Dawn of Wonder

People who seek answers are often not looking for truth.

Understanding a society means understanding the whole society, not just the part that dresses well.

First, the wind would rumble in the distance like an approaching river, then he would see grass bend, pressed by a great invisible hand. The dull rumble would rise in pitch to a swishing, lashing exultation, causing stalks to lie flat against the ground while the tougher branches of shrubs held themselves up and shrieked their defiance in the gusts. Then the first drops, cold and heavy, would plummet from the sky and burst on the ground.

There is most certainly a good time to run, just as there is a bad time. When the nation has more to gain by your getting away and living than by your standing proud and dying, then you run.

The irony of war,” he said. “It has always been this way. We are taught to think that the battle lines separate the good from the bad, but the truth, as you are beginning to understand, is less comfortable.

bad for me. I thought I’d made a huge mistake at the time, but I don’t anymore. I would rather be the person who steps in front of a whole gang to defend someone and gets beaten up for it than the person who watches from a safe hiding. There were times I hid, and I think the shame hurts more than the bruises would have.

And Aedan discovered that it only takes a single friend to put loneliness to flight. He would be able to face the next day. They both would.

what use am I to anyone like this?” “Use is a poor word, a small word. You are of great worth to many just as you are.

Just so. You tried to establish a fact from a lack of evidence. Unless the inquiry has been so exhaustive as to explore every possibility, the lack of evidence should never be used to ground a statement of fact. Unlikelihood certainly, but no more. A prematurely assumed fact blocks further inquiry.

Prejudice creates blindness; it is too busy hating to think. No matter how justified it might feel, prejudice will shackle you.” “But

I always hated...all sad songs. I thought they made happy people miserable. Now I think I understand them better. Bards write them because they can't hold them back. Sadness has got to flow out or it gets stuck and turns bitter.

The confession of ignorance is crucial to the pursuit of knowledge. Another way of putting it is that those who pretend to know never will – they lack the humility to learn.

A mystery is so much more exciting than a wrapped up answer, wouldn’t you say? A mystery carries on but an answer just ends.

Aedan had never felt embarrassed about his imagination. Without it there was no magic.

Perhaps,” he said. He wondered if she knew how much hope stood behind the word.

One thing he shared with the singing bird was a love of rain and especially of storms. He always felt a deep thrill of awe when the pale sapphire cloaks of sky were flung aside and dark raging heavens roared and plunged and cast fire and water and ice upon the earth. Something

What could you have against him? He’s the most perfectly formed colt I’ve seen in years.” “Nothing. Nothing at all. Except that he sank his perfectly formed teeth into my arm, twice, and put his perfectly formed hoof through the door, and none of the grooms want to go anywhere near him.” “Well if you let him bite your arm twice then …

I read somewhere that the best word for things that are bigger than words is wonder. It’s now my favourite word and I need it here, because I think the time we are living in is going to be a dawn of wonder, the beginning of something incredible, a time of mysteries and legends and heroes, just like in the old stories.

You!” Skeet bellowed. When uttered with just the right tone, this is the universal name for any boy. Accordingly, all heads snapped towards the angry master.

Though her eyes had looked drained of every last tear, they flooded again.

Sadness has got to flow out or it gets stuck and turns bitter.

Your bitterness will not aid you, and it will end up punishing those who care about you.” Aedan

You tried to establish a fact from a lack of evidence. Unless the inquiry has been so exhaustive as to explore every possibility, the lack of evidence should never be used to ground a statement of fact. Unlikelihood certainly, but no more. A prematurely assumed fact blocks further inquiry.” “Can

If you were able to point people to a real god, I suspect a lot of them would prefer their own creations – easier to control, less likely to make demands.

You would think,' Aedan said, 'that I'd feel good about this-I've grown while he, my old enemy, has shrunk. Yet all I feel is a terrible ache. I pity him, that he has been called by age to surrender his strength.

Unless the inquiry has been so exhaustive as to explore every possibility, the lack of evidence should never be used to ground a statement of fact. Unlikelihood certainly, but no more. A prematurely assumed fact blocks further inquiry.

Yes, I'm sure [the princess] thinks daily of a delinquent midget apprentice growing up to claim her hand ahead of all the nobles and princes of the realm. What could any of them possibly give that you don't have, except titles, land, wealth and all that.

He could not afford to indulge misery, to live in the past and stumble through life facing backwards.

Are you planning to kiss me?' Aedan asked. 'No.' Emroy wrinkled a pimply nose. 'Then why are you standing so close?' Aedan's tone was perfect innocence.

Aedan noticed how the lowest doors were all eight feet above the ground with stairs leading up to them – stairs that could theoretically be destroyed when under threat. But where the stairs should have been made from wood, these were of polished granite. Clearly there was a conflict of values here.