Contact Movie Quotes
Alien
You're an interesting species. An interesting mix. You're capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you're not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other.
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[last lines]
Ellie Arroway
[to a group of children]
I'll tell you one thing about the universe, though. The universe is a pretty big place. It's bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it's just us... seems like an awful waste of space. Right?
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Young Ellie
Dad, do you think there's people on other planets?
Ted Arroway
I don't know, Sparks. But I guess I'd say if it is just us... seems like an awful waste of space.
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Panel member
Doctor Arroway, you come to us with no evidence, no record, no artifacts. Only a story that to put it mildly strains credibility. Over half a trillion dollars was spent, dozens of lives were lost. Are you really going to sit there and tell us we should just take this all... on faith?
[pause, Ellie looks at Palmer]
Michael Kitz
Please answer the question, doctor.
Ellie Arroway
Is it possible that it didn't happen? Yes. As a scientist, I must concede that, I must volunteer that.
Michael Kitz
Wait a minute, let me get this straight. You admit that you have absolutely no physical evidence to back up your story.
Ellie Arroway
Yes.
Michael Kitz
You admit that you very well may have hallucinated this whole thing.
Ellie Arroway
Yes.
Michael Kitz
You admit that if you were in our position, you would respond with exactly the same degree of incredulity and skepticism!
Ellie Arroway
Yes!
Michael Kitz
[standing, angrily] Then why don't you simply withdraw your testimony, and concede that this "journey to the center of the galaxy," in fact, never took place!
Ellie Arroway
Because I can't. I... had an experience... I can't prove it, I can't even explain it, but everything that I know as a human being, everything that I am tells me that it was real! I was given something wonderful, something that changed me forever... A vision... of the universe, that tells us, undeniably, how tiny, and insignificant and how... rare, and precious we all are! A vision that tells us that we belong to something that is greater than ourselves, that we are *not*, that none of us are alone! I wish... I... could share that... I wish, that everyone, if only for one... moment, could feel... that awe, and humility, and hope. But... That continues to be my wish.
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Rachel Constantine
I assume you read the confidential findings report from the investigating committee.
Michael Kitz
I flipped through it.
Rachel Constantine
I was especially interested in the section on Arroway's video unit. The one that recorded the static?
Michael Kitz
Continue.
Rachel Constantine
The fact that it recorded static isn't what interests me.
Rachel Constantine
What interests me is that it recorded approximately eighteen hours of it.
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Ellie Arroway
Mathematics is the only true universal language.
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David Drumlin
I know you must think this is all very unfair. Maybe that's an understatement. What you don't know is I agree. I wish the world was a place where fair was the bottom line, where the kind of idealism you showed at the hearing was rewarded, not taken advantage of. Unfortunately, we don't live in that world.
Ellie Arroway
Funny, I've always believed that the world is what we make of it.
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[shows satellite feed to Ellie]
S.R. Hadden
Hokkaido Island.
Ellie Arroway
The systems integration site.
S.R. Hadden
Look closer.
[zooms satellite feed to reveal second machine]
S.R. Hadden
First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price? Only, this one can be kept secret. Controlled by Americans, built by the Japanese subcontractors. Who, also, happen to be, recently acquired, wholly-owned subsidiaries...
S.R. Hadden
They still want an American to go, Doctor. Wanna take a ride?
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Palmer Joss
Is the world fundamentally a better place because of science and technology? We shop at home, we surf the Web... at the same time, we feel emptier, lonelier and more cut off from each other than at any other time in human history...
[the message becomes audible]
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Ellie Arroway
What?
Palmer Joss
Your dad. Did you love him?
Ellie Arroway
Yes, very much.
Palmer Joss
Prove it.
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Ellie Arroway
You know, there are four hundred billion stars out there, just in our galaxy alone. If only one out of a million of those had planets, and just of out of a million of those had life, and just one out of a million of those had intelligent life; there would be, literally... millions of civilizations out there.
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Palmer Joss
What are you studying up there?
Ellie Arroway
Oh, the usual. Nebulae, quasars, pulsars, stuff like that. What are you writing?
Palmer Joss
The usual. Nouns, adverbs, adjective here and there.
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Executive
We must confess that your proposal seems less like science and more like science fiction.
Ellie Arroway
Science fiction. Well you're right, it's crazy. In fact, it's even worse than that, nuts.
[angrily slams down her briefcase and marches up to the desk]
Ellie Arroway
You wanna hear something really nutty? I heard of a couple guys who wanna build something called an "airplane," you know you get people to go in, and fly around like birds, it's ridiculous, right? And what about breaking the sound barrier, or rockets to the moon, or atomic energy, or a mission to Mars? Science fiction, right? Look, all I'm asking, is for you to just have the tiniest bit of vision. You know, to just sit back for one minute and look at the big picture. To take a chance on something that just might end up being the most profoundly impactful moment for humanity, for the history... of history.
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Palmer Joss
By doing this, you're willing to give your life, you're willing to die for it. Why?
Ellie Arroway
For as long as I can remember, I've been searching for something, some reason why we're here. What are we doing here? Who are we? If this is a chance to find out even just a little part of that answer... I don't know, I think it's worth a human life. Don't you?
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Michael Kitz
Your having sent this announcement all over the world may well constitute a breach of national security.
Ellie Arroway
This isn't a person-to-person call. You can't possibly think that a civilization sending this kind of message would intend it just for Americans.
Michael Kitz
I'm saying you might have consulted us; obviously, the contents of this message could be extremely sensitive.
Ellie Arroway
You want to classify prime numbers now?
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News Reporters
Reverend Joss! Reverend Joss, what do you believe? What do you believe?
Palmer Joss
[pause] As a person of faith I'm bound by a different covenant than Doctor Arroway. But our goal is one and the same: the pursuit of Truth. I for one believe her.
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Ellie Arroway
[Witnessing a celestial light show up close]
Some... celestial event... no... no words, no words...
[starts to sob]
Ellie Arroway
to describe it. Poetry! They should've sent a poet. So beautiful... beautiful... so beautiful, so beautiful. I had no idea.
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Ellie Arroway
So what's more likely? That an all-powerful, mysterious God created the Universe, and decided not to give any proof of his existence? Or, that He simply doesn't exist at all, and that we created Him, so that we wouldn't have to feel so small and alone?
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Ellie Arroway
Why did you do it?
Palmer Joss
Our job was to select someone to speak for everybody. And I just couldn't in good conscience vote for a person who doesn't believe in God. Someone who honestly thinks the other ninety five percent of us suffer from some form of mass delusion.
Ellie Arroway
I told the truth up there. And Drumlin told you exactly what you wanted to hear.
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Panel member
If you were to meet these Vegans, and were permitted only one question to ask of them, what would it be?
Ellie Arroway
Well, I suppose it would be, how did you do it? How did you evolve, how did you survive this technological adolescence without destroying yourself?
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Palmer Joss
I'm not against technology, doctor. I'm against the men who deify it at the expense of human truth.
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Michael Kitz
You too.
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[sniff]
Young Ellie
Dad, this is Ellie, come back?... This is Eleanor Arroway, transmitting on 14.2 megahertz.
[pleading]
Young Ellie
Dad, are you there? Come back? Dad, are you there? Dad, this is Ellie...
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Ellie Arroway
Occam's razor. You ever heard of it?
Palmer Joss
Hack-em's Razor. Sounds like some slasher movie.
Ellie Arroway
No, Occam's Razor. It's a basic scientific principle. It says all things being equal, the simplest explanation tends to be the right one.
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Jay Leno
So it turns out there's life on other planets. Boy, this is really going to change the Miss Universe contest, you know what I mean?
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Willie
Who are we going to call now?
Ellie Arroway
Everybody.
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Rachel Constantine
[about Adolf Hitler]
Twenty million people died defeating that son of a bitch, and he's our first ambassador to outer space?
Ellie Arroway
Actually the Hitler broadcast from the...
David Drumlin
[interrupting]
'36 olympics was the first television transmission of any power that went in to space. That they recorded it, and sent it back, is simply their way of saying "hello, we heard you."
Michael Kitz
Or, "Sieg Heil, you're our kind of people."
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Ellie Arroway
Is this some test?
Alien
No, no tests. You have your mother's hands.
[he takes her hand and turns it, showing they both wear the same ring]
Alien
You're an interesting species. An interesting mix. You're capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone; only, you're not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable... is each other.
Ellie Arroway
What happens now?
Alien
Now... you go home.
Ellie Arroway
Home? But... I have so many questions... Do we get to come back?
Alien
This was just a first step. In time, you'll take another.
Ellie Arroway
But other people need to see what I've seen, they need to see...
Alien
This is the way it's been done for billions of years. Small moves, Ellie. Small moves.
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Young Ellie
I'm going to need a bigger antenna.
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Ellie Arroway
I'm okay to go! I'm okay to go! I'm okay to go...
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David Drumlin
One... there is intelligent life out there, but you'll never contact it in your lifetime, and two...
[Ellie starts to speak, he speaks over her]
David Drumlin
TWO! There's nothing out there but noble gases and carbon compounds, and you're wasting your time! In the meantime, you won't be published, you won't be taken seriously and your career will be over before it's begun!
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Palmer Joss
The reason I didn't vote for you to go Ellie, was a good reason but it wasn't the real one. I didn't vote for you to go, because I don't want to lose you. Now you find your way home, all right?
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Ellie Arroway
I've been to Sunday school a few times.
Palmer Joss
And?
Ellie Arroway
I kept asking all these really annoying questions like "Where did Mrs. Cain come from?" And pretty soon they asked my dad if he wouldn't mind keeping me home from now on.
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Ellie Arroway
You're not real. None of this is real.
Ellie Arroway
[looking the beach around you]
When I was unconscious, you downloaded my thoughts, my memories, even Pensacola.
Alien
We thought this might make things easier for you.
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S.R. Hadden
The powers that be have been very busy lately, falling over each other to position themselves for the game of the millennium. Maybe I can help deal you back in.
Ellie Arroway
I didn't realize that I was out.
S.R. Hadden
Well, maybe not out... but certainly being handed your hat.
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Ellie Arroway
[listening to the message]
Those are primes! 2,3,5,7, those are all prime numbers and there's no way that's a natural phenomenon!
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Dr. Kent Clark
Dr. Arroway will be spending her precious telescope time listening for... uh... listening for...
Ellie Arroway
Little green men.
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Ellie Arroway
I read your book.
Palmer Joss
Here we go.
Ellie Arroway
You want me to quote you? "Ironically, the thing people are most hungry for - meaning - is the one thing science hasn't been able to give them."
Palmer Joss
Yeah.
Ellie Arroway
[humorously]
Come on! It's like you're saying that science killed God. What if science simply revealed that He never existed in the first place?
Palmer Joss
I think we're gonna need to get some air.
Ellie Arroway
Oh?
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Ellie Arroway
I work for a project called SETI.
Palmer Joss
Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence? Wow, that's out there.
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Ellie Arroway
They all travel here through that transit system that you built?
Alien
We didn't build it. We don't know who did. No, they were gone long before we ever got here. Maybe someday they'll come back.
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S.R. Hadden
Dr. Arroway, I presume.
Ellie Arroway
Mr. Hadden.
S.R. Hadden
I've had my eye on you a long time, Doctor. I consider you one of my most valuable long-term investments. And when it comes to my investments, I always do my homework. Eleanor Ann Arroway, born 25th August, 1964, De Pere, Wisconsin. Mother, Joanna, died from complications during childbirth. Early testing indicated high predisposition towards science and mathematics. Father, Theodore, advised to provide enrichment activities in these areas, .did so conscientiously until his death from myocardial infarction, November 10, 1974. You graduated from high school in 1979, almost two full years early. Awarded full scholarship, M.I.T, graduated magna cum laude. Doctoral work, Cal Tech where you worked on the lanthanide-doped ruby maser, dramatically increasing the sensitivity of radio telescopes. Subsequently offered a teaching position at Harvard University which you turned down to pursue SETI work at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Changes in NSF policy gave rise to certain funding problems, at which point you came to my attention.
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[first lines]
Young Ellie
CQ, this is W9GFO. CQ, this is W9GFO here. Come back?
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Ellie Arroway
Hydrogen times pi!
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Ellie Arroway
Mrs. Constantine? May I have a word with you?
Rachel Constantine
Certainly.
Ellie Arroway
Um, I have a big problem.
Rachel Constantine
Yes?
Ellie Arroway
Uh, do you know where I can find like a really great dress?
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Palmer Joss
So I was lying there, just looking at the sky... and then I felt something. I don't know I... all I know is that I wasn't alone, and for the first time in my life... I wasn't scared of nothin'... I mean, not even dying. It was God!
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Palmer Joss
You could call me a man of the cloth, without the cloth.
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Richard Rank
My coalition's phone lines have been flooded with calls from concerned families, wondering if this message signifies the end of the world or the advent of the rapture. We feel that U.S. policy in this matter wants to be extremely conservative - if there's any chance of danger or threat to our way of life perhaps the message and its contents should simply be disregarded.
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Mission Director
[Machine systems integration test: Unusual vibrations are occurring] David, we're not seeing anything abnormal down here.
David Drumlin
No good! Hold the sequence. I'm gonna take a direct reading.
Mission Director
What the hell's he talking about?
Technician
Can anyone say "grandstanding"?
2nd Technician
He sure knows *he's* on TV.
Communications
[heavy Texas accent] Back home, that's what we call a "overcooked ham".
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Ellie Arroway
What I meant to say is that the message was written in the language of science. Now if it had been religious in nature it should have taken form of a burning bush or a big booming voice from the sky.
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Voice of NASA
[When the first Machine starts on]
We have begun the full scale test of Earth's first system built by the sharing of knowledge with a neighbour in our Universe.
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Dynamics
100% target velocity.
Electrical
Steve, picking up tremendous E.M.I. levels around the machine. All field measurements are pegged off-scale high.
Dynamics
Steve, we're approaching our abort limits.
[Mission director reaches for the abort switch]
Ellie Arroway
Okay to go!
[Mission director unlocks abort control and prepares to push the button]
Dr. Kent Clark
I hear her! I hear her. Barely, but, but she's there.
Dr. Kent Clark
She says she's okay to go.
Dynamics
Steve, we're real close.
Mission Director
Electrical, what's your reading on the core?
Electrical
[puzzled]
The internal environment looks normal. Inside the core, the... weather's beautiful.
[Mission director re-locks abort control]
Mission Director
Initiate drop sequence on my mark. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three two...
Ellie Arroway
I'm okay to go...
[pod drops into machine]
Ellie Arroway
OH GOD!
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Ellie Arroway
I am OK to go.
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Ted Arroway
Hi, Sparks.
Ellie Arroway
Dad?
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Michael Kitz
Explain this to me. If the source of the signal is so sophisticated, why the remedial math?
Senator Valencia
Exactly, why don't they speak English?
Ellie Arroway
Maybe because 70 percent of the planet speaks other languages.
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[repeated line]
David Drumlin
Now at the moment we release the pod, there will be a substantial amount of energy generated in the core. We will be able to monitor the stresses and effects using our robot passenger, who we lovingly call "Elmer".
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Dr. Kent Clark
Uh... These are government-owned telescopes, they can lease them to whomever they want. And they don't want the high priestess of the desert using them anymore.
Ellie Arroway
What?
Dr. Kent Clark
Staring at static on TV for hours at a time, listening to washing machines. Did you really think these stories wouldn't get out?
Ellie Arroway
I was looking for patterns in the chaos, come on!
Dr. Kent Clark
It doesn't matter anymore! We're a joke to them, they want us out.
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Panel member
Myself, I have one final question, Dr. Arroway.
Panel member
If you should meet these Vegans... and were permitted only one question to ask of them, what would it be?
Ellie Arroway
Well, I suppose it would be: How did you do it? How did you evolve? How did you survive this technological adolescence without destroying yourself?
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[unplugs her equipment, jumps into her car and speeds away towards headquarters, shouting into walkie-talkie]
Ellie Arroway
Right ascension, eighteen hours, thirty-six minutes, fifty-six point two seconds! Declination, less thirty-six degrees, forty-six minutes, fifty-six point two seconds! Confirm! Right ascension, eighteen hours thirty-six minutes, fifty-six point two seconds! HEY! Is anybody awake in there? I'm moving the array! CONFIRM!
Fisher
Boss has a bogey!
[Ellie continues to shout coordinates over the walkie-talkie]
[tosses Fisher the walkie-talkie]
Fisher
[into walkie-talkie]
We're on it!
Ellie Arroway
I'm moving the rest of them now and I need you to confirm the coordinates!
Fisher
[to Willie]
Check the status of the array! She's doing all the dishes.
Willie
All systems nominal.
Fisher
[Looking at the pulse signal on the monitor]
Hello!
[to Willie]
Fisher
I need a full systems check!
[over walkie-talkie]
Fisher
Coordinates confirmed, Willie's checking the system now!
Ellie Arroway
Stay on top of the system's diagnostics! Check the reference point offsets and I want you off axis on twenty-seven the second we get there! And tell Willie to break out the big boy!
Willie
Copy that! Uh, Willie I -
[Ellie is still speaking on the walkie-talkie]
Willie
Yeah, go, go Ellie!
Ellie Arroway
...'Cause I can hear it on the headphones! We've gotta be sure about this!
Fisher
[to Willie]
Gimme another array status!
Willie
Her four are online, the rest are tracking in!
Fisher
[to Ellie]
Your four are online, the rest are tracking in!
Willie
But there's a bad drive on sixteen!
Fisher
[repeats to Ellie]
Your four are online, the rest are tracking in, but there's a bad drive on sixteen, copy that? What do you want me to do about the source cube?
Ellie Arroway
[pulling up in her car, still over walkie-talkie as she runs inside and up the stairs]
Look, forget about it and hold the cube! Go get ready to set the target frequency to manual the second we're aligned! Do you copy? I want you to go off-axis on twenty-seven the second we're there! And leave the yellow frequency where it is! Stay on it Fish, don't let it get away, if you lose it just scan the band, run every frequency you can think of!
[bursting into the control room]
Ellie Arroway
How you doin'?
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Eleanor Arroway
One down... a couple billion to go.
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Larry King
[Interviewing Palmer Joss] Are you anti-technology? Are you anti-science?
Palmer Joss
No, not at all. The question that I'm asking is this: Are we happier as a human race? Is the world fundamentally a better place because of science and technology? We shop at home, we surf the Web but at the same time we feel emptier and more cut off from each other than at any other time in human history. I mean, we're becoming a synthesized society in a great, big hurry to get to the next I think it's because we're looking for the meaning. What is the meaning? We have mindless jobs, we take frantic vacations. Deficit finance trips to the mall to buy more things that we think are gonna fill these holes in our lives. Is it any wonder that we've lost our sense of direction?
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David Drumlin
[to party guests] What's wrong with science being practical? Even profitable?
Palmer Joss
Nothing, as long as your motive is the search for truth. Which is exactly what the pursuit of science is.
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