They're talking about things of which they don't have the slightest understanding, anyway. It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves.

In Paradise, as always: that which causes the sin and that which recognizes it for what it is are one. The clear conscience is Evil, which is so entirely victorious that it does not any longer consider the leap from left to right necessary.

It's impossible to defend oneself in the absence of goodwill

When one has once accepted and absorbed Evil, it no longer demands to be believed.

Why do we complain about the Fall? It is not on its account that we were expelled from Paradise, but on account of the Tree of Life, lest we might eat of it.

If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skull, why then do we read it?

Writing means revealing oneself to excess.