- Prof. Viktor Roth: I've never prized safety, Erich, either for myself or my children. I prized courage.
- [first lines]
- [white clouds appear; they quickly turn to storm clouds]
- Narrator: When man was new upon the earth, he was frightened by the dangers of the elements. He cried out, "The gods of the lightning are angry, and I must kill my fellow man to appease them!" As man grew bolder, he created shelters against the wind and the rain and made harmless the force of the lightning. But within man himself were elements strong as the wind and terrible as the lightning. And he denied the existence of these elements, because he dared not face them. The tale we are about to tell is of the mortal storm in which man finds himself today. Again he is crying, "I must kill my fellow man!" Our story asks, "How soon will man find wisdom in his heart and build a lasting shelter against his ignorant fears?"
- Fritz Marberg: Are you a pacifist?
- Martin Breitner: I think peace is better than war. A man's right to think as he believes is as good for him as food and drink.
- Narrator: [Last lines of the movie:] And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: "Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown." And he replied: "Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way."