"We could conceivably slow this destruction down, but it would require huge overarching changes in the structure of our society—the kind of change we will never achieve so long as we remain distracted by imaginary acts of God."

"I’m starting to understand how little purchase the truth actually affords us in this world."

"“What? Why the fuck are you smiling?” “Because you’re so like Winnie, it’s actually spooky. You both clearly possess the take-no-shit gene.”"

"It’s not enough for the Believers to feel abandoned—they need to know they’ve been lied to. Otherwise someone down the line will try again."

"I will never understand why Believers cling to this kind of language, this relentless empty optimism, plus all! those! exclamation! points!"

"I wonder if this is what bravery is: adrenaline plus love plus absolute stupidity."

"I’ve always believed Frick to be detached from reality, but I thought he was just a megalomaniac, a manipulator, a con artist. Now I begin to slowly understand. He’s far more dangerous than any of those things. He’s a true Believer."

"(“For God saw that Americans were industrious and made money in His name, and he saw that it was good”). It’s one of the many parts of the Book of Frick that makes you wonder whether or not Frick was just straight-up on ’shrooms when he was writing it."

"Believer culture seems to shift so quickly, from benign to terrifying and back again."

"It’s funny now to think that we were ever confused by extreme action taken in the name of God."

"“But it was probably nothing.” “Nothing is nothing anymore, Viv.”"

"In addition to founding the Church itself, Frick was the CEO of its accompanying multimillion-dollar corporation. They publish the magazines and run the Church television networks, and they produce end-of-the-world provisions like these—bottles of Holy Spring Water, a bland SpaghettiOs knockoff called Christ Loops."

"“I mean, these people really believe what they believe.” “But what they believe is so absurd.”"

"Even now I think I could only list for him the various things I don’t believe in. But still I wish I could. Because I’m starting to narrow it down. I don’t believe in hate. I don’t believe in money. I don’t believe in God. I don’t believe it’s too late."

"“This whole country,” says my grandmother evenly, “supports a culture of ignorance and anti-intellectualism which posits that not understanding a phenomenon is just as valid as understanding one, and frankly I’m sick of it.”"

"“That’s part of the prophecy of the Rapture, right? The dead will rise and crash our parties?” He laughs. “Do you really think that’s a priority, for the reanimated corpses?” “Absolutely,” I say. “No French onion dip in purgatory.”"

"Behind him shines the blinking neon of a casino:"

"“Bless him”—the Messiah raises a shiny copy of the New Apocalypse Edition of the Book of Frick—“for leaving us this miraculous book, this new edition of his Holy Word, available for only nineteen ninety-nine at Church of America megastores worldwide.”"

"What Harp doesn’t understand is that I like my parents—current hiccups in sanity not withstanding."

"“I’m Harp,” my best friend says, business-like. “This is Viv. Personally, I think you guys would make really cute babies together.”"

"But I can’t justify the act to myself, no matter how much I like making out with the boy I’d be trying to save. That would be playing by Believer rules—telling myself that violence and the threat of it is okay, if that’s what it takes to get you what you want. “For God so loved the world,” says the Book of Frick, “that he sent us guns with which to protect our homes and women.”"

"If there are any doctors in the house, could we get Mr. Masterson some medical attention? It would be a shame if he were to pass away before he’s prosecuted for his crimes."

"Indifferent to all the fun of chance I watched black spiders of inertia spin The far-flung web which I was strangling in."

"I know not where I go; I scarcely feel The menacing fatigue about my feet, The skies that scourge, the distances that cheat, the constant wounds that never hurt nor heal."

"In all my locked-up songs No one but you belongs."

"Mine was a love so exquisite that I Rather than watch it wither chose to die: So dress my grave, O friend, with no poor flower Which in your quiet garden blooms an hour!"

"And they shall know that in the ordering Of every world to come the law shall read That he who dares be lawless wears the wing Of bird and prophet and his light shall lead On through the darkness to eventual light, To undiscovered wealth, to newer need. ..."

"And have we lost the right To look on a blooming bough Without remembering how Once with high promising We were a part of spring— We who are now the dead Leaves of other years strewn where flowers spread?"

"So much do I love wandering, So much I love the sea and sky, That it will be a piteous thing In one small grave to lie!"

"The nostalgia— not of memories But of what has never been!"

"This world is a very unsafe place. It's all shifting sands, Ned. Shifting sands and changing winds."

"Shutting one's eyes is an art, my dear. I suppose there's no use trying to make you see that—but that's the only way one can stay married."

"TILLERTON: "To him that hath it shall be given—" She hath ... that's all. That's greatness. PRESCOTT: One sort of greatness, maybe. TILLERTON: Even the great can have only their own sort of greatness. PRESCOTT: And it's often only that they're great sponges. TILLERTON: Often, yes, or great roses for whose blooming the trees have been pruned and stripped. But they make the beauty of the world and that's enough."

"... there's a great strangeness about love. ... Yes, I'm very sure that love is the strangest thing in the world—much stranger than death—or—or just life."

"It's all right to tell a wife the brutal truth, but you've got to go sort of easy with your lady-love."

"The success haters. ... That's what I call them—the people who have never got what they want and turned sour on everybody who has. The world's full of them. ... As soon as you've made good they begin to watch for you to fail. ..."

"Like a fool I thought I was the arbiter of her destiny; and all the time Fate had happier plans for her."

"Englishmen are like that. They love life more and value it less than any other people in the world."

"My cousin Cleofante does not believe in inspiration. She shuns the false energy of all stimulants, even those of criticism and sympathy, when she sets herself to a task. What she does, she does alone—unencouraged, unadvised, unmoved. She has a man’s broad and vital technique, and a man’s ability for thinking straight and far. For years I have watched her work,—coldly, intelligently, solely with the power of her brain,—achieving effects that are in no way miracles, but are matters of technique and deliberation."

"Work alone qualifies us for life, Sentoni. It is much more exquisite to be blown from the tree as a flower than to be shaken down as a shriveled and bitter fruit."

"My life is like water that has gone over the dam and turned no mill wheels. Here I am, not happy, but not unhappy, as my days run on to the sea, idly—but not too swiftly—for I love living."

"And I wonder if peace is enough for any man. ..."

"I am the wind that wavers, You are the certain land; I am the shadow that passes Over the sand."

"The Greeks had a word for it."

"No one can ever help loving anyone."

"To accuse is so easy that it is infamous to do so where proof is impossible!"

"Forgetting is the cost Of living cheerfully."

"I stayed on after the coup that brought Houari Boumediene to power in 1965"

"How we did it I really don’t know, but it came off and it was a beautiful event"

"I organized the international conference in Accra, and as a result I met these people from all around the world."