The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

by Philip Pullman

But when you come out of nowhere yesterday, I had to ask it who you were, or I might not have been safe. I had to. And it said…” She lowered her voice even more. “It said you was a murderer, and I thought, Good, that’s all right, he’s someone I can trust.

“Angel is the name of their office, not of their nature. If you seek the name of their nature, it is spirit; if you seek the name of their office, it is angel; from what they are, spirit, from what they do, angel.”

“seems to me the place you fight cruelty is where you find it, and the place you give help is where you see it needed.

whatever humanness he had left felt the strangest of pleasures: that of offering eager obedience to a stronger power that was wholly right.