Lin Carter

This life, my dear bird, consists of a haphazard sequence of accidental meetings and partings, very few of which can ever be anticipated, avoided or fully understood. The element of sheer Chance, my friend, conflicting as it does with the first principles of Causation, denies any premeditated plan on the part of Destiny. Destiny, therefore, may only be defined as the sum total of one’s accumulated experiences, which are themselves accidental and purposeless. ‘Purpose,’ you deduce from this, is an interpretation imposed upon a sequence of events after the fact.”

“If one doesn’t learn from one’s unhappy experiences,” he wisely observed, “what’s the point of all that suffering?”

Mere abstention from a life of evil does not constitute a life devoted to good works.

You will observe, I think, that repentance is seldom whole-hearted, and generally arises from such base and ignoble motives as feeling sorry for yourself in dire circumstances.

Knowing that you possess a talent is half the battle in mastering it.

What use to covet loot, when even stars must die?

The past has lost, as it always loses; the future has won, as it always wins.

He was reluctantly forced to conclude that his sanity was unshaken.

Chan’s heart knew only greed, but there was within him enough intelligence to wonder before a man who could see all the uselessness of life, and still exult in the possessing of it.