Why is it that what we do know can save us, but what we don't know can kill us?

And I came to understand, in a way I never had before, that books are truly the stuff of miracles. I even dared to dream that someday, somehow, I might surround myself with books from many times and many tongues.

Some say "The end is near," as if that is shocking news. The truth is, the end is always near. What is actually shocking is that we, ourselves, can help to choose which end.

Vision, even for a dragon, is woefully unreliable. What you can see with great clarity may not be real; what you cannot see may be the ultimate reality.

And now, my friends, a dragon's toast! Here's to life's little blessings: war, plagues, and all forms of evil. Their presence keeps us alert--- and their absence keeps us grateful.

Stories help me. To live. To work. To find the meaning hidden in every dream, ever leaf, every drop of dew.

A life-whether seamstress or poet, farmer or king-is measured not by length, but by the worth of its deeds, and the power of its dreams.