"And so that is the story of how St. Rufus of Pipewrench was licked to death by marmots."

"Mahommad bin Qasim's first act of religious zeal was forcibly to circumcise the Brahmins of the captured city of Debul ; but on discovering that they objected to this sort of conversion, he proceeded …"

"There isn't anyone you meet that isn't absolutely peculiar. Everyone you meet is absolutely extraordinary. I've never met a human being that isn't, that doesn't have a fantastic story and is completel…"

"A faith, like a species, must evolve or go extinct when the environment changes. It is not a gentle process in either case. … It's nice to have grizzly bears and wolves living in the wild. They are no…"

"Don't let them tell us stories. Don't let them say of the man sentenced to death "He is going to pay his debt to society," but: "They are going to cut off his head." It looks like nothing. But it does…"