“To do such a thing would be to transcend magic. And I beheld, unclouded by doubt, a magnificent vision of all that invisibility might mean to a man—the mystery, the power, the freedom. Drawbacks I saw none. You have only to think! And I, a shabby, poverty-struck, hemmed-in demonstrator, teaching fools in a provincial college, might suddenly become—this.”

“No magic. I do believe you might have taken it all with you when you went away.”

“You kids were all in college, and I suddenly saw that I was stuck alone with a man who, all those years later, was still wanting me to be someone I wasn't.”

“I suddenly saw all the things that I have allowed to become common, things that would be considered miracles in the eyes of millions of believers in persecution. The truth is, these things that we take for granted are all miracles!”

“You see, one thing is, I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I'm not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we're here, and what the question might mean. I might think about it a little bit and if I can't figure it out, then I go on to something else, but I don't have to know an answer, I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without having any purpose, which is the way it really is so far as I can tell. It doesn't frighten me.”

“I'm neither a magician, nor a wizard," Mab's deep voice sounded behind him. John was startled."But you are. I mean you must be. You can do magic.""Not magic, Sword Bearer. /Miracles/."...."But you do magic!" John said, bewildered."No, Sword Bearer. It is true that I have power from the Changer, but the power I have is His power, not ours. It is to be used in his service. Magic is stolen power. The power that Qhahdrun has is magical power. It was stolen from the Mystery of Abomination when he rebelled against the Changer. Qhahdrun really thinks it belongs to him, but one day it will be taken from him. For at the last all power will go back to the Changer from whence it came.”