk swear undying animosity for the wolf? We are but one thing to the Anthropophagi: meat. We are prey, not enemies." (2.99-101)
Dr. Warthrop loves to point this out to everyone involved in the Anthropophagus affair: The creatures aren't out to eat people because of some malicious intent. This is merely a function of the food chain at work; just because we're the prey doesn't mean it's personal.
Quote #3
Which fluffy bit held your ambition, Erasmus Gray? Which speck your pride? Ah, how absurd the primping and preening of our race! Is it not the ultimate arrogance to believe we are more than is contained in our biology? What counterarguments may be put forth, what valid objections raised, to the claim of Ecclesiastes, "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity"? (4.1)
We are a species filled with hubris, are we not? Do you think penguins waddle around thinking they're the rulers of the free world? Or that the cows chewing their cud in the fields are thinking smug thoughts as they watch us drive by? What Will Henry is grappling with is the idea that ultimately we are just physical bodies animated by the same thing that animates the rest of nature around us—so why do we think we're so great?