Quotes from book

Stone Tables

“To be cut off from the land of the living, and yet not to be dead. How could I bear that?
That's how most men live, and don't even know it.”

“Some people can't see miracles when they're right in the middle of them.
Better than seeing miracles that don't exist.
You're determined to stand entirely alone, aren't you?
That's where I've always stood.”

“It never occurred to you that they might be flattering you, because you don't lie.”

“You'll find out I was never sand at all, but a seed, and out of death I'll make life. You can't break me. And whatever plan you have in mind, you can't make me.”

“You really are children. You have no idea how power works, or who has it, or what you can actually do with it.”

“God's hand is strange to us. He cares nothing for the moment, nothing for the feeble ambitions of men and women. He sees the road that flows onward forever.”

“Self-knowledge can be painful, but not half so damaging as self-ignorance.”

“No man can bear to live with a woman who speaks nothing but the truth to him.”

“Like all children they only wanted to be known, and cared little about giving that gift to others.”

“Such a darling child, they would say, and pat her head. And Miriam would answer in her heart: you made my father a slave. You want us all dead. You are the river, you and all of Egypt. You are the river and as long as we stay beside you we are in danger of drowning.”

“The man who has an intelligent child is doomed to spend his life justifying every decision he makes.”

“Honesty always sounds like impudence to the vain and stupid.”

“God had answered her prayer, not with the thing she asked for, but rather the thing she wanted most in her heart.”

“He would rather lose his power for doing right, than keep his power by doing wrong. Because he loves his people more than he loves his office.”