“May our afflictions be few, but may we learn not to squander them.”

“He gains the farthest reaches where the ache of our most ancient absence lay.”

“I turned and beheld seven rows of plasma screens, each bearing seven vivid scenes, each flickering, each pulsing with a light revealing distant terrors, conflagrations, sufferings - and all thereby brought so close, and all thereby kept far away.”

“How many millions there are who don't want to go to Hell, but they don't want to get off the road to Hell.”

“[God] disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness.”

“Human beings may be miserable specimens, in the main, but we can learn, and, through learning, become decent people.”

“But I had learned to survive. I may have felt as if I couldn't breathe freely at times, may have felt caged and desperate, may have questioned all I ever was, but I had learned enough to keep me where I needed to be and to live to see what life would continue to bring my way if I continued to look for it.”