Upon my word, there is nothing in the world so easy to explain as failure. It is, after all, what every body does all the time.

I know what it is to waste years and years upon vain hopes of help from this person or that. No hope at all is better than ceaseless disappointment.

A Black World to match his Black Spirits! Who would not blot out the run sometimes? The difference is that when one is a magician, one can actually do it.