Quotes from Rhidian Brook

The mind remembers what the soul can bear.

It was somehow easier to love a person who wasn't there.

Rachael could find no solace in other people's tales of woe. Pain was uniquely one's own, and undiminished by a democracy of suffering.

We will continue to march, even if everything shatters, because today Germany hears us, and tomorrow, the whole world. And because of the Great War, the world lies in ruins, but devil may care, we build it up again.

It was so much easier to knock down than build up: a city raised over millennia could be razed in a day; the life of a man ended in a second's crack. In years to come, Edmund and his children would know the names of planes and tanks and battles and invasions and recall with facility the atrocities of the age, the names of those who committed them. But would any of them be able to name a single repairer of the breach or fixer of broken walls?

Lewis could feel something swelling inside him, at his sinuses and in his chest. He had worked hard to keep this ghost at bay, but now it was pressing in, coming to claim its dues. The tears were coming, and he had to swallow to hold them. He stood up.

Gin, as every commissioner, general and governor knew, could bring sophistication to the bleakest of outposts and lift the spirits of Britain's most downhearted servants. Its manufacture and distribution was a national priority.

On the other side, apartment blocks—intact except for the fronts, which had been completely blown off, revealing the rooms and furniture within—stood like giant doll's houses.

Pain was uniquely one's own, and undiminished by a democracy of suffering.