“We must be equal to the largeness of things.”

“Out of some persistent sense of large-scale ruin, we kept inventing hope.”

“Longing on a large scale makes history.”

“No sense of the irony of human experience, that we are the highest form of life on earth, and yet ineffably sad because we know what no other animal knows, that we must die.”

“We all know how the thing we secretly fear is not a secret at all but the open and eternal thing that predicts its own recurrence.”

“We need time to lose interest in things.”

“Those who have abandoned belief must still believe in us. They are sure that they are right not to believe but they know belief must not fade completely. Hell is when no one believes. There must always be believers. Fools, idiots, those who hear voices, those who speak in tongues. We are your lunatics. We surrender our lives to make your nonbelief possible. You are sure that you are right but you don’t want everyone to think as you do. There is no truth without fools. We are your fools, your madwomen, rising at dawn to pray, lighting candles, asking statues for good health, long life.”