An Instance of the Fingerpost Quotes

“In my small way, I preserved and catalogued, and dipped into the vast ocean of learning that awaited, knowing all the time that the life of one man was insufficient for even the smallest part of the wonders that lay within. It is cruel that we are granted the desire to know, but denied the time to do so properly. We all die frustrated; it is the greatest lesson we have to learn.”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“The devil himself can become beauty, so we are told, to corrupt mankind."
(Marco)”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“He who profits by villainy, has perpetrated it.”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“I have a theory that too much learning unbalances the mind.”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“The simple fact that something has not been done, is no proof that it cannot be.”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“I had never before spent a night with a woman, had someone lying by my side in the quietness of the dark, hearing her breath and feeling her warmth beside me.
It is a sin, and it is a crime. I say it frankly, for I have been taught so all my life, and only madmen have said otherwise. The Bible says it, the fathers of the church have said it, the prelates now repeat it without end, and all the statues of the land prescribe punishment for what we did that night. Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. It must be so, for the Bible speaks only God’s truth. I sinned against the law, against God’s word reported, I abused my family and exposed them even more to risk of public shame, I again risked permanent exclusion from those rooms and books which were my delight and my whole occupation; yet in all the years that have passed since I have regretted only one thing: that it was but a passing moment, never repeated, for I have never been closer to God, nor felt His love and goodness more.”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“God forbid that I should ever suffer the shame of publishing a book for money, or of having one of my family so demean themselves. How can one tell who might read it? No worthy book has ever been written for gain, I think;”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“Who you are is less important than what you seem.”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“And a more foolish notion can scarcely be imagined, it being obvious that the reader is only informed of what the writer wishes him to know, and is thus seduced into believing almost anything.”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“Emotions are but the tricks of the devil, sent to tempt us into doubt and hesitation, and obscure the deeds committed, whether good or ill.”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“I believe firmly... that science can never contradict true religion, and that if they seem at variance, then that is due to our faulty understanding of one or the other. God gave us the Bible and he gave us nature to show his creation; it is absurd to think he might contradict himself. It is man who fails.”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“It is cruel that we are granted the desire to know, but denied the time to do so properly. We all die frustrated; it is the greatest lesson we have to learn.”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“Shame, I do believe, is the most powerful emotion known to man; most discoveries and journeys of importance have been accomplished because of the ignominy that would be the result if the attempt was abandoned.”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“It was, for the time being, an empty threat, and he must have sensed it also, for he laughed easily and with contempt. “You will do what your masters tell you to do, doctor. As do we all.”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“for dissent presented to them were so great? Only men”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“what I did, not what I felt on the matter: the transience of emotions makes them a sorry waste of time. In the history of man, it is glorious action which provides all matter of significance, and all lessons for posterity. Do”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“I know that the sun exists because I can see it; I believe that the earth goes around it because logical calculation concludes that, and it is not contradicted by what I can see. I know that unicorns exist because such a creature is possible in nature and reliable people have seen one, even though I have not myself”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“We had become inured to the most horrendous of sins, and thought of them as instruments of policy.”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“There is now nothing which more brings home to me the passage of the years than to meet a grown man who does not recall, as his strongest memory, the horror that the news produced”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“men had turned their minds to the passion of faction, and learned to despise the old wisdom because they could not read it afresh.”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“Mr. Milton set out in his great poem to justify the ways of God to men, as he says. He has not considered one question, however: perhaps God has forbidden men to know His ways, for if they did know the full extent of His goodness, and the magnitude of our rejection of it, they would be so disheartened they would abandon all hope of redemption, and die of grief. I”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“The world was full of such madmen in those days. Imprisonment is not the way to deal with such people; half measures merely feed their pride. Leave ’em alone or hang ’em, in my opinion. Or better still, pack them off to the Americas, and let them starve.”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“Although of course I am aware that it changes colour in a jar. But we know why, surely? The heavier melancholic elements in the blood sink, making the top lighter and the bottom darker."
"Not so," I said firmly. "Cover the jar, and the colour does not change. And I can find no explanation of how such separation could occur in the lungs. But when it emerges from the lungs - at least, this is the case in cats - it is very much lighter in colour than when it goes in, indicating that some darkness is withdrawn from it."
"I must cut up a cat and see for myself. A live cat, was it?"
"It was for a while.”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“When an experiment was to begin, all women were excluded for fear their irrational natures would influence the result, and an air of fervent concentration descended.”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“An in experienced traveler would imagine that their land contains the finest buildings, the biggest towns, the richest, best-fed, happiest people in the world.”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost