“That's where all of us are standing now, he thought. On the fat kindling of past sins. And some of them are mine. Mine, Adam's, Herod's, Judas', Hannegan's, mine. Everybody's. Always culminates in the colossus of the State, somehow, drawing about itself the mantle of godhood, being struck down by the wrath of Heaven.”

“That's where all of us are standing now, he thought. On the fat kindling of past sins.”

“But now seeing that great knowledge, while good, had not saved the world, he turned in penance to the Lord, crying.”

“It is not the pain that is pleasing to God, child. It is the soul's endurance in faith and hope and love in spite of bodily afflictions that pleases Heaven.”

“I loomed over her face with mine, gripping her eyes with mine, owning her boy with mine. I saw only her.I felt only her. I heard only her”

“But neither infinite power nor infinite wisdom could bestow godhood upon men. For that there would have to be infinite love as well.”

“The dead must humor the mourners, he thought, and the sick must comfort the visitors. It was always so.”