"They's lots of work in this world that aint never paid for. But the accounts gets balanced anyway. In the long run. A man that contracts for work and then dont pay for it, the world will reckon with him fore it's out. With the worker too. you live long enough and you'll se it. they's a ledger kept that hte pages dont never get old nor cumbly nor the ink dont never fade. If it don't balance then they aint no right in this world and if they aint then where did I hear of it at? Where did you? Only way it wont is if you start retribution on you own. You start retribution on you own you'll be on you own. That man up there aint goin to help you. Aint no use even to ask."

-Cormac McCarthy, The Stonemason (pg. 29)

"To the repentant thief upon the cross, the soft Jesus of the modern Bible holds out hope of Heaven: 'Today thou art with me in Paradise.' But in older translations, as Soen Roshi points out, there is no 'today,' no suggestion of the future. In the Russian translation, for example, the meaning is 'right here now.' Thus, Jesus declares, 'You are in Paradise right now'--How much more vital! There is no hope anywhere but in this moment, in the karmic terms laid down by one's own life."

-Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard (pg. 310)