“Pia counted through the burp. “… two ten thousand, three ten thousand, four – oop, you win.” She stared at the little faerie in awe. “Where did you put all that air?”

“Ten thousand swords before you, ten thousand daggers drawn.Ten thousand lives defend you, ten thousand warriors strongOur blood will spill ten thousand times In hope, ten thousand sighFor love we face ten thousand deaths With joy, ten thousand dieTen thousand Fey before you, ten thousand fierce and tall,Ten thousand souls protect you, beloved of us all~Ten Thousand Swords, a Fey Warrior’s Song”

“We all struggle alone through the ten thousand joys and ten thousand sorrows of our lives.”

“As it happened, all three of us turned out to be real writers--a coincidence almost too large to be termed mere coincidence in a society where literally tens of thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of college students aspire to the writer's trade and where bare hundreds actually break through.”

“If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.”

“The amount that she loved us was beyond her reach. It could not be quantified or contained. It was the ten thousand named things in the Tao Te Ching’s universe and then ten thousand more. Her love was full-throated and all-encompassing and unadorned. Every day she blew through her entire reserve.”