Bitter though it may be to many, Cadfael concluded, there is no substitute for truth, in this or any case.

Truth is a hard master, and costly to serve, but it simplifies all problems.

Only people who're positive enough to have friends have enemies. When you're as glum and morose as he was, people just give up and go away.

I go to Prague every year if I can, value my relationships there like gold, and feel myself in a sense Czech, with all their hopes and needs. They are a people I not only love, but admire.

The voices of cold reason were talking, as usual, to deaf ears.

It takes a lot to wound a man without illusions.

Truth, like the burgeoning of a bulb under the soil, however deeply sown, will make its way to the light.