“Words bend our thinking to infinite paths of self-delusion, and the fact that we spend most of our mental lives in brain mansions built of words means that we lack the objectivity necessary to see the terrible distortion of reality which language brings. Example: the Chinese pictogram for ‘integrity’ is a two-part symbol of a man literally standing next to his word. So far, so good. But what does the Late English word ‘honesty’ mean? Or ‘Motherland’? Or ‘progress’? Or ‘democracy’? Or ‘beauty’? But even in our self-deception, we become gods.”

“Writing, I'm convinced, should be a subversive activity - frowned on by the authorities - and not one cooed over and praised beyond common sense by some teacher.”

“I loved almost everything about being a teacher, but I was an unusual teacher.”

“So many important things pass quickly without being understood at the time. So many powerful moments are buried beneath the absurd”

“It was as if they had climbed the last hill in creation.”

“As Ummon and the other Masters teach, it explains why the giraffe evolved a long neck but never why the other animals did not. It explains why humankind evolved to intelligence, but not why the tree near the front gate refused to.”

“In such seconds of decision entire futures are made”

“Who are you, Hockenberry, to thwart Fate and defy the Will of the Gods?I am me, Thomas Hockenberry. I am fed up with these power-addled thugs who call themselves gods.”

“I loved you backward and forward in time. I loved you beyond boundaries of time and space.”

“The whole planet reeks of mysticism without revelation.”

“... a comment with the idle arrogance common of such nobodies who have just come into a small bit of power.”