"The commentator may be excused for repeating what he has stressed in his own books and lectures, namely that "offensive" is frequently but a synonym… - Vladimir Nabokov

And now, said Ada, Van is going to stop being vulgar — I
mean, stop forever! Because I had and have and shall always
have only one beau, only one beast, only one sorrow, only one joy.

do what only a true artist can do ... pounce upon the forgotten butterfly of revelation

When the soul adores Him Who guides it through mortal life, when it distinguishes His sign at every turn of the trail, painted on the boulder and notched in the fir trunk, when every page in the book of one’s personal fate bears His watermark, how can one doubt that He will also preserve us through all eternity? So what can stop one from effecting the transition? What can help us to resist the intolerable temptation? What can prevent us from yielding to the burning desire for merging in God? We who burrow in filth every day may be forgiven perhaps the one sin that ends all sins.