The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3)

by Philip Pullman

“Oh, I find whatever you do a source of perpetual fascination.

Dust is only a name for what happens when matter begins to understand itself.

“The intentions of a tool are what it does.

She’s innocent, and she loves easily.

and in the certainty of his movements the little spies began to see some quality that muffled their scorn.

“But if you must and you can, then there’s no excuse.”

We intend to be free citizens of the republic of heaven.”

O that it were possible we might But hold some two days’ conference with the dead John Webster

“thank you, good evening, we’re very pleased to be here. And like I said, we’re sorry to have arrived without any death, if that’s the normal way of things.

we have to build the republic of heaven where we are, because for us there is no elsewhere.

Lyra, child, you rest when this is done, you hear? Life is good, and death is over…”

There was a strange sound, like the murmur and crackle you hear before you realize that what you’re hearing is your house on fire.

However, riders of horses are usually in control, and the children soon found that they were not: the reins and the stirrups were there simply to give them something to hold on to and balance with. The creatures themselves made all the decisions.

The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that’s all.”

Being in love was like China: you knew it was there, and no doubt it was very interesting, and some people went there, but I never would. I’d spend all my life without ever going to China, but it wouldn’t matter, because there was all the rest of the world to visit.

And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are.

She said that all the history of human life has been a struggle between wisdom and stupidity. She and the rebel angels, the followers of wisdom, have always tried to open minds; the Authority and his churches have always tried to keep them closed.

her expression was so serious and absorbed that Will could have fallen in love with her again if love didn’t already possess every fibre of his being.

What is worth having is worth working for.