The Luminaries

by Eleanor Catton

a designation that harmed her popularity in some circles, and greatly accented it in others.

What a wretched thing it was, to behold one’s whore exchanging glances with another man!

Reason is no match for desire: when desire is purely and powerfully felt, it becomes a kind of reason of its own.

“Ah: but even to have one good friend, a man should count himself lucky.”

A secret always has a strengthening effect upon a newborn friendship, as does the shared impression that an external figure is to blame:

we see the world as we wish to perfect it, and we imagine dwelling there.

Tauwhare could not respect a man who treated land as though it was just another kind of currency. Land could not be minted! Land could only be lived upon, and loved.

people are rarely contented to end up where they started,”

unrequited love was not possible; that it was not love. He said that love must be freely given, and freely taken, such that the lovers, in joining, make the equal halves of something whole.”

Dawn is such a private hour, don’t you think? Such a solitary hour. One always hears that said of midnight, but I think of midnight as remarkably companionable—everyone together, sleeping in the dark.”

Solitude is a condition best enjoyed in company.”