ELLIS PETERS

Every spring is the only spring, a perpetual astonishment.

Nothing is more pleasing and engaging than the sense of having conferred benefits. Not even the gratification of receiving them.

Truth, like the burgeoning of a bulb under the soil, however deeply sown, will make its way to the light.

It takes a lot to wound a man without illusions.

There is in the end no remedy but truth. It is the one course that cannot be evil.

Truth can be costly, but in the end it never falls short of value for the price paid.

I go to Prague every year if I can, value my relationships there like gold, and feel myself in a sense Czech, with all their hopes and needs. They are a people I not only love, but admire.

To have faith in Divine protection is good, but even beter if backed by the pratical assistance heaven has a right to expect from sensible mortals.

Death, after all, is the common expectation from birth. Neither heroes nor cowards can escape it.

There is no one who cannot be hated, against whatever odds. Nor anyone who cannot be loved, against all reason.

They sell courage of a sort in the taverns. And another sort, though not for sale, a man can find in the confessional. Try the alehouses and the churches, Hugh. In either a man can be quiet and think.

Brother Cadfael knew better than to be in a hurry, where souls were concerned. There was plenty of elbow-room in eternity.

Of all the reports that fly about the world, ill news is the surest of all to arrive!

In the end there is nothing to be done but to state clearly what has been done, without shame or regret, and say: Here I am, and this is what I am. Now deal with me as you see fit. That is your right. Mine is to stand by the act, and pay the price. You do what you must do, and pay for it. So in the end all things are simple.

Integrity expects integrity.

Too much trust is folly, in an imperfect world.

the success of a holiday depends on what you find for yourself on the spot, not what you bring with you.

Bitter though it may be to many, Cadfael concluded, there is no substitute for truth, in this or any case.

One century's saint is the next century's heretic ... and one century's heretic is the next century's saint. It is as well to think long and calmly before affixing either name to any man.

A man must be prepared to face life, as well as death, there's no escape from either.

The mountains of today are the molehills of tomorrow.

All the things of the wild have their proper uses. Only misuse makes them evil.

Every man has within him only one life and one nature ... It behooves a man to look within himself and turn to the best dedication possible those endowments he has from his Maker. You do no wrong in questioning what once you held to be right for you, if now it has come to seem wrong. Put away all thought of being bound. We do not want you bound. No one who is not free can give freely.

Only people who're positive enough to have friends have enemies. When you're as glum and morose as he was, people just give up and go away.

as roads go, the road home is as good as any.