Sean Russell

"The carriage, Tristam realized, was becoming the metaphor for this period of his life: he neither owned, drove, nor directed one in any way but was simply carried along."

"“Never,” he said firmly, “be intimidated by a person because of the size of house in which they were born."

"It was difficult to believe these things had taken place such a very long time ago. The events seemed distant, as though he had only read about them and not experienced them at all. He knew that at th…"

"I do not want to end up like Stern, Tristam thought: the dutiful servant, silently chewing his resentment, hoping, pitifully, that his sacrifice would one day be rewarded."

"Man, he suspected, had a particular genius for complicating things, for creating social hurdles that one must leap or be thought lacking."

"“One of the lessons of age,” he said softly. “Do not waste what time you have in regret."

"Ironically, or so it seemed to Tristam, the day was perfect and the green countryside rolled past in ordered tranquillity, the death of a single man having shockingly little impact on the larger world…"

"The only thing of which we can be sure—time passes—everything else is vanity."