Execution Dock Quotes

“...perhaps great sins start as simple weakness, and the consistent placing of self before others.”
― Anne Perry, Execution Dock

“Have you ever seen a battlefield?” Monk asked him. “I have, once. I've never known such horror in my life, but Hester knew what to do. Forget your preconceptions, Rathbone; this will be reality.”
― Anne Perry, Execution Dock

“It is not appropriate for ladies to speak too much at table,” she explained. “They should listen, respond appropriately, and ask after interests, welfare, and so on. If a gentleman wishes to talk, and usually they do, you listen as if fascinated, and never ask questions to which you suspect he does not know the answer.”
― Anne Perry, Execution Dock

“Yes, it was. More horrible than I ever want to think of again. But looking away doesn't solve anything,”
― Anne Perry, Execution Dock

“She would not want anyone she cared for to love a false reflection of her. After all, could there be a greater loneliness than that?”
― Anne Perry, Execution Dock

“We all know that things go on we'd sooner not think about, an’ most folk mind their own affairs. But if yer forced ter know, then yer forced ter do summink.”
― Anne Perry, Execution Dock

“Don’ ask me ter explain ‘uman nature, Miss. I in't responsible fer it. But there's some things you can make children do that no adult'd do without lookin’ at yer like yer'd crawled up out o’ the garbage. It in't about love, or even decent appetite, it's about makin’ other people do wot you want ‘em to, an’ tastin’ the power over an’ over like yer can't get enough of it. Sometimes it's about the thrill o’ doin’ something that'd ruin yer if yer was caught, an’ the danger of it makes yer kind o’ drunk. An’ neither of them in't always no respecters o’ persons, if you get my meanin’. Some people need ter be colder an’ ‘ungrier ter think on wot matters.”
― Anne Perry, Execution Dock

“She was portrayed as overemotional, driven by loyalty to her husband and a foolish attachment to a class of child her thwarted maternal instincts had fastened on, and caused her to reach out and cherish, quite inappropriately. But from a woman denied her natural role in society by a misguided devotion to charitable causes, and a certain belligerence that made her unattractive to decent men of her own station, what else could one expect? It should be a lesson to all young ladies of good breeding to remain in the paths that nature and society had set for them. Only then might they expect fulfillment in life. It was immeasurably condescending.”
― Anne Perry, Execution Dock

“I didn't want to talk about my past, and I didn't care about his. For any of us, it's who you are today that matters.”
― Anne Perry, Execution Dock

“there are none as virtuous as those who have never been asked.”
― Anne Perry, Execution Dock

“The time will come when we ourselves are disliked or misunderstood, or strangers, different from our judges in race or class or creed, and if their sense of justice depends upon their passion rather than their morality, who is to speak for us then, or defend our right to the truth?”
― Anne Perry, Execution Dock