“To be a saint is the exception; to be a just person is the rule. Err, stumble, commit sin, but be one of the just.”

“To be a saint is the exception; to be an upright man is the rule. Err, fall, sin if you will, but be upright.”

“The saint, we are told, once lived a life of sin -nothing spectacular, of course, just the usual things.”

“It is not human to be wise,’ said Blood. ‘It is much more human to err, though perhaps exceptional to err on the side of mercy.”

“All errors are just ordinary, what extraordinary sin can you commit? All the sins have been committed already. You cannot find a new sin - it is very difficult, it is almost impossible to be original about sin. For millions of years people have committed everything that can be committed. To be thrown in hell for your sins. Now this is too much! you can throw a man into hell for five years, ten years, twenty years, fifty years. If a man has lived for seventy years you can throw him there for seventy years.and that is if you only believe in one life. It is good that they believe in one life.”

“Sin, sin! To rid myself of boredom by committing a crime, to break up monotony by deceiving. To sin in order to be a new person, another person. To hate life worse than it hated me. To sin so as not to die.”