Quotes from Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries

Suffering, he thought later, could rob a man of his empathy, could turn him selfish, could make him depreciate all other sufferers.

We observe that one of the great attributes of discretion is that it can mask ignorance of all the most common and lowly varieties, and Walter Moody was nothing if not excessively discreet.

Love cannot be reduced to a catalogue of reasons why, and a catalogue of reasons cannot be put together into love.

What an unrequited love it is, this thirst! But is it love, when it is unrequited?