Sam Small

“Maybe the Man isn't able.' 'I suppose.' She reached over and sighed, turned out the light. 'Always there's one that has to pull the short straw.”
― Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These

“Always it was the same, Furlong thought; always they carried mechanically on without pause, to the next job at hand. What would life be like, he wondered, if they were given time to think and reflect over things? Might their lives be different or much the same - or would they just lose the run of themselves?”
― Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These

“If I had to be like Caesar and Die, I would have been aware of it, an inner voice would have told me, but there hasn't been anything like that on the inside. I've always thought - and my friends have, too - that we're not the same as Caesar. And now look what's happened!' he said to himself. 'It can't be . It can't be, but it is. How can it be? What's it all about.”
― Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych

“But every gasp strips my heart bare. The dying man is the master of these hours, he has an invisible dagger to stab me with: the dagger of time and my thoughts.”
― Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front