- Maj. Jeff Spender: I just believe in things that were done. And there were so many things done here. Streets and houses and books and big canals and clocks and places with names - things that were used and touched for centuries. And I don't see how we could ever use them without feeling uncomfortable. Oh, we could change the names, but the old names will still be there. So no matter how we touch Mars, we won't be able to really touch it. See, that'll make us angry. We'll get mad at that and just rip it up. We'll change it to suit ourselves. And ruin it. Just like we've ruined Earth.
- Col. John Wilder: We won't ruin it.
- Maj. Jeff Spender: No? Us Earthmen have a talent for ruining things. If there are any Martians alive in those hills, they're going to grow to hate us.
- Maj. Jeff Spender: You know, a race creates itself for a million years, refines itself, does everything it can to give itself respect and beauty, and then it dies - part in its own time, with dignity as it should be, but the other part... Does it perish of some majestic affliction? No, it doesn't. It dies of a disease that does not kill the youngest child on Earth. It's like saying that the Greeks died of mumps. Or the Roman Empire was decimated by athlete's foot.