“A world without pain, loss, betrayal, hate, death, loneliness? Impossible!”
“I won't die. I won't give those ghouls the pleasure. I'll live and grow strong. I'll escape, then hunt them down and make them suffer.”
“sometimes, in pursuit of a greater peace, a man must stand by and lets those he loves suffer the injustices of men ho cares only about their own beliefs and nothing about the faith or feelings of others-- even when it pains him to the very core of his spirit”
“The pair smiled desperately at one another. And for the first time ever, despite the fact that everyone he knew - even the gods themselves - would condemn him for it, Jebel didn't think of Tel Hesani as a slave, but as an equal.”
“But when Tel Hasani wasn't looking, he cast a worried eye over the snake, just incase there were any family resemblances.”
“I do not mock the beliefs of others. This world is large enough for a thousand religions. Every race has the right to its own.”
“The secret to success is to stop when you're ahead.”
“Doubt finds its way into all men's hearts.”
“One night of slavery is too much.”
“We cannot help where we are born or how we are raised," Tel Hesani said. "But we can reject the twisted beliefs of those around us if we need to. Our loved ones and elders don't always know what is best. A man should listen to his heart and make his own decisions about what is wrong and what is right.”
“It was a time for reflection. Jebel had regained some of his vitality and was mildly excited to be closing in on Tubaygat. But he was troubled too and often fell to studying Tel Hesani, trying to imagine himself driving a knife into the Um Kheshabah's chest or slitting his throat.
It had been easy in the beginning. Tel Hesani was a slave, fit only for execution. Now Jebel considered him a friend. Could he brutally end the older man's life and send him to the hold of Rakhebt Wadak's boat?
Jebel knew that he must, or the quest would have been for nothing, but he wasn't sure that he could. He prayed to the gods to steady his hand when the time came, but he didn't think they were listening. In a strange sort of way, he almost wished they weren't.”
“A man should know when it is time to step aside.”
“It helps to know where you are going before you set out.”
“Conquering the world was a simple thing; commanding one's spirit was the real challenge.”
“The easy way is not always the right way.”
“Trust one fool to see no flaws in another!”
“As Jebel tried in vain to fall asleep, he became aware of a small clicking noise. He turned and looked at the woman. Her robe was raised above her knees and she was scratching at a wound on her thigh. She had worked her way through to the bone and was picking at it with her nails.”
“You can't hate those who are harming themselves. Instead you pity them and try to help them if you can.”
“I hope we meet again," said Ramman.
"I do too," Tel Hesani said, then added underneath his breath, "Although I fear it won't be in this world.”
“Death is not the end. It is a midway state.”
“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night, who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz, who bared their brains to Heaven under the El and saw Mohammedan angels staggering on tenement roofs illuminated, who passed through universities with radiant cool eyes hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy among the scholars of war, who were expelled from the academies for crazy & publishing obscene odes on the windows of the skull,”
“Small kindnesses often, unintentionally, produce the biggest payoffs.”
“Indubitably, Magick is one of the subtlest and most difficult of the sciences and arts. There is more opportunity for errors of comprehension, judgement and practice than in any other branch of physics.”
“Another mistake Christians make is not realizing how much experience and background with the Christian faith most outsiders have. Most outsiders have “been there, done that.” Rather than being something new and untested for most outsiders, Christianity seems blasé and commonplace. It has become an ignorable part of their daily existence.”
“The world owes its enchantment to these curious creatures and their fancies; but its multiple complicity rejects them. Thistledown spirits, tragic, heartrending in their evanescence, they must go blowing headlong to perdition.”
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