Whatever exists, he said. Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent. He looked about at the dark forest in which they were bivouacked. He nodded toward the specimens he'd collected. These anonymous creatures, he said, may seem little or nothing in the world. Yet the smallest crumb can devour us. Any smallest thing beneath yon rock out of men's knowing. Only nature can enslave man and only when the existence of each last entity is routed out and made to stand naked before him will he be properly suzerain of the earth.

I don't think goodness is something that you learn. If you're left adrift in the world to learn goodness from it, you would be in trouble.

In every trade save war men of talent and vigor prosper. In war they die.

If God meant to interfere in the degeneracy of mankind would he not have done so by now? Wolves cull themselves, man. What other creatures could? And is the race of man not more predacious yet?

I was afraid I was goin to die and then I was afraid I wasnt.

Ever dumb thing I ever done in my life there was a decision I made before that got me into it. It was never the dumb thing. It was always some choice I'd made before it.

The world could only be known as it existed in men's hearts. For while it seemed a place which contained men it was in reality a place contained within them.