The Roseicrucians were everywhere, aided by the fact that they didn't exist.

In other words, although I don't like them, we do need noble-spirited souls.

All the religious wars that have caused blood to be shed for centuries arise from passionate feelings and facile counter-positions, such as Us and Them, good and bad, white and black.

Monsters exist because they are part of the divine plan, and in the horrible features of those same monsters the power of the creator is revealed.

What is life if not the shadow of a fleeting dream?

There, Master Niketas,’ Baudolino said, ‘when I was not prey to the temptations of this world, I devoted my nights to imagining other worlds. A bit with the help of wine, and a bit with that of the green honey. There is nothing better than imagining other worlds,’ he said, ‘to forget the painful one we live in. At least so I thought then. I hadn’t yet realized that, imagining other worlds, you end up changing this one.

When the poet is in love, he is incapable of writing poetry on love. He has to write when he remembers that he was in love.