The Fall of Babel (The Books of Babel #4)

by Josiah Bancroft

Some thought it a natural progression: Once a volcano builds itself up from the ocean floor and establishes an island in the sea, what is there left for it to do but to cool and subside and turn green with the crust of life?

Anger that survives until morning is either righteous or insidious. Either way, it must be dealt with.

I hope to be rich one day, but not miserably so. I once rubbed elbows with a gold-drenched lord. He had a staff of dozens, a harem of admirers, and a seat at every table. Yet I have never met a more paranoid, anxious, and isolated wretch. The only medicine for gout is moderation; the only cure for excess is charity.

Perhaps we are not responsible for the crimes of our fathers, but make no mistake, we are beneficiaries of those crimes, which makes us answerable to its victims. The

Never was a rough road smoothed by looking backward; never was a great height shrunk by looking down. —Everyman’s Guide to the Tower of

It is true that what distinguishes the amateur from the professional is not a single stroke of success but rather the lengthy education of repeated failure.

Pilgrims are encouraged to remember that the principal consumer of sheep is not wolves but shepherds.