“Preparing to sacrifice myself to the imbecilic causes of society,” replied Archie, his face like that of the man who discovered hope’s sepulchre. -Beginnings
Their eyes met, and he found no sympathy in the other’s gaze, only a singular earnestness and clarity of understanding. The look was like the statement that followed: “A providential stalemate, I call that. Not that there is nothing to be done about it; rather, you have no excuse for sulking.” -The Brew
“That is a novel idea—if by novel you mean no less than a hundred of them, all written by over-imaginative females and no longer selling well.” -Beginnings
“Peace in small things and small steps - not just patience, girl, but peace. You must seek it not only in the calm in a squall, but also in the soaring wings of the symphony that's meant to light up your ears when all the songs of your life clang like water torture. Not a maelstrom of emotions, nor even refuge from the same in tedium: peace. He gave it to you - entrusted it to you. If you are unhappy, it is because you have buried it when you should be spending it. That bed of dirt beneath which you have hidden it, all your sensations of normalcy and control - that is not peace. Yet peace is yours; you cannot live without it, and you cannot get it without breaking the sod of a well-ordered facade. Are you unhappy? Small wonder! You might as well bury your kidneys and then wonder why you feel wretched." -Unknown
To the solitary man trudging along the dim road, the figures of farmers and herdsmen could be seen slowly plodding from their doors, bringing their wearily blinking lanterns and offspring in tow. -Beginnings
“I do not deny that,” Falcon ran a hand across his face and flung it up in a gesture of surrender. “In my defense, I have always intended strictly—strictly—to avoid taking advantage of the situation, but what of such a defense? Can I deny that by such intentions I have very effectively gone about paving a road to the very hell of hells? I cannot, nor would I. A fool I may be; better a fool than a coward ingrown on a diet of lies.” -The Brew
His schedule he kept meticulous; his living quarters could not have looked more untidy if the four walls were removed and their contents deposited haphazardly in an alley. The person who rented him the room regularly wondered if the latter event might not constitute an improvement. -Beginnings
“How does one know one’s mind in these things?” The words, finding no suitable exit point through ink, burst from his mouth as he flung the pen across the dismal blank page of half-an-hour’s struggle. “I do not mean that I do not know what I want; I know that perfectly well, with maddening specificity. But to know my wants; that is, to know not only what objects they turn towards but also the comparative rightness or wrongness of the same, whether in them I am deceived or perverse – to weigh them in such a balance with accuracy before action – that is another thing.” -The Brew
“You speak very surely of divine whatevers.” -The Brew
And so Archie walked and let the lad ramble on about his girl and his girl’s frightful father and the rigmarole of their courtship. The perpetually plaintive edge to the other’s voice rubbed Archie quite the wrong way, and he began to progress beyond mild irritation to genuine dislike. ‘I shall wring his neck presently if he does not stop for air soon,’ he thought after a desperate quarter of an hour, but his own courtesy and the gradually accumulating lack of breath on Teddy’s part interceded for a peaceful ending, and Archie found himself clapping his unsullied hands together and saying to a thoroughly living Teddy, with a carelessness that betrayed nothing of the relief he felt, “Look, there’s the college church ahead of us. Good old Belleek, I say!” -Beginnings
“It's your damned pride. No, don't flinch; I'm swearing truly, not vainly. You can ignore what I say in a fussy mock-up of scruples over my language, or you can be instructed by it. Your pride is damned - either it was crucified two thousand years ago and you will keep on killing it, or it lives with you and is waiting to be damned with you. Either way, it's your damned pride, and it's got to go. Take it off, with all your frugal morals and petty expectations. They don't suit you now, and they certainly won't wear well in eternity. You must learn to dress for that, you know, and of course it can't be with your own things - that's why the damned Pride has to go.” -Unknown
The only stop where he did not get off was Derby, and that from principle. Derby housed Belleek’s rival college, and while Archie did not care much about the rivalry he was fond of his few irrational scruples, as some men are fond of cigars. So he spent the time on the train with his upturned nose in a third-rate paper, amusing himself with the state of politics among the ignorant. -Beginnings
