‘It’s in the past, boy. You’ve been to the edge, and looked in the pit. Now you can either be stronger or weaker. It’s a choice – but it’s your choice. In life a man has to learn to be strong in the broken places.‘
– The Deacon, to Dr Meredith, Bloodstone
‘Nothing that lives is without fear. It is a gift against recklessness, a servant against complacency in the face of danger. But like all servants it makes a bad master. Fear is a small fire in the belly to warm a man in the coldness of conflict. Let loose, it becomes an inferno within the walls which no fortress can withstand.‘
– The Deacon, The Wisdom of the Deacon, Bloodstone
‘In a small section of the garden a tiny weed spoke to the blooms that grew there. ‘Why,’ he asjked, ‘does the gardner seek to kill me? Do I not have a right to life? Are my leaves not green, as yours are? Is it too much to ask that I be allowed to grow and see the sun?’ The blooms pondered on this, and decided to ask the gardener to spare the weed. He did so. Day by day the weed grew, stronger and stronger, taller and taller, its leaves covering the other plants, its roots spreading. One by one the flowers died, until a rose was left. It gazed up at the enormous weed and asked: ‘Why do you seek to kill me? Do I not have a right to life? Are my leaves not green, as yours? Is it too much to ask that I be allowed to grow and see the sun?’
‘Yes, it is too much to ask,’ said the weed.”‘
– The Deacon, The Wisdom of the Deacon, Bloodstone
‘People say we no longer live in an age of miracles. It is not so. What has been lost is our ability to see them.’
– The Deacon, The Wisdom of the Deacon, Bloodstone
