Burne was tough. Burne practiced archeology, the most inconvenient of the sciences. - James Morrow

In Francis’s view there was ultimate gold in this commitment to impractical knowledge, to theories that had no responsibilities other than to be true. On good days the new ideas inched human intellect toward the grand understandings that were science’s pride and joy.

Francis’s office did not come with a videophone; at times he was surprised that his office came with a floor.

It was the most portentous mission since Saul of Tarsus has suffered an epileptic seizure and called it Christianity.