You have need of learning, children, in order that the whorl will someday have need of you. - Gene Wolfe

Every theory is true in some discipline. The beauty of this is that it carries its own confirmation.

There is no human quality more attractive than the courage of the weak.

Could he have murdered a child?
He decided that he could not, but that he could certainly have been accused of having done it and worse. Anyone these days—any man, particularly—could be accused of anything by anyone.