"You look with incredulous contempt or horror upon the worship of many negroes. Perchance the angels have a rather poor opinion of your worship. And it may be that he who knows all things knows that both you and these poor degraded men do really love him, and are trying to worship and serve him amid all your imperfections. Some are unwilling to admit that there has been true conversion, when the "experience" includes seeing visions and hearing voices. Yet John Bunyan, when convicted of sin, heard voices, as he relates in his "Grace Abounding," and Augustine at the time of his conversion saw a beautiful vision, as described in his "Confessions."

"Perhaps the best testimony to the effectiveness of the reforms of 1852 is the fact, that men of a slightly later generation, familiar with the working of the courts half a century after, find it diffi…"

"A life of slothful ease, a life of that peace which springs merely from lack either of desire or of power to strive after great things, is as little worthy of a nation as of an individual. If you are …"

"There are things you can't walk away from. Not if you want to live with yourself afterward."

"A sack," Baudolino explained, like a man who knows a trade well, "is like a grape harvest: you have to divide the tasks. There are those who press the grapes, those who carry off the must in the tuns,…"