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21 " A wheel moved slowly, bearing up into the sky empty carriages shaped like boats. "
― Olivia Manning , The Balkan Trilogy
22 " They left the park by a side gate where a statue of a disgraced politician stood with its head hidden in a linen bag. "
23 " The Pringles had been married less than a week. Though she would have claimed to know about him everything there was to be known, she was now beginning to wonder if she really knew anything. "
24 " She decided he might be an easy acquaintance, but would not be easy to know. "
25 " Looking at Guy, Harriet laughed and said: ‘Freedom is the recognition of necessity. "
26 " He loves to tell that old story of the don who was granted an interview with Napoleon. “No doubt a remarkable fellow,” said the don afterwards, “but anyone can see he’s not a Cambridge man. "
27 " but Castlebar, devoting himself to an old friend, insisted that evening she must have something more festive than her usual glass of white wine: ‘How about a Pimm’s? They do it very nicely here. "
― Olivia Manning , The Levant Trilogy
28 " If Guy had for her the virtue of permanence, she might have the same virtue for him. To have one thing permanent in life as they knew it was as much as they could expect. "
29 " Together they owned the large, flamboyant Doctor Beltado. They might ignore him, they might even despise him, but no one else was going to get him. "
― Olivia Manning , The Sum of Things
30 " If one could not bear the memory of the dead, then they must be shut out of memory. There was no other action anyone could take against the bafflement of grief. "
31 " She does not attach much importance to passing events.’ Harriet laughed. ‘You have only to let them pass and they lose their importance. "
32 " Out in the street again, Harriet attempted philosophy: ‘Wherever one is,’ she said, ‘the only thing certain is that nothing is certain. "
33 " Looking at Sophie's well developed bosom, Harriet felt at a disadvantage. Perhaps Sophie's shape would not last. but it was enviable while it lasted. "
― Olivia Manning , The Great Fortune (Balkan Trilogy #1)
34 " Harriet glanced after her as she went manoeuvering her broad and vigorous backside between the tables, and asked: 'What does Nikko do?' 'Why nothing. He's married to Bella. "
35 " I know,’ said Inchcape indulgently. ‘We’ll have hot ţuică. We’ll celebrate the coming winter. I like to hibernate. I shall devote the next six months to Henry James. "
36 " Truth is a luxury. We can only afford it now and then. "
37 " Reflecting on the process of involvement and disenchantment which was marriage, she thought that one entered it unsuspecting and, unsuspecting, found one was trapped in it. "
38 " He expressed by his action his indifference to money but he was not, Harriet now knew, indifferent to the lack of it. "
39 " Their sense of likeness astonished them. It resembled magic. They felt themselves held in a spellbound condition which they feared to injure. Although she could not pin down any overt point of resemblance, Harriet at times imagined he was the person most like her in the world, her mirror image. "
40 " A man is made by his circumstances... If you want to change him, change his circumstances. "