"Lesser, greater, middling…makes no difference. The degree is arbitrary. The definition’s blurred. I'm not a pious hermit, I haven't done only good in my life. But if I'm to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all"

"How do you find cohabitating with neighbours from whom, after all, you differ somewhat?
I manage. I manage because I have to. Because I've no other way out. Because I've overcome the vanity and pride of being different. I've understood that they are pitiful defence against being different. Because I've understood that the sun shines differently when something changes, but I'm not the axis of those changes. The sun shines differently, but it will continue to shine, and jumping at it with a hoe isn't going to do anything. We've got to accept facts. That's what we've got to learn."

“People like to invent monsters and monstrosities. Then they seem less monstrous themselves. When they get blind-drunk, cheat, steal, beat their wives, starve an old woman, when they kill a trapped fox with an axe or riddle the last existing unicorn with arrows, they like to think that the Bane entering cottages at daybreak is more monstrous than they are. They feel better then. They find it easier to live.”