...you know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you're cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism. - William Somerset Maugham

It looked as though the people we thought we knew best carried secrets that they didn't even know themselves. Charley had a sudden inkling that human beings were infinitely mysterious. The fact was that you knew nothing about anybody.

Conscience is the guardian in the individual of the rules which the community has evolved for its own preservation.

"It's dreadful, isn't it?"
"What? Death?"
"Yes. It makes everything else seem so horribly trivial. He doesn't look human. When you look at him you can hardly persuade yourself that he's ever been alive. It's hard to think that not so very many years ago he was just a little boy tearing down the hill and flying a kite."