Matthew

“Two years!" exclaimed Dantes; "do you really believe I can acquire all these things in so short a time?" "Not their application, certainly, but their principles you may; to learn is not to know; there are the learners and the learned. Memory makes the one, philosophy the other." "But cannot one learn philosophy?" "Philosophy cannot be taught; it is the application of the sciences to truth;”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

“Why can’t Masha see them?” Irina couldn’t help asking. “Masha’s the oldest—” “Because Masha was born to live Masha’s life,” Yaga cut in firmly, “and you were each born to live yours. Some days this will be a blessing. Some days it will be a curse. But every day you are my daughters,” she promised them, “and you are each other’s sisters, and these will be the truths that will always come first.”
― Olivie Blake, One for My Enemy

“A good sportsman, a lively companion, a courteous, well-bred man of the world, with not too much brains to spoil his temper, he was a universal favourite in London drawing-rooms or in the coffee-rooms of village inns.”
― Emmuska Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel

“I told you once that the universe has no center, and thus every point is its center, and it is so. If I have strained you, reader, by my repeated insistence that every action matters, that every moment of every life is the moment, the axis about which all things turn, understand that I say these things because they are true. Every step, every turn, every refusal to step. Everything matters. The cosmos is not cold or indifferent because we are not indifferent, and we are a part of that cosmos, of that grand order which has dropped from the hand of He who created it. Every decision creates its ripples, every moment burns its mark on time, every action leads us ever nearer to that last day, that final last battle and the answer to that last question: Darkness? Or light?”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Ashes of Man