" Who can give more heat to the fire, or joy to heaven, or pain to hell? A ring upon a nun is like a ring in a sow’s nose. Your best friend is still alive. Who is that? You. The sun is none the worse for shining on a dunghill. He must needs swim that is borne up to the chin. An hour’s cold will suck out seven years of heat. "

― Peter Ackroyd , Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors (The History of England, #1)