“Because God and the devil could be one and the same thing, and everybody understood it in his own way.”

“...the miser is counting his gold pieces, unaware of Death, who holds two clear symbols: an hourglass and a pitchfork.""Why a pitchfork and not a scythe?""Because Death reaps but the Devil harvests”

“He was laughing under his breath, like a cruel wolf, as he leaned over to light his last cigarette. Books play that kind of trick, he thought. And everyone gets the devil he deserves.”

“Everyone gets the devil he deserves.”

“It was one of Diego Alatriste's virtues that he could make friends in Hell.”

“He who kills from afar knows nothing at all about act of killing. He who kills from afar derives no lesson from life or from death; he neither risks nor stains his hands with blood, nor hears the breathing of his adversary, nor reads the fear, courage, or indifference in his eyes. He who kills from afar tests neither his arm, his heart, nor his conscience, nor does he create ghosts that will later haunt him every single night for the rest of his life. He who kills from afar is a knave who commends to others the dirty and terrible task that is his own.”

“...the problem with words is that once spoken, they cannot find their way back to the speaker alone.”