Best Paragraph in One of Last Month's Books

"He closed his eyes for a moment, and nodded in confirmation of his own suspicions. "Sit down," he said, and proceeded to explain to her in a fatherly fashion about the savagery of intellectual dispute in a city where many held the intellect above nature. "Most people," he told her, "arrive at tortured conclusions via blind and painful routes. They don't like it when someone like you shows up in a balloon. You can't expect anyone to trust revelation if he hasn't experienced it himself. Those who haven't, know only reason. And since revelation is a thing apart, and cannot be accounted for reasonably, they will never believe you. This is the great division of the world, and always has been. When reason and revelation run together, why, then you have something, a great age. But, in the city, now, reason is predominant. To argue from any other point of view or by any other means, as you do, is subversive. You will be attacked. Perhaps if we run your pieces in the religion department, alongside the sermon summaries, they won't create so much controversy..."

-Winter's Tale, Mark Helprin, p. 433-434