The gun is mightier than the pen, was our true opinion, and the RPG is mightier still.

Suffering ignites the spark of contact with the sublime and offers proof of humanity.

Beneath the violet pillar, in the vacuum before the roar of the cloud, there came a soft sound that might have been heard by those who listened closely: the gentle sigh of an idea unbound.

It is not learning we need at all. Individuals need learning but the culture needs something else, the pulse of light on the sea, the warm urge of huddling together to keep out the cold. We need empathy, we need the eyes that still can weep.

Suffering itself is beloved: love and suffering are far closer to each other than love and pleasure.

The rooms of his apartment were full with the dog home again, convalescing. He was satisfied to know, even when she was out of sight, that somewhere in the apartment she was sleeping or eating or sitting watchfully. It was family, he guessed, more or less. Did most people want a house of living things at night, to know that in the dark around them other warm bodies slept? Such a house could even be the whole world.

The gun is mightier than the pen, was our true opinion, and the RPG is mightier still.