"Wealth tends to generate wealth," he began. I gave a qualified assent. "If it does not instead give birth to folly." - Matt Hughes

Half the miseries of humankind’s history have originated in those who think they see in the fellow next to them virtues and vices that exist only in the mind of the beholder.

"Magic," said my integrator, "has rules. At the heart of the willful, associative universe, we find a modicum of rationalism, just as we find uncertainty at the core of the rational cosmos."
"Exactly," I said. "And there seems no other explanation for it than sheer perversity on the part of whatever entity is responsible for the whole untidy business."
I thought about it a moment more then said, "Perversity, or just a very idiosyncratic sense of humor."

“What is your theory?” my assistant asked, but again I declined to answer. A mistaken theory that never went farther than its originator’s mind does not count as an error.