Colleen McCullough

“But not we men. We weren't fit to be told. For so you women think, and hug your mysteries, getting your backs on us for the slight God did in not creating you in His image.”

“And gradually his memory slipped a little, as memories do, even those with so much love attached to them; as if there is an unconscious healing process within the mind which mends up in spite of our desperate determination never to forget.”

“Yet there's something ominous about turning sixty-five. Suddenly old age is not a phenomenon which will occur; it has occurred.”

“Twelve thousand miles of it, to the other side of the world. And whether they came home again or not, they would belong neither here, nor there, for they would have lived on two continents and sampled two different ways of life.”

“No creo que el final sea muy feliz. Creo que obtendremos el resultado que se obtiene siempre con la imparcialidad. Nadie nos dará las gracias, y todos nos criticarán.”

“Never forget, Caelius, that a great man makes his luck. Luck is there for everyone to seize. Most of us miss our chances; we're blind to our luck. He never misses a chance because he's never blind to the opportunity of the moment.”

“There's a story... a legend, about a bird that sings just once in its life. From the moment it leaves its nest, it searches for a thorn tree... and never rests until it's found one. And then it sings... more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. And singing, it impales itself on the longest, sharpest thorn. But, as it dies, it rises above its own agony, to outsing the lark and the nightingale. The thorn bird pays its life for just one song, but the whole world stills to listen, and God in his heaven smiles.”

“Ir iš tiesų netrukus tekančio vandens šniokštimas pamažu nustelbė visur aplinkui šlamančius medžius, tyliai kalbančius vieni su kitais alsia, gailia šneka, kokia ramiomis dienomis prabyla eukaliptai.”

“Os nossos filhos e os seus filhos e todas as gerações vindouras têm de ser fortes. Têm de ser educados de molde a terem orgulho dos seus próprios feitos e do seu próprio trabalho árduo; não devem ser educados para descansarem sobre os louros dos pais.”

“We're working-class people, which means we don't get rich or have maids. Be content with what you are and what you have.”

“Oh, that feels good! I don't know who invented ties and then insisted a man was only properly dressed when he wore one, but if I ever meet him, I'll strangle him with his own invention”

“All that appearance business is crap, and I'm not even going to be bothered arguing with you about it.”

“But we, when we put the thorns in our breasts, we know. We understand. And still we do it. Still we do it.”

“For the best is only bought at the cost of great pain.”

“The bird with the thorn in its breast, it follows an immutable law; it is driven by it knows not what to impale itself, and die singing. At the very instant the thorn enters there is no awareness in it of the dying to come; it simply sings and sings until there is not the life left to utter another note. But we, when we put the thorns in our breasts, we know. We understand. And still we do it. Still we do it.”

“Age brought wisdom, but it also brought a genuine gratitude for the happiness of sharing life with someone as much liked as loved.”

“Suddenly the thought that the end of her life was imminent shocked him; it was one thing to pity someone he didn't know, quite another to face the same dilemma with someone he knew intimately. That was the trouble with beds. They turned strangers into intimates more quickly than ten years of polite teas in parlours.”

“The lioness in Rome is quiet. I will not wake her to seek more money.”

“The law should not be a huge and weighty slab which falls upon a man and squashes him into a uniform shape, for men are not uniform.”

“Truly God was good, to make man so blind.”

“If you love people, they kill you. If you need people, they kill you. They do I tell you!”

“Belief doesn't rest on proof or existence...it rests on faith...without faith there is nothing.”

“You just hang onto the thought that every dog has its day, even the bitches”

“Each of us has something within us which won't be denied, even if it makes us scream aloud to die. We are what we are, that's all. Like the old Celtic legend of the bird with the thorn in its breast, singing its heart out and dying. Because it has to, its self-knowledge can't affect or change the outcome, can it? Everyone singing his own little song, convinced it's the most wonderful song the world has ever heard. Don't you see? We create our own thorns, and never stop to count the cost. All we can do is suffer the pain, and tell ourselves it was well worth it.”

“The best thing about being 40 is that you can appreciate 25-year-old men more.”

“Às vezes a distância não conta, pensou, às vezes reduz-se ao silêncio breve que espaça as batidas de um coração.”

“As separações são o que mais custa, Tim! É muito difícil aceitá-las, principalmente quando gostávamos dessa pessoa. A separação significa que depois disso nunca mais somos os mesmos, que perdemos qualquer coisa, uma parte de nós mesmo que nunca mais reencontramos nem pode ser substituída. Mas temos de passar por muitas separações, Tim, porque fazem parte da vida, tal e qual como conhecer pessoas novas.”

“There was some justice in his pain”

“What was sleep? A blessing, a respite from life, an echo of death, a demanding nuisance? ”

“It's not worth getting upset about, Mrs. Dominic. Down in the city they don't know how the other half lives, and they can afford the luxury of doting on their animals as if they were children. Out here it's different. You'll never see man, woman or child in need of help go ignored out here, yet in the city those same people who dote on their pets will completely ignore a cry of help from a human being. ”

“Казваш, че ме обичаш, но нямаш представа какво е любов; само редиш думи, които си научил наизуст, защото ти се струва, че звучат добре”

“There are no ambitions noble enough to justify breaking someone's heart. ”

“..the best is only bought at the cost of great pain...or so says the legend”

“When we press the thorn to our chest we know, we understand, and still we do it.”

“Love and hate are cruel, only liking is kind”

“There is a legend about a bird which sings just once in its life, more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. From the moment it leaves the nest it searches for a thorn tree, and does not rest until it has found one. Then, singing among the savage branches, it impales itself upon the longest, sharpest spine. And, dying, it rises above its own agony to outcarol the lark and the nightingale. One superlative song, existence the price. But the whole world stills to listen, and God in His heaven smiles. For the best is only bought at the cost of great pain… Or so says the legend.”

“...she looked like the sort of woman most men would want to get to know because they weren't sure what went on inside.”

“Best of all she liked his eyes, such a translucent golden brown, and so laughing.”