Nicola

“Viewed as a barometer of inner being, the face is seen to produce certain effects in both self and other. By one set of criteria or another, whether ugly or beautiful, the face is seen as both natural and cultivated - and these terms are polyvalent, signifying, respectively, degradation or purity, artifice or grace. To cultivate a beautiful visage is to cultivate sound morals, and thus to be dutiful - which is why Dorian Gray is such [a] powerfully contradictory character. And the face is also and always seen as a barometer of the characteristics of a people, not just of a person - of the lower or higher development of the race.”
― Elaine Stratford

“Men drunk with ambition and power do not ground their weapons, nor stop to recognise the fellow-humanity of those they are about to slay.”
― Ellis Peters, Dead Man's Ransom

“Feeling in control makes most people feel secure and safe. It doesn’t matter how much actual control we have.
Every human is technically a meaningless sack of carbon clinging to a rock hurtling through the uncaring void around trillions of tonnes of nuclear fire, but that’s too big for a single human to be aware of.”
― Dean Burnett, Idiot Brain: What Your Head Is Really Up To

“In happiness or unhappiness, living is a duty, and must be done thoroughly.”
― Ellis Peters, The Rose Rent