"Wait a minute," Sutton told him. "Is there a corporation or are you just posing fables?"
"There is a corporation," Trevor told him, "and I am the man who heads it. Varied interests pooling their resources…and there will be more and more of them as time goes on. As soon as we can show something tangible."
"By tangible, you mean destiny for the human race, for the human race alone?"
Trevor nodded. "Then we'll have something to talk about. A commodity to sell. Something to back up our sales talk."
Sutton shook his head. "I can't see what you expect to gain."
"Three things," Trevor told him. "Wealth and power and knowledge. The wealth and power and knowledge of the universe. For Man alone, you understand. For a single race. For people like you and me. And of the three, knowledge perhaps would be the greatest prize of all, for knowledge, added to and compounded, correlated and co-ordinated, would lead to even greater wealth and power…and to greater knowledge."
"It is madness," said Sutton. "You and I, Trevor, will be drifting dust, and not only ourselves, but the very era in which we live out this moment will be forgotten before the job is done."
"Remember the corporation."
"I'm remembering the corporation," Sutton said, "but I can't help but think in terms of people. You and I and the other people like us."
"Let's think in terms of people, then," said Trevor, smoothly. "One day the life that runs in you will run in the brain and blood and muscle of a man who shall be part owner of the universe. There will be trillions upon trillions of life forms to serve him, there will be wealth that he cannot count, there will be knowledge of which you and I cannot even dream."