"'If you are eager to find the reason I became the Kvothe they tell stories about, you could look there, I suppose.'

Chronicler's forehead wrinkled. 'What do you mean, exactly?'

Kvothe paused for a long moment, looking down at his hands. 'Do you know how many times I've been beaten over the course of my life?'

Chronicler shook his head.

Looking up, Kvothe grinned and tossed his shoulders in a nonchalant shrug. 'Neither do I. You'd think that sort of thing would stick in a person's mind. You'd think I would remember how many bones I've had broken. You'd think I'd remember the stitches and bandages.' He shook his head. 'I don't. I remember that young boy sobbing in the dark. Clear as a bell after all these years.'

Chronicler frowned. 'You said yourself that there was nothing you could have done.'

'I could have,' Kvothe said seriously, 'and I didn't. I made my choice and I regret it to this day. Bones mend. Regret stays with you forever.'"
— Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind)

"It is a pity that there are no big creatures to prey on humanity. If there were enough dragons and rocs, perhaps mankind would turn its might against them. Unfortunately man is preyed upon by microbes, which are too small to be appreciated."
— T.H. White (The Book of Merlyn: The Unpublished Conclusion to The Once & Future King)

"Never forget:
we walk on hell,
gazing at flowers."
— Kobayashi Issa

"We find that at present the human race is divided into one wise man, nine knaves, and ninety fools out of every hundred. That is, by an optimistic observer. The nine knaves assemble themselves under the banner of the most knavish among them, and become 'politicians'; the wise man stands out, because he knows himself to be hopelessly outnumbered, and devotes himself to poetry, mathematics, or philosophy; while the ninety fools plod off under the banners of the nine villains, according to fancy, into the labyrinths of chicanery, malice and warfare. It is pleasant to have command, observes Sancho Panza, even over a flock of sheep, and that is why the politicians raise their banners. It is, moreover, the same thing for the sheep whatever the banner. If it is democracy, then the nine knaves will become members of parliament; if fascism, they will become party leaders; if communism, commissars. Nothing will be different, except the name. The fools will be still fools, the knaves still leaders, the results still exploitation. As for the wise man, his lot will be much the same under any ideology. Under democracy he will be encouraged to starve to death in a garret, under fascism he will be put in a concentration camp, under communism he will be liquidated."
— T.H. White (The Book of Merlyn: The Unpublished Conclusion to The Once & Future King)

"Mystics are not themselves. They do not exist
in selves. They move as they are moved,
talk as words come, see with sight
that enters their eyes. I met a woman
once and asked her where love had led her.
'Fool, there's no destination to arrive at.
Loved one and lover and love are infinite.'"
— Farīd al-Dīn ʻAṭṭār

"The journey through another world, beyond bad dreams
beyond the memories of a murdered generation,
cartographed in captivity by bare survivors
makes sacristans of us all.

The old ones go our bail, we oblate preachers of our tribes.
Be careful, they say, don't hock the beads of
kinship agonies; the moire-effect of unfamiliar hymns
upon our own, a change in pitch or shrillness of the voice
transforms the ways of song to words of poetry or prose
and makes distinctions
no one recognizes.
Surrounded and absorbed, we tread like Etruscans
on the edge of useless law; we pray
to the giver of prayer, we give the cane whistle
in ceremony, we swing the heavy silver chain
of incense burners. Migration makes
new citizens of Rome."
— Elizabeth Cook-Lynn

"Be still:
There is no longer any need of comment.
It was a lucky wind
That blew away his halo with his cares,
A lucky sea that drowned his reputation."
— Thomas Merton

"The plants and flowers
I raised about my hut
I now surrender
To the will
Of the wind"
— Ryokan

"When the path ignites a soul,
there's no remaining in place.

The foot touches ground,
but not for long."
— Hakim Sanai

"A pity it is evening, yet
I do love the water of this spring
seeing how clear it is, how clean;
rays of sunset gleam on it,
lighting up its ripples, making it
one with those who travel
the roads; I turn and face
the moon; sing it a song, then
listen to the sound of the wind
amongst the pines."
— Li Po

"Walking is Zen, sitting is Zen;
Speaking or silent, active or quiet, the essence is at peace.
Even facing the sword of death, our mind is unmoved;
Even drinking poison, our mind is quiet."
— Yoka Genkaku

"As long as the world and wind endure."
— Sa'di (The Gulistan of Sa'di)