It is better to die than to be used by evil for evil’s purposes. - Sheri S. Tepper

She had grown through loss and confusion into a girl who lived almost entirely inside her head, taking refuge in the places she created there, not so much repulsed by others’ reality as unable to perceive it.

They've got a kind of committee there, he had said, "an office. Acceptable Doctrine, it's called. Everyone on the committee is mostly concerned about what people believe. They're running things, too; don't let them tell you they aren't. Truth doesn't enter in. If they've decided something is doctrine, they'll ignore all evidence to the contrary and lie to your face. You don't want to run afoul of those types, do you? Not if you have questions to ask. No."

The sooner we can separate salvageable skeptics from self-righteous absolutists, the sooner we can move along.