The gods' most savage curses come upon us as answers to our own prayers. Prayer is a dangerous business.

Experience suggests it doesn't matter so much how you got here, as what you do after you arrive.

War is not its own end, except in some catastrophic slide into absolute damnation. It's peace that's wanted. Some better peace than the one you started with.

Children might or might not be a blessing, but to create them and then fail them was surely damnation.

Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.

Like integrity, love of life was not a subject to be studied, it was a contagion to be caught. And you had to catch it from someone who had it.

There is a sad disconnectedness that overcomes a library when its owner is gone.