Rafael Sabatini

Mr Pollexfen was at one and the same time right and wrong—a condition much more common than is generally supposed.

He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.

When we know all of whatever it may be, we can never do anything but forgive, madame. That is the profoundest religious truth that was ever written. It contains, in fact, a whole religion—the noblest religion any man could have to guide him.

They opposed brute force to reason and philosophy, and battalions of foreign mercenaries to ideas. As if ideas were to be impaled on bayonets!