The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

by Philip Pullman

Was there only one world after all, which spent its time dreaming of others?

she sobbed so passionately he thought that hearts really did break, and hers was breaking now,

danger could look friendly, and treachery smiled and smelled sweet;

“I don’t want—” he began, but Giacomo Paradisi shook his head. “Be silent! You don’t want—you don’t want…you have no choice!

Want vs. ought - duty

You become the tip of the knife.

Philip Pullman's pen.

it was right of Pantalaimon to do what he’d done, though it had felt so strange to her.

Intercession.

Feel for the edge as you felt with the knife to begin with. You won’t find it unless you put your soul into your fingertips.

closing story lines

We thought we knew about bonds. We thought a bond was something negotiable, something that could be bought and sold and exchanged and converted…. But about these bonds, we were wrong. We undid them, and we let the Specters in.”

Oblation Board and the Specters of Indifference are bewitched by this truth about human beings: that innocence is different from experience.

Then she was pressing her little proud broken self against his face, as close as she could get, and then they died.

“There are two great powers,” the man said, “and they’ve been fighting since time began. Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit.

There is only one power, the other is a usurper using his gift ungratefully. Knowledge beyond, without, or in spite of humility is selfish pride.

“You think things have to be possible? Things have to be true!