So vast, so limitless in capacity is man’s imagination to disperse and burn away the rubble-dross of fact and probability, leaving only truth and dream.

More from Requiem for a Nun

• Maybe the only thing worse than having to give gratitude constantly is having to accept it.
• The past is never dead. It’s not even past.
• A gentleman can live through anything.
• Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.
• A man is the sum of his misfortunes. One day you’d think misfortune would get tired, but then time is your misfortune.
• Between grief and nothing I will take grief.