The Winter Soldier Quotes

“It was only when it came time for bathing that he left again. He could touch her forehead, auscultate her lungs, he could bear the weight of her breast against his hand as he listened to her heart. But bathe her as she had bathed the soldiers? When he had once touched the rim of his canteen just to feel where she had pressed her lips? No: once in her ravings, her shirt had lifted to reveal her navel, her iliac crest, a little curl of hair above the symphysis, and Lucius had frozen, unable to look away. No, the thoughts of undressing her, the complex mix of fear and yearning, were too much for him to bear. But she was burning up. Better Zmudowski, uxorious philatelist, responsible paterfamilias. Lucius stood outside the door and watched the sparrows, listening to the slosh of water, the squish of sponge. Day three: the fever broke. The wound looked better, less purulent, its color less exuberant. He felt himself buoyed, only to touch her head two hours later and sink. The mercury reached the highest notches on the glass. This was worse, he thought—it meant the infection was within, unseen, a witch’s hex.”
― Daniel Mason, The Winter Soldier

“One should not grow attached to other people, Doctor,” said Margarete, when he came to the door, and he didn’t know if she was speaking for him or for herself. Her eyes were red, and he wanted to comfort her, but he couldn’t think of what to say. He had thought he was inured to death by then, even prided himself on the calmness with which he absorbed the news of the most recent passing. He who had once stared in shock at the frozen soldier without a jaw. But the great Rzedzian’s body seemed horribly small, the stiffening fingers too familiar, and the way his lip drew back over his teeth reminded him of the corpse of an animal.”
― Daniel Mason, The Winter Soldier

“In comparison to the church, with its constant clamor, the huts had the hushed, sacred air of deathbed scenes, the light barely illuminating the pallid faces of the soldiers, the village women moving slowly in their dark shawls, their children sitting in transfixed vigil by the beds. For these, Margarete always had a crust of bread, a piece of carrot. Sometimes Lucius entertained them by showing them his father’s hand shadows, other times by letting them listen to their hearts. Their wide eyes grew wider with the cold bell of the stethoscope, not seeming to understand what they were hearing, but astonished nonetheless. Manifestly, he did this out of kindness, or a sort of effort at improving relations, though in truth there was something fortifying in the chance to touch skin without gangrene, without fever, the bodies without a wound.”
― Daniel Mason, The Winter Soldier

“Yes, Doctor, we remember her. She went to Kraków. No, she went to Jaroslaw. No, to Sambor. So to Stryj. She was from the mountains, Doctor, wasn't she? She was going home, she said.

Perhaps if you go there, they will know.

And on. And he would continue, a ghost searching for its flesh.”
― Daniel Mason, The Winter Soldier

“he had committed one of the great sins of medicine, choosing to work a miracle over the mundane duty not to harm.”
― Daniel Mason, The Winter Soldier

“I can’t,” he said. “I have an oath. To do no harm.”
― Daniel Mason, The Winter Soldier

“For if the Beast truly wished to try that man’s faith, he would have given him a field dressing in Galicia.”
― Daniel Mason, The Winter Soldier

“He now understood why one might die for someone else. It wasn’t mercy; it was torture to remain.”
― Daniel Mason, The Winter Soldier

“To speak of life before she joined her order would violate her vows, she said, fixing her grey eyes on his. What mattered was her holy service now.”
― Daniel Mason, The Winter Soldier

“If you don’t mind some personal advice, between countrymen. Save yourself. Genius favors the young. You are running out of time.”
― Daniel Mason, The Winter Soldier

“Carpathians called Lemnowice. On the map”
― Daniel Mason, The Winter Soldier