I shall endeavor to turn dross to purest Metal Absolute: in short, to teach you something. - Tad Williams

When you stopped to think about it, he reflected, there weren’t many things in life one truly needed. To want too much was worse than greed: it was stupidity—a waste of precious time and effort.

She knew that life was but a long struggle against disorder, and that disorder was the inevitable winner.

Now, boy, now..." he said bewilderedly, "what is all this talk of glory? Have you caught the sickness, too? Curse me for a blind beggar, I should have seen. This fever has cankered even your simple heart, hasn't it, Simon? I'm sorry. It takes a strong will or practiced eye to see through the glitter to the rotten core.