How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #4
One hundred thousand souls. Evening was beginning to dim the quiet river, but the mountains stood immense and clear, remote, in the level sunlight of the heights.
"To a better world!" Dr. Haber said, raising his glass to his creation, and finished his whisky in a lingering, savoring swallow. (5.113)
Everyone who's creeped out, raise your hands. Sure, we understand grudgingly doing something that seems horrible for the greater good, but in this scene, Dr. Haber just seems like a monster. He has no regrets and in fact he's celebrating the deaths of billions of people. How would he feel if he had been one of those people? The thought doesn't even seem to cross his mind.
Quote #5
The scientific aspect of it all was in fact the only hopeful one, to his mind; it seemed to him that perhaps science might wring some good out of his peculiar and terrible gift, put it to some good ends, compensating a little for the enormous harm it had done. The murder of six billion nonexistent people. (6.6)
Here, George is trying to see the silver lining in the way he ends the overpopulation problem. Obviously, it's good that there is no more overpopulation and that people are able to get nourishment. But does the good outweigh the bad? Also, do you think that science has the ability to turn George's ability into something good for all mankind?
Quote #6
So that now he's using even his science as a means, not an end. ... But his ends are good, aren't they? He wants to improve life for humanity. Is that wrong? (6.10)
George says that Dr. Haber is using science as a means to an end and that his ends are good. But are they? What are Dr. Haber's ends? Do you think he even has any? More importantly, do the ends justify the means? This is often a thorny question in science, even when the lives of billions of people aren't at stake.