What's a simurgh? "A member of the winged species avian simurghi," sniffed the simurgh. "Easy to identify because of his gorgeous plumage, ready wit,… - Lin Carter

Um," said Kesrick in a small voice, looking remarkably foolish.
"Um, indeed!" said Dame Pirouetta tartly. "You will find, dear boy, on these chivalric adventures of yours, that manly courage and fortitude, even when bolstered by the fortunate possession of an enchanted sword such as Dastagerd, are not quite enough: one requires, as well, the use of logic, reason, deduction, and, in a word—intelligence!

The past has lost, as it always loses; the future has won, as it always wins.

The young curate, already pale to the lips, rolled his eyes up until only the whites showed, and began to pray in a trembling, feeble voice. Raised in an ecclesiastical society, where the tenets of the Faith are never argued, having long ago all been decided upon, he had never before been exposed to any difference of opinion on such holy matters. It was, indeed, for him an earth-shaking experience even to be listening to these hideous and pandemonial hallucinations, these nauseously original ideas, each of which gnawed at the roots of his sanity like a voracious worm, until the poor fellow felt his reason began to totter and the foundations of his faith began to shudder and reel.