Maisie Dobbs

Truth walks toward us on the paths of our questions...as soon as you think you have the answer, you have closed the path and may miss vital new information. Wait awhile in the stillness, and do not rush to conclusions, no matter how uncomfortable the unknowing.

Shame, isn’t it? That we only like our heroes out in the street when they are looking their best and their uniforms are ‘spit and polished,’ and not when they’re showing us the wounds they suffered on our behalf.

Memories are links in a golden chain that bind us until we meet again.

The extraordinary hides behind the camouflage of the ordinary. Assume nothing, Maisie.

Coincidence is a messenger sent by the truth." [Dr. Maurice Blanche]

There is nothing of which every man is so afraid, as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.

Truth walks towards us on the paths of our questions." [Dr. Maurice Blanche]

Though there had yet to be a victor in this great war that had begun almost three years ago, Maurice had written to her that they had, all of them, on all sides, lost their freedom. Freedom to think hopefully of the future.

Thus a day that had seen so many tears ended in the midst of a rainbow.

Allow grief room to air itself,” Maurice had taught her.“Be judicious in using the body to comfort another, for you may extinguish the freedom that the person feels to be able to share a sadness.

Stay with the question. The more it troubles you, the more it has to teach you. In time, Maisie, you will find that the larger questions in life share such behavior.

In the early days of her pupilage with Maurice, he had told Maisie of his teachers, the wise men who spoke of the veil that was lifted in the early hours, of the all-seeing eye that was open before the day was awake. The hours before dawn were the sacred time, before the intellect rose from slumber. At this time one’s inner voice could be heard.

The boy laughed, for he was a boy and not yet a man.

The story takes up space as a knot in a piece of wood. If the knot is removed, a hole remains. We must ask ourselves, how will this hole that we have opened be filled? The hole, Maisie, is our responsibility.

It’s not enough to say that you want equality, Ro. What do you intend to do about it?

intimacy that can be had, even in a crowded room, when two people want only

The feeling inside that she experienced when she saw the books was akin to the hunger she felt as food was put on the table at the end of the working day. And she knew that she needed this sustenance as surely as her body needed its fuel.

Never follow a story with a question, Maisie, not immediately. And remember to acknowledge the storyteller, for in some way even the messenger is affected by the story he brings.

Maurice Blanche maintained that amid the tales, the smokescreens, and the deceptive mirrors of life’s unsolved mysteries, truth resides, waiting for someone to enter its sanctum, then leave, without quite closing the door behind them. That is when truth may make its escape.

...only when we have a respect for time will we have learned something of the art of living.

Pay attention to the reactions of your body. It is the wisdom of the self speaking to you. Be aware of concern, of anticipation, of all the feelings that come from the self. They manifest in the body.