'Tis very strange Men should be so fond of being thought wickeder than they are. -Daniel Defoe, A System of Magick

In historyical events great men--so called--are but the labels that serve to give a name to an event, and like labels, they have the last possible connection with the event itself. Every action of theirs, that seems to them an act of their own free will, is in an historical sense not free at all, but in bondage to the whole course of previous history, and predestined from all enternity. -Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoi, War and Peace

"Well," Said the head, "I will give you your answer. You have no right to expect me to send you back to Kansas unless you do something for me in return. In this country everyone must pay for everything he gets. If you wish me to use my magic power to send you home again you must do something for me first. Help me and I will help you." "What must I do?" asked the girl. "Kill the wicked Witch of the West," answered Oz. -L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

This book is for Betty Levin and for all those who
taught me to love and fear goodness.

A mile above Oz, the Witch balanced on the wind's forward edge, as if she were a green fleck of the land itself, flung up and sent wheeling away by the turbulent air.

"Maybe the definition of home is the place where you are never forgiven, so you may always belong there, bound by guilt. And maybe the cost of belonging is worth it." // "Ah, we're slow learners, Nanny countered. But they can't learn at all" (p.12). // "You're not so bold at all," said Elphaba, "you're about as bold as tea made from used leaves" (p.129)

"And there the wicked old Witch stayed for a good long time." "And did she ever come out?" "Not yet."