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“You ask if anyone has ‘tested the concept.’ But why would anyone test reality? Reality is not for testing, but for living with.”

“I detected some quavers in his voice that indicated stress. But I would not say that he lied.”

“Though it was not the whole truth.”

“It never is. The ‘whole truth’ starts with the beginning of the world and its telling takes an inordinately long time.”

“Often, when a stranger says, ‘Trust me,’ a wise man puts his hand on his purse and backs away.”

The combined effect of so many ambulatory sticks and balls, each of whom wore an expression of complete self-satisfaction, added strength to my longstanding belief that the profession of couturier required only a good knowledge of fabric and a malicious sense of humor.

Persons who disguise themselves when they go out into the world rarely do so for innocent purposes. At best, they mean to pull some merry prank; all too often, they intend a considerably deeper mischief.

My intent was to spot not only Massim Shar’s cut-out but the other member of his criminal coterie who would be there to watch our transaction. There might even be a watcher to watch the watcher, trust being a commodity in short supply among the lawless.”

Half the miseries of humankind’s history have originated in those who think they see in the fellow next to them virtues and vices that exist only in the mind of the beholder.

When the Wheel turns, much that is impossible in the old phase becomes commonplace in the new.

“Are you familiar with Wallader’s theory that every society is fundamentally organized around one or another of the cardinal sins?”

“I believe not,” I said.

“He argues that the true seed of every culture, whatever the ideals to which it gives lip service, always turns out to be one of the seven mortal iniquities identified by the ancients: pride, greed, and anger are the most common; lust, gluttony, and envy less so; those based on sloth usually do not last.”

“I do not wish to experience that again.”

“Some people claim that the occasional exposure to fear enhances their enjoyment of more tranquil circumstances.”

“Some people ought to be confined for their own good,” my assistant said, “and to prevent them from spreading dangerous inanities.”

The insane had a tendency to cloak others in the strange garments they found hanging in the backs of their own mental wardrobes. So, for that matter, did the rest of us, but the consequences of error were usually less drastic.

“Isn’t it obvious?” he answered.

“No. It is so far from obvious that it has gone right through obscure, breezed past unfathomable and is now completely beyond the reach of my vocabulary.”