“The hand of bone and sinew and flesh achieves its immortality in taking up a pen. The hand on a page wields a greater power than the fleshly hand ever could in life.”
“The dead have a claim on us even heavier than that of the living, for they cannot hear our explanations, and we cannot ask their forgiveness.”
“Moments of pure relaxation were rare for me. There was always the nagging of books unread, work undone, time a-wasting.”
“Everyone is allowed a weakness, even women of the twentieth century.”
“I am getting old, Russell. Gone are the days when I could scramble about on the moors all day and curl up happily at night with a thin blanket and a stone for a pillow. Three nights on floorboards and one night without sleep following three days at strenuous labour make me aware that I am no longer a callow youth.”
“Suddenly, it occurred to me that my feelings towards the little man were distinctly maternal. Good God, I thought, how utterly revolting, and I turned my mind firmly to the problem at hand.”
“You see why I married her, Mycroft? The exquisite juxtaposition of ladylike threads and backhanded compliments proved irresistible.”
“You translate it, please. I have worked hard to forget what Greek I once knew.”
“It's so crude' complained her mother, who believed in Good Taste the way Sunday worshipers believed in the Immaculate Conception. She wasn't quite sure what it was but she was sure it was important.”
“From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to our shortcomings than to our strenghts.”
“It's not easy being the Chosen One. Just ask Buffy Summers. Ask Harry Potter. And ask Zoey Redbird, the latest in this list of "lucky" candidates picked by fate to save the world from darkness- and oh yeah, find romance, keep their friends and maybe not flunk every class. In their spare time of course.”
“There come times in our lives when we do things that we don't understand. We confuse ourselves, we might even logically oppose our impulses, and yet we act on them anyway.
There are some things that we feel that we absolutely must do. We might know that they're wrong, or pointless, or gravely punishable, and yet we do them anyway. These actions are not born of anger or emotion - we are perfectly sober. It's rather inexplicable. When the time comes, we can't stop ourselves, and so we cannot blame ourselves.”
“One shouldn't expect anyone to be complete at any given moment.”
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