Any allegiance to a deity or concept or universal principal which put obedience above decent behavior toward an innocent human being evil.

... all good things beyond sleep come precisely because we defy gravity while we live.

The never-ending competition between writers hasn't changed between 1868 and 2000. I used to belong to writers' workshops with other professionals, but that becomes impossible after a while. Everyone's on a different step of the career ladder. Jealousy doesn't have to erupt into murder and burying someone in Wells Cathedral, but it is always there.

Laws had a bad habit of being ignored or abrogated when societal push came to totalitarian shove.

The love of violence is an aspect of our humanity. Even the weak wish to be strong primarily so they can wield the whip.

To see and feel one's beloved naked for the first time is one of life's pure, irreducible epiphanies. If there is a true religion in the universe, it must include that truth of contact or be forever hollow. To make love to the one true person who deserves that love is one of the few absolute rewards of being a human being, balancing all of the pain, loss, awkwardness, loneliness, idiocy, compromise, and clumsiness that go with the human condition. To make love to the right person makes up for a lot of mistakes.

It no longer matters who consider themselves the masters of events. Events no longer obey their masters.