But now the shots began—not many, but one shot is a fusillade if there have been no shots before. - James Blish

No exercise of will can make any of us other than what we are, or more than marginally better than who we are.

Actually, there are never motives behind actions. All actions are fixed. What we call motives evidently are rationalizations by the helpless observing consciousness, which is intelligent enough to smell an event coming—and, since it cannot avert the event, instead cooks up reasons for wanting it to happen...or ascribes it to the malice of God or man.

Munitions and magic are circles that don’t intersect very effectively.