History, which interprets the past to understand the present and confront the future is the least rewarding discipline for a dying species.

Feel, he told himself, feel, feel, feel. Even if what you feel is pain, only let yourself feel.

All these problems [deciding cases] are easier for people who believe in God. Those of us who don't or can't have to do the best we can. That's what the law is, the best we can do. Human justice is imperfect, but it's the only justice we have.

If you are proposing to commit a sin it is as well to commit it with intelligence. Otherwise you are insulting God as well as defying Him, don't you think?

We live in a society which salves its conscience more by helping the interestingly unfortunate than the dull deserving.

Daniel supposed he had a secret life. Most people did; it was hardly possible to live without one.

Murder is the unique crime, the only one for which we can never make reparation to the victim.