Status Updates From Warleggan (Poldark, #4)

To retire with dignity is a hard and bitter thing, especially with three men staring after you and no doubt talking behind their hands.

I have spoken as if all of the weakness, all the shortcomings were on his side. Do you think I've not had time enough since to look into my own? What happened, the way it happened, showed me up to myself. Do you know what's it like when your anger and bitterness are so great that you can only hurt yourself -- and go on hurting yourself for ever and ever, it seems, and there's no escape?

She was a person whose looks would always be volatile, but just now they were at a low ebb.

"The good things and the bad things go together in her."

The flaw for them both was that success had been too long in coming.

"When admiration turns to contempt, it is time to go."

The sea was as wild as winter, and between the white lines of breakers was a vivid oily green.

All this life he was living now was an uneasy dream, something from which he still hoped to wake.