Quotes from Anne Perry

As one grew older, one remembered only the energy, the optimistic side of being young. Time removed many of the agonies of uncertainty, self-doubt, loneliness, and the confusion that can hurt so much. Maybe it was just as well. Age brought its own diffucult pains.

It's years since I've been shocked

One pretends nothing can be done; therefore, one can do nothing and feel perfectly justified. I think it is only another kind of dishonesty

He had been too clever to be easy friends with other boys, who were afraid of his intelligence and lashed out at him the only way they knew how, with fists and boots. Even sitting here by his own fire, Tellman could feel the sweat of fear in his body, and then the chill, as he remembered standing facing them in the street, knowing what was coming.

I didn't love him at all. I grieve because he had one life in which to seek truth and find courage to defend it. He had one life in which to explore his soul, find love, compassion, humility - and he wasted it. Nobody is richer for his having been, nobody is poorer because he is gone. Therefore I grieve. (from the book or manuscript, Tathyr)

Christ to Satan, we are cut from the same cloth, every one of us. And we have the choice to be in eternity anything we wish. Man or woman. Genius or idiot, and all between. Physical beauty means nothing. God sees the heart. Wealth is only a test of what we would do with it. It is a loan from God, as are our talents, a way to prove whether we will use them well or ill. The judgment is awaiting us.

I'm not talking about dislike. If you stand for anything at all, there will be people who dislike you, she said impatiently. I chose the word hate because I meant it.

Man is a creature full of the power of the mind, if only we free it from the shackles of fear. Terrified of the new, quaking at the prospect of making a mistake. What do a few mistakes matter?

Which was worse, to intrude or to pretend not to have seen, because you had no idea what to do?

She was discreet, and

Yes I was afraid sometimes, but not often. Mostly I was too busy. When you can do something about even the smallest part of it, the overwhelming sick horror goes. You stop seeing the whole thing and see only the tiny part you are dealing with, and the fact that you can do something calms you.

May I wish you the joy of the season, and remembrance of all that is good in the past, together with hope for the future.

You're a dreamer, Charlotte. There is no man who won't make you wretched some time or other. I think George will have more to compensate for it than most, and I mean to marry him. I won't allow you to prevent me.

the cuckolded husband but there was also laughter, a pity profoundly scarred with cruelty, relief that it was someone else. There were ribald jokes, slurs against manhood—and that was the ultimate insult, the unbearable thing that robbed the stuff of life but denied the peace of death. The victim was still sentient and raw to all the awareness of his loss. He would never have brought that upon himself, never—not in hot temper nor in cold revenge.

You can't fight their battles for them, only give them armor." Who

It was the unknown that paralyzed the will to fight.

She reminded us of the possibilities we have not the courage to strive for. We are too afraid of failure.

He was afraid of the ultimate failure of being a coward. And that was something he could control. It might cost him everything he had, but it was still within his power to do it. It was within him, not beyond.

No hay nadie en el mundo que tenga suficiente dinero para comprar tu vida, tu honradez, tu hogar, tus amigos! Tu sueño por la noche... —No

treatment—presumably

Some academic pursuit had been a suggestion; she found study absorbing, but the tutorial positions open to women were few, and the restrictions of the life did not appeal to her. She read for pleasure.

What is it? That you are imperfect, too? Like the rest of us? Victor, did you suppose I did not know you've made errors, mistakes, and perhaps worse? If not, what would we have in common? You might forgive my flaws, but you would never understand them. There would always be blemishes you would prefer were not there. Can you really forgive, if you have no need to be forgiven?

sometimes it's not the errors you make but how you recover from them that mark the difference between failure and success

kedgeree, smoked haddock, toast, butter, sweet