"The memory stole over him: a desert is what you think it is. And now, you can think clearly... There were no lies here. All fancies fled away. That's what happened in all deserts. It was just you, and what you believed. What have I always believed? That, on the whole, and by and large, if a man lived properly, not according to what any priests said, but according to what seemed decent and honest inside, then it would, in the end, more or less, turn out all right. You couldn't get that on a banner. But the desert looked better already."