“With relief, with humiliation, with terror, he understood that he too was a mere appearance, dreamt by another.”

“He understood everything: He could keep his eyes open and the buffalo wouldn't appear, or close them and it would.”

“The relief was so great that Eustace almost laughed out loud. He began to feel as if he had fought and killed the dragon instead of merely seeing it die.”

“Too much mystery is merely an annoyance. Too much adventure is exhausting. And a little terror goes a long way.”

“He understood the mind's pride, filleting, pinning down life. Understood taking apart, reassembling and labeling. To Understand was to control, to keep the terror of human insignificance at bay. It was routine to self-importance, this ability to kill and to rebuild, to catalog and stop any motion too directly pointing out human limitation and death.”

“He understood for the first time that the world is not dumb at all, but merely waiting for someone to speak to it in a language it understands.”