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A Mixture of Madness (The Bow of Heaven, #2) QUOTES

A Mixture of Madness (The Bow of Heaven, #2) QUOTES

1 " Children—their untroubled, idyllic vision of the future is almost always shattered. Sooner or later they learn what all youth must—that life is the cruel fate that awaits them while they make plans for a tomorrow that will never be. "

― Andrew Levkoff , A Mixture of Madness (The Bow of Heaven, #2)

2 " Strange, is it not, how even those of us who scoff at divine intervention will fall to our knees and clasp our hands the moment we realize our futures are defined by uncertainty and hazard. A thoughtful man would never leave his knees. A wise man would never drop to them. In any case, it wasn’t really a prayer, but one does like to follow convention now and then. "

― Andrew Levkoff , A Mixture of Madness (The Bow of Heaven, #2)

3 " He wore the memory of her embrace like armor, and though he knew it would not save his life, it would be all that was left to him to ease his passage into whatever lay beyond. "

― Andrew Levkoff , A Mixture of Madness (The Bow of Heaven, #2)

4 " Since my arrival in Rome, I have had many opportunities to wonder if compassion’s opposite is cruelty, or to reflect whether or not indifference would serve as a better black to its white. "

― Andrew Levkoff , A Mixture of Madness (The Bow of Heaven, #2)

5 " We would soon be on our way to war, where mercy is unwise and kindness has no place. "

― Andrew Levkoff , A Mixture of Madness (The Bow of Heaven, #2)

6 " Why can’t I remember that not once have I ever seen a coin, whether grimy copper or bright gold, that had but one side. "

― Andrew Levkoff , A Mixture of Madness (The Bow of Heaven, #2)

7 " One has to be at least as ancient as I am now to see that if you try to make sense of life, if you look for patterns and meaning, not only are you bound to be disappointed, you are likely to waste a good deal of precious time. "

― Andrew Levkoff , A Mixture of Madness (The Bow of Heaven, #2)

8 " They say in moments of great fear or desperation, a man will always make a choice—either to flee or face his enemy, but choice requires thought, and in the moment when you know for certain that death is stalking you with strides you cannot outrun, there is no time for thought. You do not choose. Like Betto, or Malchus, or Valens, you act, doing either one thing or the other. "

― Andrew Levkoff , A Mixture of Madness (The Bow of Heaven, #2)

9 " Ignorance is an underrated virtue, my lord. "

― Andrew Levkoff , A Mixture of Madness (The Bow of Heaven, #2)

10 " I think about that centurion from time to time and wonder, had he retired to a farm in Campagna, happy with his harvest of grapes and grandchildren, or had he fallen amongst his comrades on some distant, ruined field, defending the honor and the ever-expanding borders of the Republic? What we foreigners have failed to comprehend over the centuries is that the proud centurion would have found either fate equally satisfying. This is why Rome grows, and the rest of the world shrinks. "

― Andrew Levkoff , A Mixture of Madness (The Bow of Heaven, #2)

11 " Pride costs nothing, yet it is especially precious when it can be “purchased” at someone else’s expense. "

― Andrew Levkoff , A Mixture of Madness (The Bow of Heaven, #2)

12 " Yes, I have a romantic nature; it is a character flaw which should be viewed with pity, not derision. "

― Andrew Levkoff , A Mixture of Madness (The Bow of Heaven, #2)

13 " It is a terrible thing to witness death by violence, a thousand times worse to hold a man’s life in your own hands and to willingly, consciously take it from him. Acknowledged or not, something noble has been scoured from your insides, never to be replaced. You saved a friend’s life, and there lies ample justification. But never peace, never balance, never the same. At least that is how it seems to me. "

― Andrew Levkoff , A Mixture of Madness (The Bow of Heaven, #2)

14 " Some men simply refuse to appear insulted. But then, having felt the sting from the slap on their cheek, know just where to slip the knife, their smile never fading. "

― Andrew Levkoff , A Mixture of Madness (The Bow of Heaven, #2)

15 " I advise, however, moderation in this task of setting goals, or else risk becoming tangled up in a Gordian knot of life’s many disappointments. "

― Andrew Levkoff , A Mixture of Madness (The Bow of Heaven, #2)

16 " Oh, the unintended consequences of perfidy! "

― Andrew Levkoff , A Mixture of Madness (The Bow of Heaven, #2)

17 " When I asked him how this cramping might affect his sword arm, he assured me it was only the narrow grip of the writing instruments that troubled him.
“If we fought with pens,” he said, “I would be forced to fall upon mine. "

― Andrew Levkoff , A Mixture of Madness (The Bow of Heaven, #2)

18 " Why must there always be a price to pay for every indulgence, and why must it so often be withdrawn from the bankrupt accounts of the innocent? "

― Andrew Levkoff , A Mixture of Madness (The Bow of Heaven, #2)

19 " You Romans wash too much to be true men. Washing is for women, to clean our breeches and our vests. And even they barely let their toes touch the stream! Hah! "

― Andrew Levkoff , A Mixture of Madness (The Bow of Heaven, #2)

20 " We often find ourselves at ease with that with which we are most familiar, regardless of whether or not the trait serves us well in the end. Is that not yet another example of how we enslave ourselves? "

― Andrew Levkoff , A Mixture of Madness (The Bow of Heaven, #2)