The Rose Rent

In happiness or unhappiness, living is a duty, and must be done thoroughly.

Questions are as supple as willow wands, it's easy to brush by them and slip them aside, and no one the worse for it.

God does indeed forbid,” said Radulfus drily, “that we should make more of our virtues or our failings than is due. More than your due you shall not have of, neither praise nor blame. For

[Describing the reaction of the culprit after he confessed his crimes] As though he found himself where he had never thought or meant to be, in some place he could not even recognise, and not knowing how he made his way there.

A decent, quiet man, Cadfael had called him, and coming from Cadfael there was nothing dismissive in that description. Decent, quiet men were the backbone of any community, to be respected and valued beyond those who made the biggest commotion and the most noise in the world.