Fate and victory shift ... now this way, now that way -- like a line of unarmored men under a hail of enemy arrows.

It is a mystery, and to tell the truth, I am intrigued by mysteries even if this is to be my last week of enjoying them. I would welcome some glimmer of understanding but, failing that, working on the puzzle will suffice.

The Great Change is when humankind accepts its role as part of the natural order of the universe instead of its role as a cancer

No book or poem is ever finished, merely abandoned.

Words were like objects, making the idea more solid -- less a poisonous gas and more a ... cube of crystallized thought.

Words bend our thinking to infinite paths of self-delusion, and the fact that we spend most of our mental lives in brain mansions built of words means that we lack the objectivity necessary to see the terrible distortion of reality which language brings.

Context is to data what water is to a dolphin