Red Seas Under Red Skies

“I say again, impossible.”

“And I correct you again. Difficult. ‘Difficult’ and ‘impossible’ are cousins often mistaken for one another, with very little in common.”

By rights he was still outrunning his age, still ahead of most men nearing threescore years, but he knew deep in his heart that there would never be any way of running fast enough.

“Here's to charming losers, I suppose.“

“If only we knew where to find some.“

I make it a point never to trust men with weapons to my windpipe.

“You needed a bath,“ Jean interrupted. “You were covered in self-pity.“

As for history, we are living in its ruins. And as for biographies, we are living with the consequences of all the decisions ever made in them. I tend not to read them for pleasure. It‘s not unlike carefully scrutinizing the map when one has already reached the destination.

The trouble with creating military dictators, Locke reflected, was getting rid of them after the immediate crisis was past.

It had the expression common to all kittens, that of a tyrant in the becoming.

You’re ten pints of crazy in a one-pint glass.

Time went by with all the speed of a sleepless night.