“The primal sin of those like myself, mes amis, is that because we were once people who acted like beasts, we are forever cursed to be beasts who know they were once men. (“In The Poor Girl Taken By Surprise”)”
“A teacher had once told them that men were either beasts, gentlemen, or beasts masquerading as gentlemen. Might there be a fourth category — gentlemen masquerading as beasts?”
“Who knew what evil lurked in the hearts of men? A copper, that's who. (...)You saw how close men lived to the beast. You realized that people like Carcer were not mad. They were incredibily sane. They were simply men without a shield. They'd looked at the world and realized that all the rules didn't have to apply to them, not if they didn't want them to. They weren't fooled by all the little stories. They shook hands with the beast.”
“We saw so many sad and helpless people. I remember looking at people on the TeeVee from other countries who was all drenched and scared and hungry and even though Mammaloose and I don't have lots of money I never felt like those people and never thought we would look like those people. Now we were the same. We are all the same, I guess, once we are homeless, once what we know is gone.”
“Through God's grace we become those who believe and love. But in faith and love we who were once possessors become beings once more, and as such become those who are about to be, those whom God builds. We are taken away from ourselves to our own best advantage. Just for this reason we are free for the neighbor, free for the service of works.”
“Beast had once informed me that humans were hunters only by luck and because they had opposable thumbs.”