'Immortality is only for the gods,' he whispered. 'I wonder how they can stand it.'

- Barry Hughart

Blessed are the idiots, for they are happiest people on earth.

- Barry Hughart

Fable has strong shoulders that carry far more truth than fact can.

- Barry Hughart

I have never been able to understand why perfectly sensible people waste time being wittily obscure instead of just saying what they want and going o…

- Barry Hughart

The emotional health of a village depended upon having a man whom everyone loved to hate, and Heaven had blessed us with two of them.

- Barry Hughart

Don't be ashamed of reliving your childhood, Ox, because all of us must do it now and then to maintain our sanity.

- Barry Hughart

I shall clasp my hands together and bow to the corners of the world. May your villages remain ignorant of tax collectors, and may your sons be many a…

- Barry Hughart

Our senses are woefully limited. Our brains are but tiny candles flickering in an infinity of darkness. Our only wisdom is to admit that we cannot un…

- Barry Hughart

A fool will study for twenty or thirty years and learn how to do something, but a wise man will study for twenty or thirty minutes and become an expe…

- Barry Hughart