New favorite quote

A gnostic was seated before a grammarian. The grammarian
said, ‘A word must be one of three things: either it is a noun, a
verb, or a particle.’ The gnostic tore his robe and cried, “Alas!
Twenty years of my life and striving and seeking have gone to the
winds, for I laboured greatly in the hope that there was another
word outside of this. Now you have destroyed my hope.’ Though
the gnostic had already attained the word which was his purpose,
he spoke thus in order to arouse the grammarian.
 -- Rumi, trans. A.J. Arberry