Bellman & Black Quotes
"I have heard it said, by those that cannot possibly know, that in the final moments of a man’s existence he sees his whole life pass before his eyes."
"Every yard run made them faster, every upper branch attained won them a broader horizon."
"He knew certainty, and the missile was released."
"A sentiment he had never suspected the existence of bloomed in him."
"It traveled from his chest along his veins to every limb."
"The universe was still. Only the stone moved."
"William applied his ten-year-old genius and power to the greatest feat he had ever attempted: forgetting."
"Every minute and every day they measured themselves against the world and each other."
"His eye was good, his hand steady. He practiced a lot."
"The stone completed its journey. The black bird fell."
"The boys stared in puzzlement at the empty branch."
"He felt something move in his chest, as though an organ had been removed and something unfamiliar left in its place."
"This was color that did not behave as color should. It shifted and shimmered, alive with vividness."
"She raised an arm to hail her son, widening her smile."
"He knew how to speak to the men or the customers."
"Sometimes just the touch of the calfskin cover was enough to hold it at bay while he armored himself with work."
"He lived in fear of idleness, sought out tasks to fill every chink and every nook of his waking day."
"He proceeded through life as though he had learned the ground beneath his feet was mined and at any step his footing might give way beneath him."
"Poll greeted him and poured a jug of cider without a reference to either the old days or the new one."
"The cider obscured the sharper details of his grief, without denting the fearfulness of its bleakness."
"At a certain point of drunkenness William understood a good many things that had evaded him previously."
"His happiness and his success, which he had taken to be solid things, hewn out of his own effort and talent, had proved as fragile as a dandelion clock."
"All these years he had believed in his own power, not once recognizing the presence of the vast rival who could crush him in a day, if it once chose to."
"Home, William Bellman. It is not a good place but it is the only place. Go there."
"All his adult life he had lived with a purpose. His every minute had been actively spent with some object in mind."
"There was a part of Bellman’s mind that functioned automatically to solve problems."
"The mind machine worked on and on. Its proposals grew more and more desperate."
"Here was a new project: how to switch off his mind?"
"He came to the tree and stood beneath it. This was the right place to be. He felt it."
"All he needed was some rope—and he knew where to get it!"
"The stranger’s eye lingered for a moment on the rope that William was carrying."
"‘What I see here, in front of me,’—he took a deep breath, as though drawing on a particularly expensive and exotic cigar, and exhaled it with relish—‘is an opportunity.’"
"The future wanted only his touch to stir it into life."
"Every era has its own ways, eh? Who knows what will come next, eh?"
"Never let time be your master. If you want to do something, take it on. Time will always make itself."
"He did not smile—on the shop floor of Bellman & Black? Whatever next!—but he felt a smile."
"The mighty and the meek, the rich and the poor, were equal when faced with death: all dabbed their eyes and thought of Bellman & Black."
"Bellman chuckled. He had every reason to be pleased."
"All London would be asleep while the two great men of commerce sat here in this office and fathomed the mysteries of the world."
"Camaraderie. Understanding. Companionship to cherish. How he was looking forward to meeting Black again."
"The day would come. It was all in Black’s hands; there was nothing he, Bellman, could do about it, no matter how heartfelt his longing."
"Sentimentality wouldn’t put money in the bank."
"The more I have to do, the more time I have to do it. I discovered that a long time ago."
"Time passes more quickly for the man who lies abed than for the busy man."
"A funeral is a funeral whatever the method. The desire for ritual will never change."
"Still the angel stars are shining, still the rippling waters flow, but the angel-voice is silent that I heard so long ago."
"We don’t pay for the household bread. And we have the bakery’s delivery cart for expeditions on Sundays."
"I am your banker and one who has known you these last ten years and has your best interests at heart."
"What succor, what consolation is there in truth, compared to a story? What good is truth, at midnight, in the dark, when the wind is roaring like a bear in the chimney?"
"A good story is always more dazzling than a broken piece of truth."
"Tell me the truth, he said. I felt a strange sensation inside. Like the past coming to life."
"All right, I said. An hour later he was gone. A faint, absentminded good-bye and no backward glance."