- John Borden: You mean that one-eyed monster we buried back at the camp is the heir to ten thousand years of human progress?
- Timmek, President of the Council: Armageddon. The slaughter of humanity. An atomic war no one wanted, but which no one had the wisdom to avoid.
- John Borden: The surface of the Earth was meant for man. He wasn't meant to live in a hole in the ground.
- Timmek, President of the Council: [watching the children play King of the Mountain] Which are the puny ones now?
- Mories: Our women seem to have lagged behind in their evolution into reasonable creatures. They actually admire these reckless and brutal men.