1
How can I know for sure if it's my son speaking and not you?"" You never can, my lord. Just as no man can ever be sure that he alone is a thinking and feeling creature and everyone else a machine that only pretends to feel and think.Paul Hoffman
2
I have a message for your daughter, ” said Cale. “I am bound to her with cables that not even God can break. One day, if there is a soft breeze on her cheek, it may be my breath; one night, if the cool wind plays with her hair, it may be my shadow passing by.” And with this terrible threat he faced forward and the procession started once more. In less than a minute they were gone. In her shady room Arbell Swan-Neck stood white and cold as alabaster.Paul Hoffman
3
T was once famously said that it is as well that wars are so ruinously expensive, else we would never stop fighting them. However well said, it seems also to be endlessly forgotten that, while there may be just wars and unjust wars, there are never any cheap wars.Paul Hoffman
4
...the older I get, the more I believe that if love is to be judged by most of its visible effects, it looks more like hatred than friendship.Paul Hoffman
5
... If the dead can come back to this earth and move unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the garish day and in the darkest night–amidst your happiest scenes and gloomiest hours–always, always; and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath; or if the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by.Paul Hoffman
6
..this refinement and delicacy were what Cale adored; but Cale had been beaten into shape, hammered in dreadful fires of fear and pain. How could she be with him for long? A secret part of Arbell had been searching for some time for a way to leave her lover–although she was unaware of this, it is only fair to record. And so as Cale waited for her to save him while he worked out a way of saving her, she had already chosen the bitter but reasonable path of the good, of the many over the one..Paul Hoffman
7
...his soul (was) ringing like a well-struck bell. But it was a bell that rang with more than joy and adoration – there was the sound there too of anger and resentment. She would not look at him because she did not want to be in his presence. She hated him and he (how could he not?) hated her in return.Paul Hoffman
8
Better a live dog than a dead lion.Paul Hoffman
9
Until two days ago what had driven him was the will to survive: deep, animal, full of rage–but always part of him had not cared at all whether he lived or died. Now he did care, and very deeply, and so for the first time in a long time he was afraid. To love life is, of course, a wonderful thing, but not on this day of all days.Paul Hoffman
10
Where have you come from boy?' He looked at her again.' From hell, to take you away in the night and eat you.Paul Hoffman
11
- Why you?- (...) I’m the best.- Modest of you.- I am the best. Modesty has nothing to say about it.Paul Hoffman
12
...Again she did not seem to hear, still looking into Cale’s eyes. Then slowly, hopelessly, she dropped her gaze. “I understand, ” she said. It was that, of course, that pierced him as if she had stabbed him through the heart. To him it was the sound of lost faith and it was unendurable. He felt he’d become a kind of god in her eyes, and it was simply impossible to give up her adoration.Paul Hoffman
13
Force is as pitiless to the man who possesses it as it is to its victims–the second it crushes, the first it intoxicates.Paul Hoffman