“The work grows "stone upon stone" (additive) or
The block is hewn "chip from chip" (subtractive)
Both processes, building and reducing, are time bound.”

“Not merely a chip of the old 'block', but the old block itself.”

“He was not merely a chip of the old Block, but the old Block itself.”

“Recall of memory is a creative process. What the brain stores is… only a core memory. Upon recall, this memory is then elaborated upon and reconstructed, with subtractions, additions, elaborations, and distortions.”

“A stumbling block to the pessimist is a stepping-stone to the optimist.”

“Kernik had stumbled on an immutable truth, a truth older than the world. Priests claimed the gods made men, but this was not so. Men made the gods. Firstly, by forming them in clay, by chipping them from stone. Secondly, and more importantly, by believing in them, believing in them utterly.”

“Next comes the consideration of stone quarries from which dimension stone and supplies of rubble to be used in building are taken and brought together.”

“And then I saw the menu, stained with tea and beautifully written by a foreign hand, and on top it said…"Chips with everything". Chips with every damn thing. You breed babies and you eat chips with everything.”

“Not in hewn stones, nor in well-fashioned beams,
Not in the noblest of the builder's dreams,
But in courageous men of purpose great,
There is the fortress, there the living State.”

“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it”