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Death in Holy Orders (Adam Dalgliesh, #11) QUOTES

Death in Holy Orders (Adam Dalgliesh, #11) QUOTES

1 " Henry James’s definition of the purpose of a novel: “To help the human heart to know itself. "

― P.D. James , Death in Holy Orders (Adam Dalgliesh, #11)

2 " Had he, during the course of his ministry, changed a single life? He recalled the words of a woman overheard when he was leaving his last parish. 'Father Martin is a priest of whom no one ever speaks ill.' It seemed to him now the most damning of indictments." (p. 243). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. "

― P.D. James , Death in Holy Orders (Adam Dalgliesh, #11)

3 " If you stood apart long enough, weren’t you in danger of stifling, perhaps even losing, that quickening spirit which the priests here would call the soul? "

― P.D. James , Death in Holy Orders (Adam Dalgliesh, #11)

4 " Delightful and sensitive boys have a habit of growing into insensitive and far-from-agreeable men. "

― P.D. James , Death in Holy Orders (Adam Dalgliesh, #11)

5 " What it was he had chiefly gained: a fascination with the complexity of the intellectual bastions which men could construct to withstand the tides of disbelief. His own disbelief had remained unshaken. "

― P.D. James , Death in Holy Orders (Adam Dalgliesh, #11)

6 " The apparent suicide, the certified natural death, the brutal murder - there was a cord which connected them. Its strength might be tenuous and its path convoluted, but when he had traced it, it would lead him to the heart of the mystery. "

― P.D. James , Death in Holy Orders (Adam Dalgliesh, #11)

7 " When secrets are unspoken and unwritten they are lodged safely in the mind, but writing them down seems to let them loose and give them the power to spread like pollen on the air and enter into other minds. "

― P.D. James , Death in Holy Orders (Adam Dalgliesh, #11)

8 " Death is like birth, painful, messy and undignified. Most of the time anyway. "

― P.D. James , Death in Holy Orders (Adam Dalgliesh, #11)

9 " Hospitals take over more than the body; no one exerts power from these narrow functional beds. "

― P.D. James , Death in Holy Orders (Adam Dalgliesh, #11)

10 " us. Is the sacristy door locked, Father?” “Yes. Yes it is. I locked it after me.” “Will you give me the keys, please.” Father Martin fumbled in the pocket of his cloak and handed over a bunch. It took a little time for his shaking fingers to find the right keys. Dalgliesh said again, “I won’t be long. I’ll lock the door behind me. Will you be all right until I come back?” Emma said, “I don’t think Father Martin ought to stay here long.” “He won’t have to.” It should, thought Dalgliesh, take only a matter of minutes to fetch Roger Yarwood. Whichever force took "

― P.D. James , Death in Holy Orders (Adam Dalgliesh, #11)

11 " Maybe we’d do better if we tried to behave more like good animals and less like gods. "

― P.D. James , Death in Holy Orders (Adam Dalgliesh, #11)

12 " I suppose that for the police every relationship, even the most sacred, can be classified. You should hand out a marriage questionnaire, it would save everyone time. Tick the appropriate box: Very happy. Happy. Reasonably happy. A little unhappy. Unhappy. Very unhappy. Murderous. "

― P.D. James , Death in Holy Orders (Adam Dalgliesh, #11)