“Remorse overwhelmed the old man. He had indeed been foolish to agree to allow this game to dictate the outcome of their dispute. This was not the way such matters were usually resolved. Not only was the current contest unusual, but there was also a question as to the morality of deciding the matter in this way.”

“Most philosophers do not want intellectual matters to reduce to a question of morality (obedience or rebellion to God's Word). They want to hold the intellect or reason to be above matters of moral volition. They hold that truth is obtainable and testable no matter what ethical condition the thinker is in. Hence, they maintain that all disputes must be rationally resolvable, and a rational case for a philosophic position relies on a valid chain of discursive argumentation that takes us back to incontestable first principles or facts.”

“And he found himself thinking that maybe stories don't just make us matter to each other—maybe they're also the only way to the infinite mattering he'd been after for so long.”

“The good man is the man who, no matter how morally unworthy he has been, is moving to become better.”

“A beard on a man is only a way of hiding something, his face of course, but also the inner matters, like a hedge around a secret garden, or a cover over a bird cage.”

“The game is fixed. Alwayas has been, always will be, and the only way out for a man is the gangster's road.”