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Quote by M.J. Irving

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Nova's Quest for the Enchanted Chalice

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M.J. Irving

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“The second week of chemo was worse in that I knew what to expect. This presented a curious reversal of fear for me, because I already understood that with other types of pain the fear of not knowing about it usually brought about more suffering than the thing itself. This was different. This was dread. It wasn’t some unknown black thing hovering and threatening in the shadows; it had already revealed itself to me and, knowing that I knew I couldn’t escape, took its time stalking me. This was everything I ever needed to know about Fate.”

“Rutted faced men such as me do not determine the suitability of life’s terrain. Our terracotta passageway simply unfolds before us awaiting the minor edits we compose in the mistaken notion that as mere actors we also serve as the almighty playwright. In actuality, faltering men stumbling along in life such as me serve at the mercy of our base desires. Caught in cacoethes – uncontrollable desire – we manically act to satisfy our wild and occasionally harmful urges. Working slavishly to mollify our wants reduces us to serving as the unwitting chroniclers of the jeremiad canvas painted with the frayed lisle of our shillyshallying élan vital.”

“The sad truth about the world is that people tend to sympathize with the strong one, not the innocent one. They believe in higher justice, in laws of karma, in ‘no smoke without fire,’ and whatever other balderdash they can come up with to deal with the bare truth that good and bad luck are simply a roll of the dice and there’s no greater meaning behind it… So if you let yourself get arrested, nobody would think that you did it because you were too conscientious to use your resources for evading arrest.”