“it's not god who's fucked up, it's the screamers who say they believe in him and who claim to pursue their ends in his holy name.”

“Men who believe in good and evil, and who believe that good should win, should watch for those moments when it is possible to play God”

“Here in St. Cloud’s,” Dr. Larch wrote, “ I have been given the choice of playing God or leaving practically everything up to chance. It is my experience that practically everything is left up to chance much of the time; men who believe in good and evil, and who believe that good should win, should watch for those moments when it is possible to play God – we should seize those moments. There won’t be may”

“A person's faith goes at its own pace. The trouble with church is the service. A service is conducted for a mass audience. Just when I start to like the hymn, everyone plops down to pray. Just when I start to hear the prayer, everyone pops up to sing. And what does the stupid sermon have to do with God? Who knows what God thinks of current events? Who cares?”

“Grant us safe lodging, and holy rest,” Mrs. Grogan was saying, “and peace at last.” Amen, thought Wilbur Larch, the Saint of St. Cloud’s, who was seventy-something, and an ether addict, and who felt that he’d come a long way and still had a long way to go.”

“It's not right to hurt or deceive someone who's already been hurt and deceived.”

“Of course, apologies are rarely acceptable to true believers - or to anyone who believes in *pure* good, or in pure evil.”