Marya

“The men repeatedly request that she play Elgar’s “Nimrod” even though it appears to affect them powerfully. She finds it hard to watch them fight to maintain their composure as the kettledrums roll and the score ascends to its heights. It must cause them something close to agony. Perhaps, she thinks, that is what they require: something that allows them to follow their pain as it rises, in its most beautifully orchestrated form— one that insists on the inevitability of whatever will come, and then releases them, gently, with that knowledge. It is not comfort it gives them, she realizes, but acceptance; not an anaesthetizing of sorrow, but a clear articulation of it,”
― Joanna Quinn, The Whalebone Theatre

“My princess," he said tenderly, "two great powers are on our side: the power of love and the power of arithmetic. Those two are stronger than anything else in the world.”
― E. Nesbit, The Book of Dragons

“You cannot judge the importance of things by the noise they make.”
― James Hilton, Good-Bye, Mr. Chips

“Poldi was about to call again when she was attacked, out of the blue, by a very angry, very large gander. Hissing, with wings extended, it darted out from under the washing on the line and menaced Poldi, who in default of a walking stick, held the bird at bay with a barrage of Bavarian invective.”
― Mario Giordano