Oxford is the one place in Europe where a man may do anything, however eccentric, and arouse no interest or emotion at all

Oxford is the one place in Europe where a man may do anything, however eccentric, and arouse no interest or emotion at all. In what other city, Cadogan asked himself, remembering his undergraduate days, could one address to a policeman a discourse on epistemology in the witching hours of the night, and be received with neither indignation nor suspicion?

E. Crispin, The Moving Toyshop (1946), 9

Unalienated heirs of bronze-sworded chariot lords from beyond the Ister

Father and son exchanged looks, in a moment of perfect harmony; unalienated heirs of bronze-sworded chariot lords from beyond the Ister, who had led their tribes down in past millennia, some driving further to seize the southlands and learn their ways, some taking these mountain kingdoms where they kept old customs on; burying their dead in chamber-tombs alongside their forebears whose skulls were cased in boar-tusk helms and whose hand-bones grasped double axes; handing down, father to son, elaborate niceties of blood-feud and revenge. Affront had been requited, on a man immune from the sword and in any case beneath its dignity; with finesse, in terms cut to his measure. It had been as neat, in its way, as the vengeance in the hall at Aigai.

M. Renault, Fire from Heaven (1969), loc. 1,753

She was dismissive of any notion that people in the past were essentially just like those of the present

She was dismissive of any notion that people in the past were essentially just like those of the present. ‘To pretend so,’ she declared forthrightly, ‘is an evasion and a betrayal, turning our back on them so as to be easy among familiar things.’ It was precisely the contrast between antiquity and the world of her upbringing, which felt as vivid to her as that between an Aegean summer and the drizzle of an English February, which helps to explain her passion for Alexander.

Tom Holland, 'Introduction', M. Renault, Fire from Heaven (1969), loc. 87

Because evil is better organised, better equipped and better paid.

‘You know why the battle of good vs evil is so one-sided, Malin? Because evil is better organised, better equipped and better paid. It is not monsters or yakas or demons we should fear. Organised collectives of evil doers who think they are performing the work of the righteous. That is what should make us shudder.’

S. Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (2022), loc. 4,694 

Like any gathering of crashing bores talking shop, these suicides are talking about suicide

Like any gathering of crashing bores talking shop, these suicides are talking about suicide. ‘Why is Sri Lanka number one in suicides?’ asks the girl, peering through thick glasses. Are we that much more sadder or violent than the rest of the world?’ ‘Who the fuck cares?’ says the hunched figure, as a lady in pigtails does her high jump over the edge. ‘It’s because we have just the right amount of education to understand that the world is cruel,’ says the schoolgirl. ‘And just enough corruption and inequality to feel powerless against it.’ ‘And we have easy access to weedkiller,’ says the hunchback.

S. Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (2022), loc. 3,938

Known as the Uncle Nephew Party. In power since the late ’70s and embroiled in the above two wars.

LTTE – The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam 

* Want a separate Tamil state. 

* Prepared to slaughter Tamil civilians and moderates to achieve this. 

JVP – The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna 

* Want to overthrow the capitalist state. 

* Are willing to murder the working class while they liberate them. 

UNP – The United National Party 

* Known as the Uncle Nephew Party. 

* In power since the late ’70s and embroiled in the above two wars. 

STF – The Special Task Force 

* On behalf of the Govt, will abduct and torture anyone suspected of being or abetting the LTTE or the JVP.

S. Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (2022), loc. 348

The horror that was lynching was called life by Black America

White woman in Mississippi claimed that a fourteen-year-old Black boy had said something suggestive to her, and then her husband and brother beat the boy, wrapped barbed wire around his neck, shot him in the head, and threw him over the bridge into the Little Tallahatchie. The image of the boy in his open casket awakened the nation to the horror of lynching. At least the White nation. The horror that was lynching was called life by Black America. The killers, Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam, were acquitted by an all-White jury.

P. Everett, The Trees (2022), loc 954