Esther could not conceive. In every other way she was a good wife; she knew how to knit, sew a wedding gown, bake gingerbread and tarts, tear out the pip of a chicken, apply a cupping glass or leeches, even bleed a patient.

"It is written, better to be a fool all your days than for one hour to be evil. You are not a fool. They are the fools. For he who causes his neighbor to feel shame loses Paradise himself."

We have to believe in free will. We've got no choice.

A good writer is basically a story-teller, not a scholar or a redeemer of mankind.

What happened was no accident. Everything was preordained. True, the will was free, but heaven also made its ordinances.

For years he had been curious about what lay on the other side of flesh and blood.

Shoulders are from God and burdens too.

All is foreseen but the choice is given.

All that God does is for the good.

In God's mill even chaff becomes flour.