25 quotes
“They say wine will kill you slowly.” He nodded his head solemnly. “But that’s all right, we’re in no hurry.”
World Without End (1995)
The only thing of which we can be sure—time passes—everything else is vanity.
Sea Without a Shore (1996)
To wait for life is the pathway to death.
Sea Without a Shore (1996)
No man of the first rank is ever satisfied with his accomplishments, no matter what others make of them.
World Without End (1995)
If a man’s deeds do not outlive him, of what value is a mark in stone?
World Without End (1995)
Man, he suspected, had a particular genius for complicating things, for creating social hurdles that one must leap or be thought lacking.
Sea Without a Shore (1996)
There were no sounds of men, here; only the whisperings of the world of nature, which men often called silence.
World Without End (1995)
Tristam stood and raised his glass. “May life be kind, and friends loyal. Ventures profitable, children plentiful, and age like a slow turning of the leaves in autumn; grand, beautiful and tranquil.”
Sea Without a Shore (1996)
Their superstitions will allow them to believe things without much critical thought.
Sea Without a Shore (1996)
If men were only as wise as they are clever...
Sea Without a Shore (1996)
Men who were used to subordinating others to their wills were invariably surprised by rebellion—as though this imaginary prison they created was, in fact, real.
Sea Without a Shore (1996)
Experience taught him that the future was uncertain and one could prepare for it only by learning indifference to disappointment and loss.
Sea Without a Shore (1996)
If sleep sought him, it was spectacularly unsuccessful.
World Without End (1995)
Soldiers, Your Highness. Men trained not to think for themselves.
Sea Without a Shore (1996)
I do not want to end up like Stern, Tristam thought: the dutiful servant, silently chewing his resentment, hoping, pitifully, that his sacrifice would one day be rewarded.
World Without End (1995)
Observations interpreted by reason. Few, if any, ideas have had such impact on the lives of men.
World Without End (1995)
I am a trained empiricist, sir. Superstition is not compatible with my pursuits.
World Without End (1995)
There was no question in Tristam’s mind now that if one stared into the semidarkness long enough one would find whatever one sought. What the eye could not locate the mind would manufacture.
World Without End (1995)
Wood is a gift from the world of nature to we undeserving men...One should be thankful for such gifts, take no more than we need, and waste none of that.
World Without End (1995)
The carriage, Tristam realized, was becoming the metaphor for this period of his life: he neither owned, drove, nor directed one in any way but was simply carried along.
World Without End (1995)