″ ‘Speak’, she begged silently. ‘Give me a reason to stay’. For all his selfishness and cruelty, Kaz was still the boy who had saved her. She wanted to believe he was worth saving, too.”
“I hate casualties Matthew. A Marine smothers a grenade and saves his platoon, that Marines doing his job. There are casualties. Even in victory. The fabric of this base, the foundation of the unit, the spirit of the Corps, these things are worth fighting for. And there’s no one who doesn’t know that who’s ever made the choice to put on the uniform.”
“We’re in the business of saving lives, Matthew. With every degree that we allow ourselves to move off the mark of perfection as officers, more people die- that’s a responsibility that I take pretty seriously. ‘Cause I absolutely believe that simply taking a Marine who’s not yet up to the job and packing him off to another assignment is the same as sending a kid into the jungle with a weapon that backfires.”
“That most ingrateful boy there by your side
From the rude sea’s enraged and foamy mouth
Did I redeem; a wrack past hope he was.
His life I gave him and did thereto add
My love, without retention or restraint,
All his in dedication. For his sake
Did I expose myself, pure for his love,
Into the danger of this adverse town;”
“Although the operators fought the battle and by all accounts saved about twenty American lives, because they were neither CIA staffers nor active military personnel they were deemed ineligible for even higher awards, awards that went to other men who played smaller roles and never fired a shot.”
“I just think how much could have been done with twenty thousand dollars, you sound thoughtful, sensible, you know, reasonable, rational, someone you really want on your side. However, if you were to point out, But a young attending physician makes one hundred thousand dollars, not twenty, and that’s five times what it cost to try to save a boy’s life . . . Same world, same numbers, same figures, same currency.”
“But the hawk was the second most precious thing. I was sorry to lose it, and if you make me another one, I promise not to get taken captive by bandits and have to use it to save my life.”
“You’re still alive, and so is your little sister, somewhere. I know it. You saved her. And together we’ll find her, yes? I promise. We’ll find her and bring her home.”
“‘Please!’ Mahmoud cried. He sobbed with the effort of fighting off the man’s fingers and hanging onto the dinghy. ‘Please, take us with you!’
‘No! No room!’
‘At least take my sister!’ Mahmoud begged. ‘She’s a baby. She won’t take up any room!‘”
“Alais: You saved them. You maneuvered it.
Eleanor: Did I?
Alais: They’re free because of you. They’ll kill him one day; you know that
Eleanor: The next or the next.”
“For many years, this episode was a topic of conversation in Pont-l’Évêque. But Félicité, unaware that she had done anything heroic, took no pride in it.”
“Mrs. Frisby, it seems that you have more than repaid us for the help we gave you in moving your house. Just as your husband did once, you have saved us from a disaster: death or capture—we do not yet know which.”
“ ‘I will always be grateful to you for saving my life and I want you to remember that if you ever need my help I’d be more than glad to give it!’ How he could ever possibly help Boris, Amos didn’t know, but he knew how willing he was.”
“Soon I felt water around my ankles. Then it washed to my knees. It would go back and then crash against us again. Timothy was taking the full blows of the storm, sheltering me with his body. When the water receded, it would tug at us, and Timothy’s strength would fight against it. I could feel the steel in his arms as the water tried to suck us away.”
″‘I had high hopes of being Evil when I was two, but in my youth I came upon a firefly burning in a spider’s web. I saved the victim’s life.’
‘The firefly’s?’ said the minstrel.
‘The spider’s. The blinking arsonist had set the web on fire.‘”
“The being who is supremely good, hath vouchsafed to stretch out a father’s hand over you. You should lift up your hearts to him, and thank him without delay for the unexpected preservation of your lives.”
“In truth, it wasn’t the man on the bridge that made the teenage boy want to be a policeman. It was the teenage girl who was standing on the same railing a week later that made him want it. The one who didn’t jump.”