“Hugo could cheerfully have died of mortification - if such a mass of contradictions had been possible.”

“I am a mass of contradictions.”

“In the vocabulary of certain radical theorists contradictions are given the status of some deadly disease to which their opponents alone can succumb. But contradictions are the very stuff of life. If there had been a little dash of contradiction among the Gadarene swine some of them might have been saved from drowning.”

“Brainstorm and make impossible possible. Make contradictions realistic. As if a contradiction is the other name of impossibility? Or simply impossible when contradicted becomes possible.”

“His speech failed to rouse an enthusiastic cheer, but no one dared contradict him.”

“What a failure her life had been. Would she have lied to God if she’d had more faith, been more righteous? How could she possibly have a son at her age? And yet, if she had believed all along . . .”