Quotes from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“You know, my young friend, I will be ninety years old next year, and life is still a constant surprise to me. We never know what will happen next, what we will see, and what important person will come into our life, or what important person we will lose. Life is change, constant change, and unless we are lucky enough to find comedy in it, change is nearly always a drama, if not a tragedy. But after everything, and even when the skies turn scarlet and threatening, I still believe that if we are lucky enough to be alive, we must give thanks for the miracle of every moment of every day, no matter how flawed.”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“How do you find happiness?” Anna paused, then said, “You start by looking right around you for the blessings you have.”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“The best thing is to grieve for the people you loved and lost, and then welcome and love the new people life puts in front of you.”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“It all made Pino realize that the earth did not know war, that nature would go on no matter what horror one man might inflict on another. Nature didn’t care a bit about men and their need to kill and conquer.”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“Isn’t it strange how life is always taking you to places and to people you’re supposed to see and meet?” “You”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“Sometimes happiness comes to us. But usually you have to seek it out.”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“by opening our hearts, revealing our scars, we are made human and flawed and whole.” He”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“Do what I sometimes do when I get scared: imagine you’re someone else, someone who’s far braver and smarter.”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“Nothing in life worth doing is easy,”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“Pino was seized by something much more compelling and primal, as if Anna were not human but a spirit, a melody, a perfect instrument of love.”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“how can you survive what life throws at you if you cannot laugh and love, and are they not the same thing?”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“Doing favors,” Leyers said. “They help wondrously over the course of a lifetime. When you have done men favors, when you look out for others so they can prosper, they owe you. With each favor, you become stronger, more supported. It is a law of nature.” “Yes?” Pino said. “Yes,” Leyers said. “You can never go wrong in this way, because there will be times when you will need a favor, and it will be right there waiting to come to the rescue. This practice has saved me more than once.”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“Maybe that’s all it takes for the future to exist, Pino thought. You must imagine it first. You must dream it first.”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“How do men think of such wickedness?” Anna asked as wax dripped down the candle and pooled about the holder. “Don’t they fear for their souls?” Pino thought about Rauff and the Black Shirts wearing the hoods. “I don’t think men like that care about their souls,” Pino said, finishing the veal. “It’s like they’ve already gone to evil, and going a little deeper won’t matter.”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“It would be surprising if you didn’t hate me for what I’ve had to do today. A part of me hates myself. But I have orders. Winter is coming. My country is under siege. Without this food, my people will starve. So here in Italy, and in your eyes, I’m a criminal. Back home, I’ll be an unsung hero. Good. Evil. It’s all a question of perspective, is it not?”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“The best thing is to grieve for the people you loved and lost, and then welcome and love the”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“Alberto Ascari says there have been atrocities, Father,” Pino said. “The Nazis have killed priests helping Jews. They’ve pulled them right off the altar while they were saying Mass.” “We have heard that, too,” the priest said. “But we can’t stop loving our fellow man, Pino, because we’re frightened. If we lose love, all is lost. We just have to get smarter.”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“But after everything, and even when the skies turn scarlet and threatening, I still believe that if we are lucky enough to be alive, we must give thanks for the miracle of every moment of every day, no matter how flawed. And we must have faith in God, and in the Universe, and in a better tomorrow, even if that faith is not always deserved.” “Pino”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“All great things come from love, don’t they?” “I guess they do,” Anna said, and looked away. “The worst things, too.”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“If a bomb’s coming at you, it’s coming at you. You can’t go around worrying about it. Just go on doing what you love, and go on enjoying your life.”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“To the end of homicidal dictators with weird black bangs and puny square mustaches!” The”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“If you stay too close to someone like Hitler, you are going to burn someday.”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“Seeing them butcher the dead . . . I don’t know, Father . . . It makes me question my faith in mankind, in people being good deep down, not savages, not like that.”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“Pino at that moment seemed to me like a portal into a long-ago world where the ghosts of war and courage, the demons of hatred and inhumanity, and the arias of faith and love still played out within the good and decent soul who'd survived to tell the tales.”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“Faith is a strange creature,” Schuster said. “Like a falcon that nests year after year in the same place, but then flies away, sometimes for years, only to return again, stronger than ever.”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“The Alps had taught him not to fret and whine at difficult circumstances. It was a waste of energy.”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“said, “You know, my young friend, I will be ninety years old next year, and life is still a constant surprise to me. We never know what will happen next, what we will see, and what important person will come into our life, or what important person we will lose. Life is change, constant change, and unless we are lucky enough to find comedy in it, change is nearly always a drama, if not a tragedy. But after everything, and even when the skies turn scarlet and threatening, I still believe that if we are lucky enough to be alive, we must give thanks for the miracle of every moment of every day, no matter how flawed. And we must have faith in God, and in the Universe, and in a better tomorrow, even if that faith is not always deserved.” “Pino Lella’s prescription for a long, happy life?”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“They shared a long silence. “What do we do, Father?” “We have faith, Pino. We have faith and continue to do what is right.”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“You never want to be the absolute leader in the game of life, the man out front, the one everyone sees and looks to,”
― Mark T. Sullivan, quote from Beneath a Scarlet Sky

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“The renegade strand of hair nipped her eyes once more. With a swift, steady hand, Oscar pushed it away from her face. His fingertip left a trail of fire along her cheek. Camille reached up to help him tuck the strand back, and their fingers met. She knew for certain the flush had returned to her ears.
Oscar dropped his arm and walked to the rail, wrapping his strong hands around the carved wood.
“He is used to having things go his way,” Oscar said, his voice low and only for her ears. Camille moved to stand beside hm.
“Have you always done everything he’s asked of you?” She was cautious not to come off sounding snide.
His knuckles whitened as he gripped the rail tighter, as if to hold something back. Hold something in.
“No.”
She hadn’t expected him to give her an answer, and certainly not that one.
“No? I don’t believe it. What have you done that’s gone against his wishes?”
Oscar had been her father’s shadow since day one. He’d watched and obeyed William Rowen with the kind of devotion any eager apprentice would show his teacher.
Oscar had been staring at the water, at the mounting churn of the waves. Now he shifted his eyes to her and fixed her with a look so strong and deep, she felt helpless beneath it.
“He asked me to stop associating with you,” he answered, still hushed. Camille’s eyes watered with mortification and dread. Her father had spoken to Oscar, too. She wiped her sweaty palms on the hips of her trousers.
“But clearly,” Oscar continued, leaning toward her, “I didn’t listen.”
His gaze revolved out to the ocean again, releasing Camille. Air flowed back down her windpipe. This was beyond humiliation. Her father couldn’t do this. He couldn’t order people to stop speaking to her.
“Why not?” she asked, her breath uneven from a cross of fury and the steadfast way Oscar had looked at her. “He could fire you.”
He moved away from the rail.
“If he wants to fire me for speaking to you, for looking at you…” He turned back to her on his way to the quarterdeck and held her gaze again. “Then I’ll risk it.”
She watched in awe as Oscar took the helm from a sailor and placed himself behind the great spoked wheel. He’d risk everything he had to be able to speak with her, to just look at her. His bravery made her feel no taller than a hermit crab. She’d so quickly, dutifully, accepted her father’s request to set her focus solely on Randall. But she mattered to Oscar. She mattered, and that one truth made her wish she was brave enough to risk everything, too.”
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“I'd rather be in danger with you than be safe without you.”
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“No he probado la ejecución ni la reclusión perpetua, pero si se puede juzgar a priori, la pena de muerte, a mi juicio, es más moral y humana que la reclusión. La ejecución mata de golpe, mientras que la reclusión vitalicia lo hace lentamente. ¿Cuál de los verdugos es más humano? ¿El que lo mata a usted en pocos minutos o el que le quita la vida durante muchos años?”
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