Quotes from Michael Flynn

One cannot love a world. It is too large. But a fleck of ground so far as his eye can see, one may hold precious above all.

Jesus said the weeds would grow with the wheat until the Judgement," Dietrich answered, "so one finds both good men and bad in the Church. By our fruits we will be known, not by what name we have called ourselves. I have come to believe that there is more grace in becoming wheat than there is in pulling weeds.

The soul is the form of the body, but not as the shape of a statue is formatio et terminatio materiae, for form does not exist apart from material. There is no whiteness without a white object. But the soul is not a form in this simple sense, and in particular, is not the shape of the material it informs. Therefore, the shape of a being does not affect the being's soul, for then something lower would inform something higher, which is impossible.

For what purpose have you prayed?" "For thanks. If I must die, at least I have lived. If my companions have perished, at least I have known them. If the world is cruel, at least I have tasted kindness. I had to cross to the far side of the sky to taste it but, as you say, the world is full of miracles.

Peace needs the consent of all, while one alone may raise a war.

But what is hope? When all else is lost, it is the one thing you may keep.

The body's ills are the least of ills, for they end only in death, which is but a little thing. But if the spirit dies, then all is lost.

When princes flee battle, and knights turn free-lance, and barons rob pilgrims, what value has honor?" "Why, all the more, seeing how rare it has become.

When your words come out of your mouth and back into your ear, your brain gives them a second rinse, and cleans them up a little better. All Tom knew was that when he tried to explain things to Sharon, his own thinking clarified.

Dirac found that the ratio of the electric force to the gravitational force of an electron-proton pair is roughly equal to the ratio of the age of the universe to the time it takes light to traverse an atom.

Hans clacked his side-lips. "Do you have the sentence in your head that tomorrow's procession will halt this pest of yours, that it will bar the small-lives from the High Woods?" "If it is as you say, no. No more than prayer can stay a charging horse. But that is not why we pray. God is no cheap juggler as to play for a pfennig.

There were only two sorts of women so perfervid in their devotions: madwomen and saints, nor were the two species entirely distinct.

Never underestimate a determined woman. Universes are flimsy things in their hands.

Tom was deep in MEGO by then. My Eyes Glaze Over. Normally, he was fascinated by matters statistic, but look up "fascination" someday.

Ockham snorted. "I am no nominalist. The problem with teaching the Modern Way is that lesser scholars, excited by the novelty, seldom bother to master my insights. There are lips on which I heartily wish my name had never rested. I tell you, Dietl, a man becomes a heretic less for what he writes than for what others believe he has written.

The sentries might not be the most alert, but they might have marked a skulking, five-shoe tall grasshopper.

That is the way of it among heretics. They start questioning one doctrine and end up questioning everything. No wonder they used to burn them.

The Luna-Ganymede Race went down in history, and the magnetic sail went down to the fusion thruster. Terranova should never have taken the bet, but it was a matter of pride - and prive loves loss above surrender.

It takes more than knowing how to point the ship to be a captain," he said with more than a touch of black choler. "It takes knowing where and why to point it.

One recalls the literary writer who, after grasping a story of a Mars voyage as a metaphor for isolation and the precariousness of relationships, realized that at a deeper, more subtle level it might even be a story about an actual trip to Mars!

The sky is deep then?' Dietrich said. 'Immeasurbly deep.

So there had better be a good damned reason for [war], because even if it is good, it is still damned.

You would rather think about the good than do it.

I know what I have said, but not what you have heard.