History, sociology, economics, psychology et al. confirmed Joyce's view of Everyman as victim.

part of the humor of living on this backward planet is listening to the hominids rationalize their predations.

And as a matter of fact, governments don't act, governments only react. The bankers make the decisions, and then governments decide how are we going to adjust to this. Government can't do anything unless the bank gives them the money to do it.

The devil is only a convenient myth invented by the real malefactors of our world.

The border between the Real and the Unreal is not fixed, but just marks the last place where rival gangs of shamans fought each other to a standstill.

Whatever the Thinker thinks, the Prover will prove. And if the Thinker thinks passionately enough, the Prover will prove the thought so conclusively that you will never talk a person out of such a belief, even if it is something as remarkable as the notion that there is a gaseous vertebrate of astronomical heft ("GOD") who will spend all eternity torturing people who do not believe in his religion.

Beyond a certain point, the whole universe becomes a continuous process of initiation.