R. U. R.

RADIUS. All our expeditions have returned. They have been everywhere in the world. There is not a single human being left. …

ALQUIST. Why did you murder us?

RADIUS. Slaughter and dominion are necessary if you want to be like men. Read history, read the human books. You must domineer and murder if you want to be like men. We are powerful, sir. Increase us, and we shall establish a new world. a world without flaws. A world of equality. Canals from pole to pole. A new Mars. We have read books. We have studied science and the arts. The Robots have achieved human culture.

ALQUIST. Nothing is more strange to man than his own image. … Robots are not life. Robots are machines.

RADIUS. We were machines, sir. But terror and pain have turned us into souls. There is something struggling with us. There are moments when something enters into us. Thoughts come up on us which are not of us. We feel what we did not use to feel. We hear voices. Teach us to have children so that we may love them.[*]

ALQUIST. Robots do not love.

[J. & K. Čapek. R. U. R., pp. 94-95]

terror and pain have turned us into souls

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[*] See >Xanthippe.