Joy

“There is a method for it: ten men are required. The sergeant surgeon with his instrument; the sergeant of the wood-yard with mallet and block. The master cook, who brings the butcher's knife; the sergeant of the larder, who knows how meat should be cut; the sergeant ferrer with irons to sear the wound; the yeoman from the chandlery, with waxed cloths; the yeoman of the scullery with a dish of coals to heat the searing iron, a chafing dish to cool them; the sergeant of the cellar with wine and ale; the sergeant of the ewery with basin and towels. And the sergeant of the poultry, with a cock, its legs strung, struggling and squawking as he holds it against the block and strikes off its head.
When the fowl has been sacrificed the right arm of the offender is bared. His forearm is laid down. The butcher fits the blade to the joint. A prayer is said. Then the sword hand is severed, the veins are seared, and the body of the collapsed offender is rolled onto a cloth and carried away.”
― Hilary Mantel, The Mirror & the Light

“I was thinking that if there really were a God, He shouldn't be prayed to, but punched in the nose for everything He had contrived. Only there was no God. It was all done by people.”
― Kuznetsov

“Every war makes other wars more likely.”
― Rose Macaulay, What Not: A Prophetic Comedy

“Hitler was crushed but fascism was not.”
― kuznetsov a