«Светила» kitabından alıntılar, sayfa 6

if Nilssen was vain of the impressions he created, it was because he knew that he created them very well.

Moody had no small genius for the art of diplomacy. As a child he had known instinctively that it was always better to tell a partial truth with a willing aspect than to tell a perfect truth in a defensive way. The appearance of co-operation was worth a great deal, if only because it forced a reciprocity, fair met with fair.

Walter Moody was not superstitious, though he derived great enjoyment from the superstitions of others, and he was not easily deceived by impression, though he took great care in designing his own.

‘Oh, come!’ he said. ‘Ease your burden.’

‘It is not a burden to be eased, Mr. Balfour.’

‘My friend, I have never heard of such a thing.’

Certainly whenever he caught his own reflection, in a window box, or in a pane of glass after nightfall, he felt a thrill of satisfaction—but as an engineer might feel, chancing upon a mechanism of his own devising and finding it splendid, flashing, properly oiled and performing exactly as he had predicted it should.

He had, in short, an appearance that betrayed very little about his own character, and an appearance that others were immediately inclined to trust.

Здесь любой может начать все с чистого листа. Создать себя заново. Что это вообще такое - второе "я"? Что значит имя? Его подбираешь, как самородок с земли.

С.740: "...она, сжав зубы, приготовилась к любой судьбе - как встречаешь всем телом порыв ветра".

С. 506: "Нередко случается, что измученная душа вынуждена обратиться к какому-то отдельному затруднению, которое человека совсем не касается; тогда эта вторая проблема оказывается для первой все равно что целительным бальзамом".

По отечеству скучаешь - как не скучать-то? Но возвращаться не возвращаешься.