Mind you, the Elizabethans had so many words for the female genitals that it is quite hard to speak a sentence of modern English without inadvertently mentioning at least three of them.

The universe, they said, depended for its operation on the balance of four forces which they identified as charm, persuasion, uncertainty and bloody-mindedness.

Every procedure for getting a cat to take a pill works fine - once. Like the Borg, they learn.

The sun rose slowly, as if it wasn't sure it was worth all the effort.

Tragic heroes always moan when the gods take an interest in them, but it's the people the gods ignore who get the really tough deals

Gods prefer simple, vicious games, where you Do Not Achieve Transcendence but Go Straight To Oblivion; a key to the understanding of all religion is that a god's idea of amusement is Snakes and Ladders with greased rungs.

Wisdom is one of the few things that looks bigger the further away it is.