You are eternity's hostage A captive of mine.

Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation's tears in shoulder blades.

And why is it, thought Lara, that my fate is to see everything and take it all so much to heart?

Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.

No single man makes history. History cannot be seen, just as one cannot see grass growing. Wars and revolutions, kings and Robespierres, are history's organic agents, its yeast. But revolutions are made by fanatical men of action with one-track mind, geniuses in their ability to confine themselves to a limited field. They overturn the old order in a few hours or days, the whole upheaval takes a few weeks or at most years, but the fanatical spirit that inspired the upheavals is worshiped for decades thereafter, for centuries.

I used to be very revolutionary, but now I think that nothing can be gained by brute force. People must be drawn to good by goodness.

They don't ask much of you. They only want you to hate the things you love and to love the things you despise.