“Zsoronga, Sorweel was beginning to realize, possessed the enviable ability to yoke his conviction to his need — to believe, absolutely, whatever his heart required. For Sorweel, belief and want always seemed like ropes too short to bind together, forcing him to play the knot as a result.”

“There was nothing the ignorant prized more than the ignorance of others.”

“History. Language. Passion. Custom. All these things determine what men say, think, and do. These are the hidden puppet-strings from which all men hang.”

“Darkness shields as much as it threatens.”

“The world has long ceased to be the author of your anguish.”

“Hoga Gothyelk no longer felt anger, not truly -- only varieties of sorrow.”

“Consequences lost all purchase when they became mad. And desperation, when pressed beyond anguish, became narcotic.”

“Something ... made him feel small, not in the way of orphans or beggars or children, but in a good way. In the way of souls.”

“There was such a difference, he thought, between the beauty that illuminated, and the beauty that was illuminated.”

“I remeber asking a wise man, once . . . 'Why do Men fear the dark?' . . . 'Because darkness' he told me, 'is ignorance made visable.' 'And do Men despise ignorance?' I asked. 'No,' he said, 'they prize it above all things--all things!--but only so long as it remains invisible.”

“Saying 'I could have done more,' Zin, is what marks a man as a man and not a God.”