Were talking about an attitude. Delayed gratification is there, planning, be able to give up something now to get something later.

It bewildered Ig, the idea that a person could not be interested in music. It was like not being interested in happiness.

If you didn't have me to rake you over the coals now and then, there wouldn't be any fire in your life at all.

I see God now as an unimaginative writer of popular fictions, someone who builds stories around sadistic and graceless plots, narratives that exist only to express His terror of a woman's power to choose who and how to love, to redefine love as she sees fit, not as God thinks it ought to be. The author is unworthy of His own characters.

I mean, when the world comes for your children, with the knives out, it's your job to stand in the way.

He paused, twisting his goatee, considering the law in Deuteronomy that forbade clothes with mixed fibers. A problematic bit of Scripture. A matter that required thought. "Only the devil wants man to have a wide range of lightweight and comfortable styles to choose from," he murmured at last, trying out a new proverb. "Although there may be no forgiveness for polyester. On this one matter, Satan and the Lord are in agreement.

Maybe all the schemes of the devil were nothing compared to what man could think up.