“You will be required to do wrong no matter where you go. It is the basic condition of life, to be required to violate your own identity. At some time, every creature which lives must do so. It is t...”

“To live is to be haunted.”

“If you think this Universe is bad, you should see some of the others.”

“Maybe each human being lives in a unique world, a private world different from those inhabited and experienced by all other humans. . . If reality differs from person to person, can we speak of rea...”

“Truth, she thought. As terrible as death. But harder to find.”

“Everything is true,' he said. 'Everything anybody has ever thought.''Will you be all right?''I'll be all right,' he said, and thought, And I'm going to die. Both those are true, too.”

“One thing seems certain. Our galaxy is now in the brief springtime of its lifea springtime made glorious by such brilliant blue-white stars as Vega and Sirius, and, on a more humble scale, our own ...”

“When you stir your rice pudding, Septimus, the spoonful of jam spreads itself round making red trails like the picture of a meteor in my astronomical atlas. But if you stir backwards, the jam will ...”

“You are exporting disorder [in the form of heat into the Universe] now as you read this book. You are hastening the demise of everything that exists, bringing forward by your very existence the arr...”

“Baby, you want to talk about what happened, go for it. Im listening. But you know, Im no angel, and Im not finished dancing with the devil. If anyone ever hurts you like that again, theres nothing ...”

“How do you rebel in a family of rebels?”

“I mean, were you born a freak? I asked. I flinched at my own words. I didnt mean to be rude it just came out that way. The girl rolled her eyes to me. I dont know. Were you born stupid? Okay, maybe...”

“they were forbidden words, laced with the fear of transgression and sin.”

“Im not a rebel. I was sent here to protect, not to harm.”

“Human security depends on a system where each rational individual calculates that it is more profitable not to rebel.”