And when I saw him[my father] lying dead in a pool of his own blood, I knew then that I hadn't stopped believing in God. I'd just stopped believing God cared. There might be a God, Clary, and there might be not. Either way, we're on our own.
Strike, if you will, but listen.
He who commands the sea has command of everything.
I choose the likely man in preference to the rich man; I want a man without money rather than money without a man.
I cannot fiddle, but I can make a great state from a little city.
I never learned how to tune a harp, or play upon a lute; but I know how to raise a small and obscure city to glory and greatness. . . whereto all kindreds of the earth will pilgrim.
The Athenians govern the Greeks; I govern the Athenians; you, my wife, govern me; your son governs you.
…deep-diving love, a love that excavates you. It’s something you have to have before you die in order to have lived.
All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.
When thou standest still from thinking and willing of self, the eternal hearing, seeing, and speaking will be revealed to thee, and so God heareth and seeth through thee. Thine own hearing, willing, and seeing hindereth thee, that thou dost not see nor hear God.
Biology, meaning the science of all life, is a late notion.