And now, Uastis, get up. This room is architecturally designed to please the eye, and your present position mars it for me. - Tanith Lee

But in the mental overcast of that town, such things went rigidly unremarked, save through their irrelevance. For life was only a series of pitfalls, not to be enjoyed or celebrated. The gods chastised pleasure just as they ignored suffering.

I raised my arms as if in prayer and heard the mutter of response behind me. Then I scattered the dried grains, red and brown and black, and studied the patterns they formed on the stone ledge before Sibbos. This is not such a mystic thing. You see what it is sensible to see, or else you interpret what you see so that the meaning comes out as you want it.

Why aid me?"
"God has moved me to help you. Or, if you prefer, it was my reasonless inclination to do so.