“Immortality is only for the gods,’ he whispered. ‘I wonder how they can stand it.’”

A fool will study for twenty or thirty years and learn how to do something, but a wise man will study for twenty or thirty minutes and become an expert. In this world, it isn’t ability that counts, but authority.

The supernatural can be very annoying until one finds the key that transforms it into science,” he observed mildly… “Come on, Ox, let’s go out and get killed.

Blessed are the idiots, for they are happiest people on earth.

Error can point the way to truth, while empty-headedness can only lead to more empty-headedness or to a career in politics.

Don’t be ashamed of reliving your childhood, Ox, because all of us must do it now and then to maintain our sanity.

I shall clasp my hands together and bow to the corners of the world.

The greatest act of faith we are capable of is that of loving another more than we love ourselves, and occasionally we can be quite good at it.

I have never been able to understand why perfectly sensible people waste time being wittily obscure instead of just saying what they want and going on about their business.

The emotional health of a village depended upon having a man whom everyone loved to hate, and Heaven had blessed us with two of them.

Fable has strong shoulders that carry far more truth than fact can.

Our senses are woefully limited. Our brains are but tiny candles flickering in an infinity of darkness. Our only wisdom is to admit that we cannot understand, and since we cannot understand we must do the best we can with faith. which is our only talent.

Immortality is a by-product of good work.

Sons never escape from the shadows of their fathers. Nor do daughters of their mothers. No one ever comes into his own…Such is the cost of immortality. No person is whole. No person is free.

The exploding star of A.D. 1054, the Crab Nebula, was sighted and documented by the Chinese, but nowhere mentioned in the West, where the Aristotelian notion of the immortality of stars still held sway.

Such is the cost of immortality. No person is whole. No person is free. Over time, some have determined that the only way to live is to die. In death, a man or a woman is free of the weight of the past [and the future].

I believe we lose immortality because we have not conquered our opposition to death;

They think they’ll find another way. I’m not so sure. It seems like her book views immortality as a dangerous desire.

Not everyone wants to live forever, but every culture has always desired immortality in one way or another.

The only greatness for man is immortality.