Men are said to desire women, Severian. Why do they despise the women they obtain?

We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges.

That was when I found out that the best way in the world to make yourself feel better when you have hit bottom is to try to get somebody else to feel better. There are certain things in life that are truly worth knowing, and that is one of the big ones.

When a gift is deserved, it is not a gift but a payment.

We choose--or choose not--to be alone when we decide whom we will accept as our fellows, and whom we will reject. Thus an eremite in a mountain is in company, because the birds and coneys, the initiates whose words live in his 'forest books,' and the winds--the messengers of the Increate--are his companions. Another man, living in the midst of millions, may be alone, because there are none but enemies and victims around him.

That we are capable only of being what we are remains our unforgivable sin.

There is no magic. There is only knowledge, more or less hidden.