Quotes
Guilt is the hilt of the knife that we use on ourselves, and love is often the blade; but it's worry that keeps the knife sharp, and worry that gets most of us, in the end.
Each of us is guilty by the fact that he lives.
I don't know why I killed her, I didn't know then and I don't know now. And I don't know how to live with it.
How shall the murdered man convince his assassin he will not haunt him.
p. 79
Our guilt has its uses. It justifies much in the lives of others.
Age carries with it a double load of guilt,
p. 69
He no longer accused himself; he knew then that no one could be blamed for being inadequate in the face of such unanswerable malevolence. Destruction was easier than preservation, and when destruction had risen high enough, mere men and women could not be condemned if they failed to throw back the tide.
p. 229
The notion that we can transfer our guilt and sufferings to some other being who will bear them for us is familiar to the savage mind. It arises from a very obvious confusion between the physical and the mental, between the material and the immaterial.
Don’t waste your time on penitence or guilt. Solving the problem is better!
p. 338
They haven’t learned that being penitent sometimes does no good at all.
p. 374
Naroin stopped, shook her head. “Take it from an experienced hand, child. It’s no good blamin’ yourself for what you couldn’t prevent. Not so long as you tried.”
Maia’s lips pressed together. That was exactly what she had been telling herself. From the look in Naroin’s eyes, it didn’t get much more believable as you got older.
p. 514
You may prate of your prowess in lusty times,
But as years gnaw inward you blink your bays,
And see too well your crimes!
