“As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man-There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:-That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins"From "The Gods of the Copybook Headings”

“As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn, The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!”

“These are the four that are never content: that have never been filled since the dew began-Jacala's mouth, and the glut of the kite, and the hands of the ape, and the eyes of Man.”

“They believed us and perished for it. Our statecraft, our learningDelivered them bound to the Pit and alive to the burningWhither they mirthfully hastened as jostling for honour -Not since her birth has our Earth seen such worth loosed upon her.Nor was their agony brief, or once only imposed on them.The wounded, the war-spent, the sick received no exemption:Being cured they returned and endured and achieved our redemption,Hopeless themselves of relief, till Death, marvelling, closed on them.That flesh we had nursed from the first in all cleanness was givenTo corruption unveiled and assailed by the malice of Heaven -By the heart-shaking jests of Decay where it lolled on the wires -To be blanched or gay-painted by fumes - to be cindered by fires -To be senselessly tossed and retossed in stale mutilationFrom crater to crater. For this we shall take expiation. But who shall return us the children?”

“Holden found one helpless little hand that closed feebly on his finger. And the clutch ran through his body till it settled about his heart. Till then his sole thought had been for Ameera. He began to realise that there was some one else in the world,...”

“Holden went to his bungalow and began to understand that he was not alone in the world, and also that he was afraid for the sake of another, -- which is the most soul-satisfying fear known to man.”

“There are few things sweeter in this world than the guileless, hotheaded,intemperate, open admiration of a junior. Even a woman inher blindest devotion does not fall into the gait of the man sheadores, tilt her bonnet to the angle at which he wears his hat, orinterlard her speech with his pet oaths.”