The Invention of Fire
by Bruce Holsinger
(Harper, 2015)
I have a sweet tooth for vice, and it sharpens with age.
Page 8.
A friend is a second self … and knows us more than we know ourselves.
Pages 22-23.
Vainglory is the truest engine of our souls.
Page 90.
Men of talent must band together
Page 101.
The earth is a verdant field of weapons.
Page 103.
Memory … will lose out to oblivion every time.
Page 113.
A son, a sack of coin, the things we leave behind.
Page 115.
Regret … the sentiment of the loser, and the fool.
Page 232.
The invention of fire gave us warmth, even as it cursed us with myriad new ways to suffer and die.
Page 321.
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.
Page 381.
A man going slowly blind builds up too much confidence in his other senses. Touch, taste, smell, hearing: all grow more acute up to a certain point, and yet one’s thoughts inevitably dull somewhat, as the power of intellection wanes with the diminution of sight, the first and most primal of our worldly senses. As the eyes go, so goes the mind.
Page 384.
The blind, it is said, ear many a fly.
Page 385.
… the music of coming war.
Page 387.
My mind gathered suspicions like a demon gathers souls.
Page 415.
Civil war is always bad for trade.
Page 448.
Our atrocities require us to honour the strangest twists of our imagination, and without regard for the comforts of fitting issue or joyful resolution.
Page 468.
Survival is a curse as much as a blessing.
Page 468.