“The world began in hazard and will end in it.”

“Hazard has conditioned us to live in hazard. All our pleasures are dependant upon it. Even though I arrange for a pleasure; and look forward to it, my eventual enjoyment of it is still a matter of hazard. Wherever time passes, there is hazard. You may die before you turn the next page.”

“There is no plan. All is hazard. And the only thing that will preserve us is ourselves.”

“I saw that this cataclysm must be an expiation for some barbarous crime of civilization, some terrible human lie. What the lie was, I had too little knowledge of history or science to know then. I know now it was our believing that we were fulfilling some end, serving some plan - that all would come out well in the end, because there was some great plan over all. Instead of the reality. There is no plan. All is hazard. And the only thing that will preserve us is ourselves.”

“I don't believe in God. And I certainly don't feel chosen.""I think you may be."I smiled dubiously. "Thank you.""It is not meant as a compliment. Hazard makes you elect. You cannot elect yourself.”

“The bowed head, the buried face. She is silent, she will never speak, never forgive, never reach a hand, never leave this frozen present tense. All waits, suspended. Suspended the autumn trees, the autumn sky, anonymous people. A blackbird, poor fool, sings out of season from the willows by the lake. A flight of pigeons over the houses; fragments of freedom, hazard, an anagram made flesh. And somewhere the stinging smell of burning leaves.”

“Nu va vorbi niciodată, nu va ierta, nu va întinde niciodată mîna, va rămîne de-a pururi înacest prezent îngheţat. Totul este suspendat în aşteptare: copacii de toamnă, cerul de toamnă, trecătoriianonimi. Printre sălciile de la malul lacului, o biată mierlă cam nebună cîntă, deşi nu e timpul ei. Unstol de porumbei deasupra caselor; fragmente de libertate, de hazard, o algebră incarnată. Şi venind nuse ştie de unde, mirosul înţepător de frunze arse.”