For every once upon a time there must be a story to follow, because if a story doesn't, something else will, and it might not be as harmless as a story.

Tell them stories. They need the truth you must tell them true stories, and everything will be well, just tell them stories.

And then what?" said her daemon sleepily. "Build what?" "The Republic of Heaven," said Lyra.

You are dead- what am I speaking to?

It does not make sense. It cannot exist. It's impossible, and if it isn't impossible, it's irrelevant, and if it isn't either of those things, it's embarrassing.

As for what it's against - the story is against those who pervert and misuse religion, or any other kind of doctrine with a holy book and a priesthood and an apparatus of power that wields unchallengeable authority, in order to dominate and suppress human freedoms.

I stopped believing there was a power of good and a power of evil that were outside us. And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are.