“Do we, holding that the gods exist, deceive ourselves with insubstantial dreams and lies, while random careless chance and change alone control the world?”

“There is in the worst of fortune the best of chances for a happy change.”

“Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.”

“What mortal claims, by searching to the utmost limit, to have found out the nature of God, or of his opposite, or of that which comes between, seeing as he doth this world of man tossed to and fro by waves of contradiction and strange vicissitudes?”

“O Dionysus, Son of God,do you see our sufferings?Do you see your faithfulin helpless agony before the oppressor?O Lord, come down from Olympus,shake your golden thyrsusand stifle the murderer's insolent fury.”

“Young man, two are the forces most precious to mankind.The first is Demeter, the Goddess.She is the Earth -- or any name you wish to call her -- and she sustains humanity with solid food.Next came Dionysus, the son of the virgin, bringing the counterpart to bread: wineand the blessings of life's flowing juices.His blood, the blood of the grape,lightens the burden of our mortal misery.Though himself a God, it is his blood we pour outto offer thanks to the Gods. And through him, we are blessed.”

“There is one thing alone that stands the brunt of life throughout its course; a quiet conscience.”