Put yourself out of your misery.

By dipping us children in the Bible so often, they hoped, I think, to give our lives a serious tint, and to provide us with quaintly magnificent snatches of prayer to produce as charms while, say, being mugged for our cash or jewels.

A shepherd on a hilltop who looks at a mess of stars and thinks, ‘There’s a hunter, a plow, a fish,’ is making mental connections that have as much real force in the universe as the very fires in those stars themselves.

Evolution loves death more than it loves you or me. This is easy to write, easy to read, and hard to believe.

We have not yet encountered any god who is as merciful as a man who flicks a beetle over on its feet.

I had good innings, as the British say. I wrote for 38 years at the top of my form, and I wanted to quit on a high note.

I am a frayed and nibbled survivor in a fallen world, and I am getting along. I am aging and eaten and have done my share of eating too.