For you are mad, my dear, in following this vocation. Even your goodness is a craziness. But then, all the very good are mad, just as the very wicked… - Tanith Lee

Now, when the man struck you, if you had only said to him, 'strike me again for good measure, I have no quarrel with you,' perhaps he would have struck you, or perhaps not, but the affair would have been finished with, and you at liberty to go on as you wished."
"Master, I see it is a parable, but nevertheless, some men, being allowed to strike another unchecked, will make a habit of striking there. Is that not also an interruption?"
"Life is a series of blows," said the priest, "birth and death being the greatest of these, but between them, many of lesser sort. And is it possible to return or mend every smack of fate and life? Sit down beneath a storm, for if you shout at it, it will not hear you.

Sorcery is a strong wine, and you are drunk on it."
"Do not anticipate I shall sober.

Lir chiseled at the stone. It would take a month to make a perceptible impression on it. He had a few hours. Work harder, then.