← “if I ordered,” he would often say, “If I ordered a general to change himself into a sea-bird and the general didn’t obey, that wouldn’t be the general’s fault. It would be my fault.” 🔊✎
← “If I ordered a general to flit from one flower to another like a butterfly, or to write a tragedy, or to change himself into a sea-bird, and the general didn’t obey the order he’d received, whose fault would it be, his or mine?” 🔊✎
← “So your orders have changed?” 🔊✎
← “My orders haven’t changed!” 🔊✎
← “That’s the problem! Year after year, the planet keeps turning faster, but my orders haven’t changed!” 🔊✎
← It is extremely rare to see a mountain change its place. It is extremely rare to see an ocean dry up. 🔊✎
← “What counts for us is the mountain. It doesn’t change.” 🔊✎
← It groaned the way an old weather-vane does when the wind finally changes after a long time.
← And you’ll see how everything changes. And no grown-up will ever understand it can be so important! 🔊✎