“Of course, it was a rather hard lot, to be cherished. The beloved can so easily disappoint when they inevitably prove to be human.”

“Of course mothers and daughters with strong personalities might see the world from very different points of view.”

“God shields the souls of the innocent the best He can from the Devil's torments.”

“The philosophers stone is just an allegory. It represents everything that man wants and can never have.”

“Only by being present can you be happy. Too much attention to the past and the future takes the now away. And once it's gone, you never get it back.”

“...You can have this whole entire life, with all your opinions, your loves, your fears. Eventually those parts of you disappear. And then the people who could remember those parts of you disappear, and before long, all that's left is your name in some ledger. This...person -- she had a favorite food. She had friends and people she disliked. We don't even know how she died...I guess that's why I like preservation better than history. In preservation I feel like I can keep some of it from slipping away.”

“She was always puzzled that people say that darkness falls. To her it seemed instead to rise, massing under trees an shrubs, pouring out from under furniture, only reaching the sky when the spaces near the ground were full.”