Kaz

“There is, in fact, not much point in writing a novel unless you can show the possibility of moral transformation, or an increase in wisdom, operating in your chief character or characters. Even trashy bestsellers show people changing. When a fictional work fails to show change, when it merely indicates that human character is set, stony, unregenerable, then you are out of field of the novel and into that of the fable or the allegory.

- from the introduction of the 1986 Norton edition”
― Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange

“In order to witness clearly the march of humanity from its inception to the present moment, an understanding of how humankind has held encounter with the divine as central is crucial. Ancient humanity provides us with an excellent laboratory for gaining such an understanding.”
― Roger D. Woodard

“…et puis on recommence encore le lendemain
avec seulement la même règle que la veille
et qui est d'éviter les grandes joies barbares
de même que les gr-andes douleurs
comme un crapaud contourne une pierre sur son chemin…”
― Charles Cros

“Philip revealed his carefully cloaked emotions when he wrote to his mother-in-law, "Cherish Lilibet? I wonder if that word is enough to express what is in me." He declared that his new wife was "the only 'thing' in this world which is absolutely real to me, and my ambition is to weld the two of us into a new combined existence that will not only be able to withstand the shocks directed at us but will also have a positive existence for the good”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch