the bells of glory that announced to the world the good news that the uncountable time of eternity had come to an end

Only God knows how much I love you.

If you lie down in a village square hoping to capture a sea gull, you could stay there your whole life without succeeding. But a hundred miles from shore it's different. Sea gulls have a highly developed instinct for self-preservation on land but at sea they're very cocky.

and the two of them loved each other for a long time in silence without making love again.

I plead youth as a mitigating circumstance.

He governed as if he felt predestined to never die

Aureliano not only understood by then, he also lived his brother’s experiences as something of his own, for on one occasion when the latter was explaining in great detail the mechanism of love, he interrupted him to ask: “What does it feel like?” José Arcadio gave an immediate reply: “It’s like an earthquake.