28 quotes
My own feeling is that human happiness is a very random thing, and bestows itself willy-nilly, and there's not much deserving about the matter.
Alvin Journeyman (1995)
I don't know why people who got what they need to be happy don't just go ahead and be happy.
Alvin Journeyman (1995)
You spend your whole life grieving for those who haven't died yet.
Alvin Journeyman (1995)
Verily wondered what the man could have the audacity to say, in the face of such evidence—what whining, sniveling complaint or protest he might utter.
Alvin Journeyman (1995)
“Our savior will resurrect us,” said Peggy, “but I haven’t noticed that Christians end up any less dead at the end of life than heathens.”
Alvin Journeyman (1995)
When people say perhaps it's cause they're lying. Either they don't believe the thing they're saying, or they do believe it only they don't want to admit they do.
Alvin Journeyman (1995)
What you are is a man who means to be good, and undo the bad he's done, and that's as good as any man ever gets.
Alvin Journeyman (1995)
Do you speak Scorn and Mockery to everyone? Or just to your betters?
Alvin Journeyman (1995)
Perhaps I'm hiding from myself. Perhaps I don't want to be what I'm supposed to be. Or perhaps I don't want to keep living the life I already started to live.
Alvin Journeyman (1995)
He had left home to get away, not to go toward anything. There was no greater freedom than that.
Alvin Journeyman (1995)
Alvin had met true evil in his life, but he still persisted in thinking it was awful rare, and the word was bandied about too much by those who didn't understand what real badness was.
Alvin Journeyman (1995)
It has been my experience that the better a man you are, the more folks there are who resent you for it, and find occasion to get angry at you no matter how kindly meant your deeds may be.
Alvin Journeyman (1995)
“You speak metaphorically, I hope,” said Peggy.
“I hope not,” said Becca. “Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space.”
Alvin Journeyman (1995)
“A liar sees lies,” said Taleswapper. “Even when they aren’t there. Just as a hypocrite sees hypocrites whenever he runs across good people. Can’t stand to think that anyone might really be what you only pretend to be.”
Alvin Journeyman (1995)
Whenever the law gets its hands on you, those who use the law to their own advantage will also turn it against you. Don't put your trust in the laws of men, Alvin. They were designed by strong men to improve their power over weaker ones.
Alvin Journeyman (1995)
Verily learned to live with constant deception, hiding what he was and what he saw and what he felt and what he did from everyone around him. It was only natural that he should be drawn to the study of law.
Alvin Journeyman (1995)
Where do you draw the line between a humble man who knows his own weaknesses but tries to act out virtues he hasn't quite mastered yet, and a proud man who pretends to have those virtues without the slightest intention of acquiring them?
Alvin Journeyman (1995)
Alvin wondered if it was true—if all men had evil in their hearts, and those men as were good, maybe they were simply the ones who controlled theirselves so well they could act contrary to their heart's desire. But if that were so, then no man was good, not one.
Alvin Journeyman (1995)
Debased men, but they all had something in common: They showed a keen regard for virtue, and tried to dress themselves in that costume. Hypocrisy, for all its bad reputation, at least showed a decent respect for goodness.
Alvin Journeyman (1995)
Andrew Jackson neatly resolved the issue by walking into congress and placing his hand on the Bible they kept there as a reminder of all the virtues they worked so hard to get the voters to believe they possessed.
Alvin Journeyman (1995)