The shamans are forever yacking about their snake oil miracles. I prefer the real McCoy, a pregnant woman.

Once a man gets a reputation as a liar, he might as well be struck dumb, for people do not listen to the wind.

The difference between science and the fuzzy subjects is that science requires reasoning while those other subjects merely require scholarship.

You can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.

The profession of shaman has many advantages. It offers high status with a safe livelihood free of work in the dreary, sweaty sense. In most societies it offers legal privileges and immunities not granted to other men. But it is hard to see how a man who has been given a mandate from on High to spread tidings of joy to all mankind can be seriously interested in taking up a collection to pay his salary; it causes one to suspect that the shaman is on the moral level of any other con man. But it is a lovely work if you can stomach it.

Working because you want to is the best sort of play.

Are you trying to tell all of us we have a bad signal-to-noise ratio?