“There are twin Gates of Sleep. One, they say, is called the Gate of Horn and it offers easy passage to all true shades. The other glistens with ivory, radiant, flawless, but through it the dead send false dreams up toward the sky. And here Anchises, his vision told in full, escorts his son and Sibyl both and shows them out now through the Ivory Gate.”

“Dreams surely are difficult, confusing, and not everything in them is brought to pass for mankind. For fleeting dreams have two gates: one is fashioned of horn and one of ivory. Those which pass through the one of sawn ivory are deceptive, bringing tidings which come to nought, but those which issue from the one of polished horn bring true results when a mortal sees them.”

“That's why there are ten gates to pass through before you reach the garden. If life were easy there would be one gate. There would be no gates at all.”

“If this was what Mikhail called opening the gate close to Zayvion’s body, I was going to kill a compass and a slide rule and send them through the gates of death to him.”

“[He]Spoke and rose to full height, sword in air,Then cleft the man's brow square between the templesCutting his head in two -- a dreadful gashBetween the cheeks all beardless. Earth resoundedQuivering at the great shock of his weightAs he went tumbling down in all his armor,Drenched with blood and brains; in equal halvesHis head hung this and that way from his shoulders.”

“Trust one who has gone through it.”

“The signs of the old flame, I know them well.I pray that the earth gape deep enough to take me downor the almighty Father blast me with one bolt to the shades,the pale, glimmering shades in hell, the pit of night,before I dishonor you, my conscience, break your laws.”