The fear of the crowd then came to Will, with the taste of a copper penny placed on his tongue; and it was not the fear that they were under divine judgement, but that they were not, and could never be.

Not even knowledge takes all the strangeness from the world

If a reasoned creator set the stars in their place then we must be capable of understanding them - we must also be creatures of reason, of order!

It was necessary to be afraid in order to have courage.

Luke diagnosed himself to be in love, and sought no cure for the disease.

what use was it to observe the human species and try to understand it? Their rules were fathomless and no mire fixed than the wind

Must we make battlegrounds out of our children?

Besides(..), it's a poor woman whose ambition is only to be loved.

to live at all is to be bruised

Just as the desperate, terminally ill cancer patient often turns to expensive placebos for an imaginary chance at more life, the desperate, terminally alive sad people turn to expensive placebos for a chance to imagine a decent life.

There was grief, too, that was certain, and she was grateful for it, since however loathed he'd been by the end, he'd formed her, at least in part - and what good ever came of self-loathing?

anything that was ever worth knowing began with once upon a time