The Mists of Avalon (Avalon, #1)

by Marion Zimmer Bradley

there is no such thing as a true tale. Truth has many faces and the truth is like to the old road to Avalon; it depends on your own will, and your own thoughts,

“The Christians seek to blot out all wisdom save their own; and in that strife they are banishing from this world all forms of mystery save that which will fit into their religious faith.

What just God would create some men wretched, and others happy and prosperous, if one life were all that they could have?”

If you seek to avoid your fate or to delay suffering, it only condemns you to suffer it redoubled in another life.

But even when there is peace in the land, the High King has no peace, for when the enemies leave our shore, why, then, his friends begin to fight, if only for his favor.

What wise God would consign a man to Hell for ignorance, instead of teaching him better in the afterlife?”

If God is all-wise, why should we imagine he will be less merciful than men? Christ, they say, was sent to us to show God’s love, not his judgment.”

“Even the devils can quote the holy words amiss,”

“And indeed there is little opportunity for the old and poor to sin, except to doubt God’s goodness, and if God cannot understand why we doubt that, then he is not as wise as his priests think,

no one can rule over another’s conscience.

It cannot be so much of an offense of modesty to see what they must be able to imagine. I know some of the Christian priests speak so, but they seem to think the human body is the work of some devil, not of God, and that no one could possibly see a woman’s body without going all into a rage to possess it.”

“There is no use in fretting after last winter’s snow,

“Perhaps there is a time to be Goddess and God, and a time to be no more than flesh and blood.”

She bent her head, blinking back tears she did not know how to shed.

A husband who cannot keep his wife’s kind regards and faithfulness probably does not deserve them.”