from the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant ~

excerpts:

"Say to the Council of the Lords, and to the High Lord Prothall son of Dwillian, that the uttermost limit of their span of days upon the Land is seven times seven years from this present time. Before the end of those days are numbered, I will have the command of life and death in my hand. And as a token that what I say is the one word of truth, tell them this: Drool Rockworm, Cavewight of Mount Thunder, has found the Staff of Law, which was lost ten times a hundred years ago by Kevin at the Ritual of Desecration. Say to them that the task appointed to their generation is to regain the Staff. Without it, they will not be able to resist me for seven years, and my complete victory will be achieved six times seven years earlier than it would be else." - Lord Foul's message for Covenant to take to Revelstone.

(Lord Foul's Bane, Chapter 3, "Invitation to a Betrayal")

"Where I come from we don't see-- If you don't know the annual cycles of the plants, you can't tell the difference between spring and summer. If you don't have a--have a standard of comparison, you can't recognize-- But the world is beautiful--what's left of it, what we haven't damaged." Images of Haven Farm sprang irrefusably across his mind. He could not restrain the mordancy of his tone as he concluded, "We have beauty, too. We call it 'scenery'."

"'Scenery.'" Mhoram echoed. "The word is strange to me--but I do not like the sound."

Covenant felt oddly shaken, as if he had just looked over his shoulder and found himself standing too close to a precipice. "It means that beauty is something extra, " he rasped. "It's nice, but we can live without it."

"Without?" Mhoram's gaze glittered dangerously.

And from behind him Foamfollower breathed in astonishment, "Life without beauty? Ah, my friend! How do you resist despair?"

(Lord Foul's Bane, Chapter 16, Blood-Bourne)