"I must remind you that excitement is for kids and foot-soldiers, not generals and statesmen."
"You forget that I prefer to retain my wisdom and simplicity, both."

"Tricky!"
"Risky, rather. My bets are always large."

"Allah save you then."
"You first, and then, if and only if He has time, He should bother with me. As you can see, I have been good at saving myself so far," he said, speaking as much with his insolent glare as his voice.

"You seem to say you don't need much of Allah's help."
"No. I just mean to say I would like to save His help for bigger occasions."

-*-

"You never learnt from the Torah. Did you? Ingrain beauty in the message, not in the words. That is the safest bet for an immortal verse."