“Furnishing was not a priority in the Citadel. Shelves, stools, tables... There was a rumor among the novices that priests towards the top of the hierarchy had golden furniture, but there was no sign of it here. The room was as severe as anything in the novices' quarters although it had, perhaps, a more opulent severity; it wasn't the forced bareness of poverty, but the starkness of intent.”
“Protection is the first necessity of opulence and luxury”
“Happiness does not completely depend on comforts or opulence. Even a pauper can be happier than a prince.”
“Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth.”
“A religion contradicting science and a science contradicting religion are equally false.”