“That's the point of working with one's hands, you see. It gives the mind something else to do besides worry.”
―
Charles Todd,
A Duty to the Dead
“I decided to become a policeman to speak for the dead. They have no one else, you see. Somewhere there’s always proof of what happened, some piece of evidence that will obtain a conviction. It’s important for the guilty to be brought to justice, I think. Without justice, there’s chaos.” ― Charles Todd, A Long Shadow
“Tell me something. Why is everyone so determined to believe Wilton is innocent?"Surprised, Davies said, "He's a war hero isn't he? Admired by the King and a friend of the Prince of Wales. He's visited Sandringham, been received by Queen Mary herself! A man like that doesn’t go around killing people!"With a wry downturn of his lips, Rutledge silently asked, How did he win his medals, you fool, if not by being so very damned good at killing?” ― Charles Todd, A Test of Wills
“I tried to lose myself in books. Our house is packed with them, and we keep adding more. Like my mother, I love mystery novels and can plow through one in a single sitting. Some of my recent favorites are by Louise Penny, Jacqueline Winspear, Donna Leon, and Charles Todd. I finished reading Elena Ferrante’s four Neapolitan novels and relished the story they tell about friendship among women. Our shelves are weighed down with volumes about history and politics, especially biographies of Presidents, but in those first few months, they held no interest for me whatsoever. I went back to things that have given me joy or solace in the past, such as Maya Angelou’s poetry: You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise. . . .” ― Hillary Rodham Clinton, What Happened
“When you learn to force yourself to go to the gym or start your homework or eat a salad instead of a hamburger, part of what’s happening is that you’re changing how you think,” said Todd Heatherton, a researcher at Dartmouth who has worked on willpower studies.5.11 “People get better at regulating their impulses. They learn how to distract themselves from temptations. And once you’ve gotten into that willpower groove, your brain is” ― Charles Duhigg, The Power Of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life And Business
“Revenge was personal as a rule. Otherwise it was pointless.” ― Charles Todd, A Long Shadow
“Children were quick to grasp the subtleties of emotions around them, to see through evasions and quickly identify prevarication.” ― Charles Todd, A Long Shadow
“Now he realized that somehow those who had served in France and elsewhere knew a world that couldn’t be shared. How could he tell his sister—or even his father, if the elder Rutledge was still alive—what had been done on bloody ground far from home? It would be criminal to fill their minds with scenes that no one should have to remember. No one.” ― Charles Todd, A False Mirror
“Courage is not measured byMarching bands and banners in the wind.If you have not walkedThe bloody lines and seen the faces,You have no right to describe it so.We die here to keep you safe at home,And what we sufferPray you may never know.” ― Charles Todd, A False Mirror
“There’s a narrow line between love and hate sometimes, you know. And it can be crossed unwittingly.” ― Charles Todd, Watchers of Time
“But what kind of love? It had so many faces, so many names. Jealousy wove a thread around it, and envy, and fear. People died for love–and killed for it. And yet in itself it was indefinable, it wore whatever passions people brought to it, like a mountebank, with no reality of its own.” ― Charles Todd, Search the Dark
“There’s a beauty in birds on the wing,That stirs the heart and makes earthbound creaturesLong for flight, but the larks above the battlefieldAre silenced by the sounds of war.I have watched birds out at sea,Catching the wind,And longed to follow them,To some safe place far from here.” ― Charles Todd, A Long Shadow
“I lost my own daughter and I’ll never have another. The hurt doesn’t go away, no matter what you tell yourself. It’s there day and night. I’d have killed any man who touched her. Why should I stand for such talk about another man’s child, if I wouldn’t have stood for it about my own?” ― Charles Todd, A Long Shadow
“When you watch the living force go out of a man’s face as you fire your weapon into his unprotected body, it is very personal,” ― Charles Todd, A False Mirror
“Wishful thinking, that time might heal—it seldom healed anything, only making scars that were often tender to the touch, and ugly.” ― Charles Todd, Legacy Of The Dead
“We walked away from all that was warm and dear and stood frightened in cold rain where the guns fired, and in the end, we died in pain, the black stinking mud our shroud, embraced at last not by living arms, but by the bones of those who before us died …” ― Charles Todd, Legacy of the Dead
“It isn’t actually a question of guilt or innocence, is it? It’s a matter of what the jury believes, once we’ve told them what evidence there is on either side. Given the proper evidence, we could probably convict God. Without it, Lucifer himself would walk free!” ― Charles Todd, A Test Of Wills
“Sometimes love tries to do too much.” ― Charles Todd, A Bitter Truth
“Love teaches you humility—patience—understanding.” ― Charles Todd, A Test Of Wills
“I decided to become a policeman to speak for the dead. They have no one else, you see. Somewhere there’s always proof of what happened, some piece of evidence that will obtain a conviction. It’s important for the guilty to be brought to justice, I think. Without justice, there’s chaos.” ― Charles Todd, A Long Shadow
“Tell me something. Why is everyone so determined to believe Wilton is innocent?"Surprised, Davies said, "He's a war hero isn't he? Admired by the King and a friend of the Prince of Wales. He's visited Sandringham, been received by Queen Mary herself! A man like that doesn’t go around killing people!"With a wry downturn of his lips, Rutledge silently asked, How did he win his medals, you fool, if not by being so very damned good at killing?” ― Charles Todd, A Test of Wills
“I tried to lose myself in books. Our house is packed with them, and we keep adding more. Like my mother, I love mystery novels and can plow through one in a single sitting. Some of my recent favorites are by Louise Penny, Jacqueline Winspear, Donna Leon, and Charles Todd. I finished reading Elena Ferrante’s four Neapolitan novels and relished the story they tell about friendship among women. Our shelves are weighed down with volumes about history and politics, especially biographies of Presidents, but in those first few months, they held no interest for me whatsoever. I went back to things that have given me joy or solace in the past, such as Maya Angelou’s poetry: You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise. . . .” ― Hillary Rodham Clinton, What Happened
“When you learn to force yourself to go to the gym or start your homework or eat a salad instead of a hamburger, part of what’s happening is that you’re changing how you think,” said Todd Heatherton, a researcher at Dartmouth who has worked on willpower studies.5.11 “People get better at regulating their impulses. They learn how to distract themselves from temptations. And once you’ve gotten into that willpower groove, your brain is” ― Charles Duhigg, The Power Of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life And Business
“Revenge was personal as a rule. Otherwise it was pointless.” ― Charles Todd, A Long Shadow
“Children were quick to grasp the subtleties of emotions around them, to see through evasions and quickly identify prevarication.” ― Charles Todd, A Long Shadow
“Now he realized that somehow those who had served in France and elsewhere knew a world that couldn’t be shared. How could he tell his sister—or even his father, if the elder Rutledge was still alive—what had been done on bloody ground far from home? It would be criminal to fill their minds with scenes that no one should have to remember. No one.” ― Charles Todd, A False Mirror
“Courage is not measured byMarching bands and banners in the wind.If you have not walkedThe bloody lines and seen the faces,You have no right to describe it so.We die here to keep you safe at home,And what we sufferPray you may never know.” ― Charles Todd, A False Mirror
“There’s a narrow line between love and hate sometimes, you know. And it can be crossed unwittingly.” ― Charles Todd, Watchers of Time
“But what kind of love? It had so many faces, so many names. Jealousy wove a thread around it, and envy, and fear. People died for love–and killed for it. And yet in itself it was indefinable, it wore whatever passions people brought to it, like a mountebank, with no reality of its own.” ― Charles Todd, Search the Dark
“There’s a beauty in birds on the wing,That stirs the heart and makes earthbound creaturesLong for flight, but the larks above the battlefieldAre silenced by the sounds of war.I have watched birds out at sea,Catching the wind,And longed to follow them,To some safe place far from here.” ― Charles Todd, A Long Shadow
“I lost my own daughter and I’ll never have another. The hurt doesn’t go away, no matter what you tell yourself. It’s there day and night. I’d have killed any man who touched her. Why should I stand for such talk about another man’s child, if I wouldn’t have stood for it about my own?” ― Charles Todd, A Long Shadow
“When you watch the living force go out of a man’s face as you fire your weapon into his unprotected body, it is very personal,” ― Charles Todd, A False Mirror
“Wishful thinking, that time might heal—it seldom healed anything, only making scars that were often tender to the touch, and ugly.” ― Charles Todd, Legacy Of The Dead
“We walked away from all that was warm and dear and stood frightened in cold rain where the guns fired, and in the end, we died in pain, the black stinking mud our shroud, embraced at last not by living arms, but by the bones of those who before us died …” ― Charles Todd, Legacy of the Dead
“It isn’t actually a question of guilt or innocence, is it? It’s a matter of what the jury believes, once we’ve told them what evidence there is on either side. Given the proper evidence, we could probably convict God. Without it, Lucifer himself would walk free!” ― Charles Todd, A Test Of Wills
“Sometimes love tries to do too much.” ― Charles Todd, A Bitter Truth
“Love teaches you humility—patience—understanding.” ― Charles Todd, A Test Of Wills
