Wishing is the beginning of imagination. They practice wishing when they are young things, and then -when they have grown - they have a developed imagination. Which can do some harm - greed, that kind of thing - but more often does them some good. They can imagine that things might be different. Might be other than they seem. Could be better.

Oh now that's a blueprint for an impossibly rosy future

Well, the family always was bright, and brightness, as you know, decays brilliantly.

People who claim that they're evil are usually no worse than the rest of us... It's people who claim that they're good, or any way better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of.

I do love to sing. Had I a longer set of thigh bones and a sweeter voice, I should have loved to be a performer.

There were people everywhere but no one was mine, and I was no one's.

Before catechisms can instill a proper humility, small children know the truth that their own existence has caused the world to bloom into being.