“[T]his universe is under no least bond ever to grant us, upon either side of the grave, our desires.”
—  The High Place 

“To submit is the great lesson. I too was once a dreamer: and in dreams there are lessons. But to submit, without dreaming any more, is the great lesson; to submit, without either understanding or repining, and without demanding of life too much of beauty or of holiness, and without shirking the fact that this universe is under no least bond ever to grant us, upon either side of the grave, our desires. To do that, my son, does not satisfy…. But to do that is wisdom.”
—  The High Place

“Time teaches us, indeed, that almost all human living is an exercise of acceptance rather than of action; and a career…far less of doing things than of having things done to you.”
—  Let me Lie.

“Everything in life is miraculous. It rests within the power of each of us to awaken from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits
to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness.”
—  The Cream of the Jest

“Good and evil keep very exact accounts… and the face of every man is their ledger.”   — Jurgen

”There is not any memory with less satisfaction than the memory of some temptation we resisted.”
—  Jurgen

“The religion of Hell is patriotism, and the government is an enlightened democracy.”  — Jurgen

“Your lips conformed, but all the while your mind made verses, Jurgen.
And poetry is man’s rebellion against being what he is.”
—  Koshchei in Jurgen

“The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds;
and the pessimist fears this is true. So I elect for neither label. …”
— The Silver Stallion