I think it is much more likely that reports of flying saucers result from known irrational characteristics of terrestrial intelligence, rather than unknown rational efforts of extraterrestrial intelligence. 

It’s just more likely, that’s all—it’s a good guess.

And we always try to guess the most likely explanation, keeping in the back of the mind the fact that, if it doesn’t work, then we must discuss the other possibility.

Rich Feynman

There remain events that we do not understand, but these events tend to be characterized by poor-quality, limited data.

David Spergel

Wile we has been up in space for nearly two days, ole buddy been strapped into his seat an ain’t had a chance to take a leak or nothin! An I sure remember what that’s like. He must be bout to bust!

I find a empty bottle for him to pee in, but after he finished, he take the bottle an heave it into a panel of colored lights an it bust to pieces an all the pee start floatin aroun in the spaceship.

Before you know it, sparks an stuff is flyin all aroun inside the spaceship an he is jumpin from ceilin to floor tearin shit up. A voice come over the radio wantin to know “What in the hell is goin on up there?” but by then it was too late.

The spaceship is weavin all aroun an goin end over end an we is tossed aroun like corks. Can’t grap holt of nothin, can’t turn off nothin, can’t stan up or set down. The voice of groun control come over the radio again, say, “We is noticin some kine of minor stabilization trouble with your craft.”

Shit—he got to be jokin! I’m spinnin aroun like a top an I got a wild ape loose in here to boot! I manage to get a glance out the winder, and in fact things don’t look good.

That world comin up on us mighty fast.

Forrest Gump

They were two feet high, and green, and shaped like plumber’s friends. Their suction cups were on the ground, and their shafts, which were extremely flexible, usually pointed to the sky. At the top of each shaft was a little hand with a green eye in its palm. The creatures were friendly, and they could see in four dimensions. They pitied Earthlings for being able to see only three. They had many wonderful things to teach Earthlings, especially about time.

The most important thing I learned was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments—past, present and future—always have existed, always will exist.

They can look at all the different moments just the way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them.

It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever.

Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

I wonder whether I will be the first and last human being ever to pay conscious attention to a particular galaxy. A blurry object I look at for only a few seconds could be richly imbued with meaning.

Each galaxy contains billions of planets. Each planet is a world. Each has its own unique history—sunrises and sunsets; storms and seasons; in some cases, continents and oceans; earthquakes and rivers.

Are any of those worlds inhabited? Are there astronomers there? Unless they are an exceedingly ancient and advanced civilization, they have never traveled outside their galaxy. So they have never seen what it looks like from our perspective—though they might know from theory.

Are any of them at this very moment staring at the Milky Way, asking the same questions about us? If so, then they are seeing our galaxy as it was when the most advanced forms of life on Earth were fish.

David Deutsch, Beginning Of Infinity

The energy beams vaporizing the United Nations could be a possible biosignature.

xkcd

Dolph Fin: So long, and thanks for all the fish!