Ellis Peters Quotes

Truth is a hard master, and costly to serve, but it simplifies all problems.

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

Well, you can fairly claim the day hasn't been wasted,' owned Cadfael generously, 'if something's been learned.

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

The trouble with me, he thought unhappily, is that I have been about the world long enough to know that God's plans for us, however infallibly good, may not take the form we expect and demand.

God, nevertheless, required a little help from men, and what he mostly got was hindrance.

Once, I remember, Father Abbot said that our purpose is justice, and with God lies the privilege of mercy. But even God, when he intends mercy, needs tools to his hand.

I have always known that the best of the Saracens could out-Christian many of us Christians.

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.

Oh, sometimes I like to put the sand of doubt into the oyster of my faith." (Br. Cadfael)

What are wits for unless a man uses them?

Every spring is the only spring, a perpetual astonishment!

Don't reach for the halo too soon. You have plenty of time to enjoy yourself, even a little maliciously sometimes, before you settle down to being a saint.

Innocence is an infinitely fragile thing and thought can sometimes injure, even destroy it. - Pg. 254

If none of us ever fell short, or put a foot astray, everything would be good in this great world, but we stumble and fall, every one. We must deal with what we have." - Cadfael, Pg. 245-6

Men drunk with ambition and power do not ground their weapons, nor stop to recognise the fellow-humanity of those they are about to slay. - Pg. 2

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.

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.

So, wonder! I also wonder about you," said Cadfael mildly. "Do you know any human creatures who are not strangers, one to another?