” Each human being shall have all of these in him, and they will constitute his nature. In some, there will be high and fine characteristics which will submerge the evil ones, and those will be called good men; in others the evil characteristics will have dominion, and those will be called bad men.”
“‘No one ever thinks they’re awful, even people who really actually are. It’s some sort of survival mechanism.’
‘I think this is happening because it was supposed to happen.’ Elizabeth speaks very softly.
‘I’d prefer not to think that I’m following a script,’ Miranda says.”
“More, badness is of the self, the one, the you or me on our oddy knockies, and that self is made by old Bog or God and is his great pride and radosty. But the not-self cannot have the bad, meaning they of the government and the judges and the schools cannot allow the bad because they cannot allow the self.”
“I hate this. Whenever we jail him, I think ‘Please God, keep him there.’ Then he escapes and we all sit round hoping he won’t do anything too awful this time.”
“I’ve been thinking lately. About you and me. About what’s going to happen to us, in the end. We’re going to kill each other, aren’t we? Perhaps you’ll kill me. Perhaps I’ll kill you. Perhaps sooner. Perhaps later.”
″ ‘There’ll always be a couple bad apples in every barrel.’ That’s the way it is with strangers. Cubs have to be careful because of a few ‘bad apples’.”
″ You know, what Papa told you was quite right. It’s not a good idea to talk to strangers or accept presents or rides from them. But, that doesn’t mean that all strangers are bad.”