Quotes from Anne Perry

That was the worst truth of all: alone. The word was a kind of death.

She was a remarkable woman and her courage must be immense to have defied her family and traveled virtually alone

In fact, ever since we began anything one could call civilization and learned that we are more than a collection of individuals, each for himself, and formed the concept of community, money has been pivotal. Pollute that, and you strike at the root of all society.

Sometimes when we are drowning in our own loss we lash out--anger is momentarily easier to cope with.

We perform all kinds of contortions of the mind to make a reason why it isn't really the way it looks, but we only fool the people who want to be fooled." "Maybe I knew, and forgot," he said, thinking back to his struggle to learn about himself, to piece together the evidence of what kind of a man he was, the good and the bad.

After all, what healthy man, woken in his bed in the morning by a young, clear-skinned, well-rounded wench bending over him, would not be tempted?

Without law, who will protect the mother and child who are tomorrow's strength? Who will protect the geniuses of the mind, the inventor, the artist who enriches the world but has not the power of money or physical ability to defend himself? Who will protect the wise who are old, and might fall victim to the powerful and foolish? Indeed who will protect the strong from themselves?

what it must be like to be a woman on her own, obliged to work at pleasing people because your acceptance, perhaps even your financial survival, depended upon it. There must be hundreds—thousands—of petty accommodations, suppressions of your own beliefs and opinions because they would not be what someone else wished to hear.

humiliation of the past behind her, and try again?

What was presumed and what was actually known were two entirely different things.

How do you forgive someone for not being what you wanted them to be, or what you thought they were? Especially when they are not sorry—perhaps they don't even understand?" "Or again, perhaps they do?" Hester suggested. "And how do they forgive us for having expected too much of them, instead of looking to see what they really were, and loving that?

That you have one set of rules for yourselves, and another for us

Nothing worth having was gained without courage.

For a wild moment he thought of friendship, a closeness better than romance, cleaner and more honest; then it disappeared.

She despised cowardice, and yet here she was on the brink of it herself.

They could not find the light if they had not the courage to explore the darkness.

perhaps an inch or two taller than Monk, and extremely handsome. His face was lean and narrow, but with fine, dark eyes, a long nose and a chiseled mouth. Apart from his features, there was a quickness of intelligence in him, lines of wit and laughter around his mouth and a hint of temper between his brows. It was the face of a proud man of unusual charm and, Monk guessed, a considerable ability to command others.

Because being in love with someone is not the same as knowing them

The working classes were often the same, give them a chance to idle and they'd take it with both hands. Still, couldn't blame them entirely. Their life was gray enough. He would have done the same.

To be without purpose is the same as being dead, only less peaceful.

There was no reason why not.

If she protected him from this one, then how would he be armed or prepared for the next, or the one after that? Without pain, how would he learn compassion? If it were easy, of what value was it?

What was freedom worth without safety from injustice, violence and hunger? Freedom to do what?

It is not necessarily what is but what is perceived that society will judge.