The Perilous Gard Quotes

“I never thought of it like that. I always thought of you as a part of me, like my own eyes or my own hands. You don't go around thinking 'I love my eyes, I love my hands', do you? But think what it would be like to live without your eyes or your hands. To be mad, or to be blind. I can't talk about it. It's how I feel.”
― Elizabeth Marie Pope, The Perilous Gard

“I've never thought of you like that,' said Christopher. 'How could I? If you were any other woman, I could tell you I loved you, easily enough, but not you-- because you've always seemed to me like a part of myself, and it would be like saying I loved my own eyes or my own mind. But have you ever thought of what it would be to have to live without your mind or your eyes, Kate? To be mad? Or blind?”
― Elizabeth Marie Pope, The Perilous Gard

“I — I mean," Kate stumbled on, "that with us there is a time past and time present, and time future, and with your gods perhaps there is time forever; but God in Himself has the whole of it, all times at once. It would be true to say that He came into our world and died here, in a time and a place; but it would also be true to say that in His eternity it is always That Place and That Time — here — and at this moment — and the power He had then, He can give to us now, as much as He did to those who saw and touched Him when He was alive on the earth.”
― Elizabeth Marie Pope, The Perilous Gard

“I think the damned souls in hell must spend half their time wondering what it was that they really meant to do.”
― Elizabeth Marie Pope, The Perilous Gard

“There was a moment's silence;and then to her bewilderment, Christopher suddenly went into one of his wild gusts of laughter. "F-f-fifty shillings?" he gasped " Oh Kate! Here I am the king at his death time , and you won't even let me spen fifty shillings!”
― Elizabeth Marie Pope, The Perilous Gard

“Just answer me this, will you? You said you were going to dispose of me. How are you planning to do it?"
Master John finished the last thin delicious slice of his pear in a leisurely manner.
"I can't tell you," he replied. "That isn't altogether for me to decide. There are various ways to dispose of you. Some you may have thought of already. Others will no doubt occur to you.”
― Elizabeth Marie Pope, The Perilous Gard

“You don't know you're wrong."
"And I don't know I'm right either. That's what the matter is. Neither of us knows. I'd only be gambling on my own convictions, and — and it isn't even my own money I'd be playing games with, if you want to put it that way. ”
― Elizabeth Marie Pope, The Perilous Gard

“God?" said Kate, revolted. "You don't look like any god to me, Christopher Heron! You look like a piece of gilded gingerbread, that's what you look like, one of those cakes they sell at a fair!”
― Elizabeth Marie Pope, The Perilous Gard

“Look at you! Geoffrey says that all I did this afternoon was stand there and gawk at you like a mooncalf from the minute I walked into the hall! It was you who weren't looking at me. Everyone else could see it plainly enough.”
― Elizabeth Marie Pope, The Perilous Gard

“Happy!" retorted Christopher. "What would you do if you met your best friend in hell? Say you were happy to know he was there, too, and isn't the pitch hot?”
― Elizabeth Marie Pope, The Perilous Gard

“She had often heard her father quote that proverb; he said it was invented by fools to save them the trouble of thinking. " 'Don't meddle in what you can't mend!' " he would growl at her. "And how do you know it's past mending? There'll be time enough not to meddle after you've looked into the matter. At least you could try to satisfy your mind first.”
― Elizabeth Marie Pope, The Perilous Gard

“I'm not saying they're gods or anything of the kind. It's that we don't know how their minds work. We can't judge them by ourselves.”
― Elizabeth Marie Pope, The Perilous Gard