This is beyond understanding." said the king. "You are the wisest man alive. You know what is preparing. Why do you not make a plan to save yourself?" And Merlin said quietly, "Because I am wise. In the combat between wisdom and feeling, wisdom never wins.

...no gift will ever buy back a man's love when you have removed his self-love.

It was too nerve-wracking, a shocking spectacle, like seeing an old, calm friend go insane.

Maybe it's true that we are all descended from the restless, the nervous, the criminals, the arguers and brawlers, but also the brave and independent and generous. If our ancestors had not been that, they would have stayed in their home plots in the other world and starved over the squeezed-out soil.

The candle aimed its spark of light at heaven, like an artist who consumes himself to become divine.

Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America.

I know people who are so immersed in road maps that they never see the countryside they pass through, and others who, having traced a route, are held to it as though held by flanged wheels to rails.