Sacred Sins Quotes
"The music from portable radios was, as usual, loud and defiant; hot tracks, the deejays called them, and reported temperatures in the high nineties."
"In the long, lazy last days of summer, the heat wave moving into its second, pitiless week was the biggest story in Washington, D.C."
"Amen," Ben murmured, and let out a long breath.
"Sometimes, when his power was great, he could let them go quickly."
"Leaving her body in the shadows, he walked on, eyes bright with the tears of joy and madness."
"The mind, the heart, and the soul. ‘Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased. Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow. Raze out the written troubles of the brain, and with some sweet oblivious antidote cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff which weighs upon the heart.’"
"I believe in justice, Tess. It's a hell of a lot more than words on paper."
"He needs help, Grandpa. He's screaming for it, but no one can hear him."
"It's always just a guessing game, Tess. You know there are no guarantees, no absolutes."
"Sometimes, only sometimes, when he thought of the mission, he doubted."
"To treat, Ben," she repeated, meeting his eyes. "Not to judge."
"Compassion's part of my business," she said tightly. "He's ill, desperately ill."
"I don't give a damn about his soul or his psyche."
"You bigoted, small-brained, insensitive ass."
"Well, I interpret this little scene differently. As a matter of fact, I was promised my name would never be linked with this investigation."
"Because I was persuaded to believe I could help. If I didn't still think so, I'd tell you to take your case and choke on it."
"You don't know anything about me, my life, or my work."
"Maybe I don't use a gun, but that's just what I'm trying to do. I've spent ten years of my life trying to learn how."
"It's not you. It's the whole business. Makes me feel like I'm walking a very thin wire over a very long drop."
"We can't turn our backs on them or burn them as witches because of a chemical imbalance in the brain."
"You're the one with the sword, Ben, not me. I only have words."
"Nerves shivered through her. Needs twisted with them until they were one and the same."
"There's never been anyone like you. I keep worrying that I'll make the wrong move."
"So far so good. Make love with me, Ben. I've always wanted you to."
"I've wanted you here. I can't tell you how much or how often."
"Here and now were all that mattered. What was outside was removed, distant."
"Those in either profession know they will rarely have a day that begins at nine and ends at five."
"What you're feeling is going to fade. It'll start to fade a little bit after you say it all out loud."
"I loved her. How come I didn't know it until now?"
"We could give them a break, or we can go see the ex-con."
"It isn't death that's to be feared, but damnation."
"There's no blame here, Mr. Monroe. You and your wife are dealing with a situation where there are no easy answers. There is no absolute right or wrong."
"Everyone who knows me, knows me as Reverend Francis X. Moore."
"Sin in its infinite variety. The Ten Commandments were very clear. Thou shalt not kill. Yet we've been warriors since before we could speak."
"The law says that this man has the right to be judged by the system. And usually the system works."
"Fear had no place in her life, Tess reminded herself. Only clear thought and careful analysis."
"Everyday dishes, the ones with the little violets around the edges."
"Restitution. You must make restitution for sin before it can be forgiven and absolved."
"The flowers had depended on the season, but they would always be there, jonquils or roses or mums in the blue porcelain vase that had been her great-grandmother's."
"Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world."
"You make me sick. I can't stand the sight of you with your Italian shoes and little gold pins and that ‘I never sweat’ perfection."
"I'm not perfect, Lydia, none of us is. None of us has to be to earn love and respect."
"The only utilities you know about is the gas bill."
"You're free to go any time. This isn't a prison, Lydia."
"That's psychiatrist shit, answering questions with questions."
"I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I don't care what I have to do."
"More fool me for refusing an evening with the handsome, successful, and excruciatingly boring Dr. Fuller."
"It was a high, exhilarating feeling to walk up here, above the tops of the trees, with the sky so dark above his head."
"She never gave him that quick, sharp look when he walked into the room."
"All you did was talk and talk, week after week just talk. Why didn't you do something?"
"No one could truly understand the measure of joy a mother received from giving birth to a child. No one could truly understand the devastation a mother experienced upon losing one."
"Failure, grief, and anger were so twined together that it made one hard knot of emotion that wedged in her throat; she could taste it."
"Control was often hard won, but never so vital as it seemed to her at that moment."
"The tears were hot on his skin, as if they had burned behind her eyes for too long."
"It was harder, he discovered, unbelievably harder to comfort someone who really mattered."
"The grief was still there, cold and hard in her stomach, but her mind was clearing enough for her to see past her own involvement."
"A man can't exist without faith. A priest can't exist without purpose."
"Every sin, venial or mortal, required penance."
"It hadn't occurred to her until then how tired she was of hothouse flowers and perfect petals."
"Like the forsythia, he was something to see."
"She'd noticed that his body had braced as he'd turned, not so much in surprise, she thought, but in readiness."
"By her calculations, she could put Maxwell to work and have enough carved out to be satisfied before Kathleen returned from Our Lady of Hope."
"Sometimes you had to overlook a couple of bruises and shoot for the goal."
"He knew that face. It was both a matter of business and personality that he never forgot one."
"You've got a feel for police work. It shows in the way you plot a book. Everything works on logic and deduction."
"I'm crazy about cops. Some of my best characters are cops, even the bad ones."
"Grace took another slow sip, then set her glass carefully on the counter. 'I think I'll go for a walk.'"
"But she'd come to help. Somehow, despite both of them, she was going to."
"He was eighteen years old and had made love to women only in his dreams. Tonight his dreams were only of Desiree."