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‘A life without books is a life not lived.
You know what most men don’t do enough of?’ ‘Tell me, Silversaint.’ ‘They don’t shut the fuck up. They don’t just sit and listen. It’s in silence we know ourselves,
Put a man in a room for a hundred years with a thousand books, and he’ll know a million truths. Put him in a room for a year with silence, and he’ll know himself.’
‘The only thing worse than a fool is a fool who thinks himself wise.’
But I shall pray he watch over us this night nevertheless.” ‘“And what’s the point of that, priest? ‘Rafa blinked. “What is the point of—” ‘“Praying. Oui.” ‘The old man looked at me as if I’d asked the point of breathing. “I …” ‘“Two soldiers stand on a field of battle,” I told him. “Both are convinced God is on their side. Both pray to their Lord and Redeemer to smite their enemy low, and to the Mothermaid to protect them from all harm. But somebody’s going to lose. Somebody’s wasting their fucking time. Maybe, just maybe … it’s both of them?”
‘“What they don’t point out is, if he has a plan? There’s no sense praying for anything. If His will be done is the golden rule, then God’s going to do what he wants, regardless of how hard you beg him. And imagine, just for a second, the sense of entitlement it takes to ask him for anything in the first place. The fucking ego you’d need to think that this is somehow all for you. What if you ask for something that’s not his will? You want him to alter the course of the divine plan? For you? See, that’s the grift of it all. That’s the genius. You get what you pray for? Huzzah, God fucking loves
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‘“But he’s all-seeing, isn’t he? All-knowing? God knows whether you’re going to pass his test before he ever gives it to you. And if you succumb to your desire? He condemns you to burn. He sets you up to fail, then has the balls to question his own handiwork.”
‘“A life without books is a life not lived.”
‘When there’s little you can do, do what little you can.
