📚Marginalia

Every individual spends a lifetime trying to disprove Copernicus by placing him- or herself at the heart of existence, but a small core of diehards manages to turn it into an art.

Ancient religions used to tell people that letting go of yearning is the highest form of spirituality. But Buddha had it wrong. Yearning is the difference between being human and being a Clockwork. Not to want is not to live. Even DNA is an engine of desire—driven to copy itself over and over.

I also still believe that books operate along the same principles as enchanted wardrobes. You climb into that little space and come out the other side in a vast and secret world, a place both more frightening and more wonderful than your own.

You cannot control what happens to you in life, but you can always control what you will feel and do about what happens to you.

We are all organisms striving for survival, moved forward by the single instinct that matters: reproduction and the propagation of our kind.

People like to invent monsters and monstrosities. Then they seem less monstrous themselves.

From a strategic point of view, I must of course regret our loss in that battle. Defeat is never to be lightly accepted. However, I cannot help but feel that from the aesthetic point of view,there could not have been a more beautiful result.

The white of the lightly falling snow. The red of the spilling blood. Was there ever a white more white, or a red more red, colder snow, or warmer blood?

Knowledge may hinder. Ignorance may liberate. Knowing when to know and when not to know, this is as important as a fluent blade.

Words can damage. Silence can heal. Knowing when to speak and when not to speak is the wisdom of sages.

Knowledge can hinder. Ignorance can liberate. Knowing when to know and when not to know is the wisdom of prophets.

Unimpeded by words, silence, knowledge, or ignorance, a fluent blade cuts cleanly. This is the wisdom of a warrior.