Angel

“A faith that just accepts is a child's faith and all right for children, but eventually you have to grow religiously as every other way, though some never do.
What people don't realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross. ... remember that these things are mysteries and that if they were such that we could understand them, they wouldn't be worth understanding. A God you understood would be less than yourself.”
― Flannery O'Connor

“Words and phrases you think are carved into your bones can disappear in no time.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“After all, we’re here to make the unknown known, to make the other familiar. We’re here to make magic with words.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“New words in English were a game to him, for in understanding the word he always came to understand something about English history or culture itself. He delighted when common words were, unexpectedly, formed from other words he knew. Hussy was a compound of house and wife. Holiday was a compound of holy and day. Bedlam came, implausibly, from Bethlehem. Goodbye was, incredibly, a shortened version of God be with you.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel