Richard Matheson Quotes

Our world is in profound danger. Mankind must establish a set of positive values with which to secure its own survival.

In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than just ideals to be valued - they may be essential to survival.

What prevails in every corner of this globalized world is the real struggle of our species for its own survival.

A challenge so far-reaching in its impact and irreversible in its destructive power, that it alters radically human existence... There is no doubt that the time to act is now.

You can certainly destroy enough of humanity so that only the greatest act of faith can persuade you that what's left will be human.

A significant portion of the earth's population will soon recognize, if they haven't already done so, that humanity is now faced with a stark choice: Evolve or die.

We are not learning to view ourselves as an advanced, evolving civilization. That is what we really must learn to do, in due course, if we were to survive. All of that will take place, in due course, and we will be able to explore solar system. We will be able to go beyond it, provided we get our act together and learn to live as a civilization.

What allows us, as human beings, to psychologically survive life on earth, with all of its pain, drama, and challenges, is a sense of purpose and meaning.

There are plenty of problems in the world, many of them interconnected. But there is no problem which compares with this central, universal problem of saving the human race from extinction.

Civilization as it is known today could not have evolved, nor can it survive, without an adequate food supply.

If humanity does not opt for integrity we are through completely. It is absolutely touch and go. Each one of us could make the difference.

There are risks which are not acceptable: the destruction of humanity is one of them.

We are vanishing from the earth, yet I cannot think we are useless or Usen [God] would not have created us.

Nature—pitiless in a pitiless universe—is certainly not concerned with the survival of Americans or, for that matter, of any of the two billion people now inhabiting the earth.

No other planet in the solar system is a suitable home for human beings; it's this world or nothing. That's a very powerful perception.

There are two problems for our species' survival - nuclear war and environmental catastrophe - and we're hurtling towards them. Knowingly.

I am a worrier. I worry about the state of our country, of the world, of our species. Every day seems to deliver a new nail to hammer into our collective coffin.

When the survival strategy of a civilization is invalidated, in all of human history none have ever turned back from the brink.

War creates no absolutely new situation: it simply aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it. Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice.

We're told, often enough, that as a species we are poised on the edge of the abyss. It's possible that our puffed-up, prideful intelligence has outstripped our instinct for survival and the road back to safety has already been washed away. In which case there's nothing much to be done. If there is something to be done, then one thing is for sure: those who created the problem will not be the ones who come up with a solution.

The world has been close to war before - but now man, who has survived all previous threats to his existence, has taken into his mortal hands the power to exterminate the entire species some seven times over.

The human race may well become extinct before the end of the century. Speaking as a mathematician, I should say the odds are about three to one against survival.

Humanity as a species must change dramatically and radically or our survival is at stake.

Our way of life is at stake, our grandchildren are at stake, the future of civilization is at stake.

The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk. And even more — if more should be required — the future of human civilization is at stake.