"The fired burnt furiously, piled high with logs. Danny had dragged the log basket onto the hearth rug and was kneeling beside it, a log in each hand, watching the fire burn."

"...the horror of the images impossible to connect with the child he'd just left."

"But sir, certainly, there isn't any proof as to my guilt..."

"The man needs to learn how to controll his anger, he is crossing a border here, and he has no right"

"The forensic evidence for Danny's guilt was overwhelming, but he was a good liar."

"Danny was a bottomless pit. He wanted other people to fill him, only in the process the other people ended up drained."

"The difference between bad and worse is a lot bigger than the difference between good and better."

"“Oderint dum metuant,” O’Doull murmured…. “But it means, ‘let them hate, as long as they fear.’” “Three words,” McDougald said admiringly. “Boy, that packs more into three words than anything this side of ‘I love you.’”"

"She was willing to give her life for her country. She wasn’t willing to throw it away."

"Proclaiming they had the answers was the easy part. Really having them, and making them work—that looked harder. That looked a hell of a lot harder to him. But some people would buy castles in the air because they were short of beans on the ground."

"The artillery duel between U.S. and C.S. guns started up again, each side feeling for the other in the night. Listening to death fly back and forth overhead was almost like watching a tennis match, except both sides could serve at once and there could be more than one ball in the air at the same time."

"“I don’t hide anything I aim to do; I just come right out and say it.” An alarm whistle went off in Anne’s head; any man who said something like that was almost bound to be lying."

"Your deplorable taste in politics aside, you’re an intelligent man."

"“You make me wonder about my own country, Spartacus, not just yours.” “Good,” the black man rumbled. “Wonderin’s good. Ain’t nothin’ gonna change till you wonder if it oughta.”"

"“I’ll be all right,” Nellie said. “This is something God meant women to do.” And if that doesn’t prove God is a man, I don’t know what does."

"Potter knew perfectly well that it was true. He also knew that what was true and what made good propaganda often had not even a nodding acquaintance with each other."

"That held enough truth to be provocative, not enough to be useful."

"There’s no such thing as glory, near as I can tell. If the machine guns didn’t kill it, the artillery did."

"But then, how much of war was finding out the hard way what the other fellow had that you didn't know about ahead of time? Put that way, it sounded quietly philosophical. Put another way, it meant Sam was likely to get killed because some dimbulb in Philadelphia was asleep at the switch."

"A man who couldn’t see truth when it tried to shoot him wouldn’t live long, and didn’t deserve to."

"“Has anyone ever told you, sir, that you may be too damn smart for your own good?” “A whole raft of people, Colonel Landis,” Morrell answered cheerfully. “Once or twice, they’ve even been right.”"

"“I never knew any Sonorans before you. You’re a good fellow. You ever get tired of trying to scratch out a living down where you’re at, you bring your family on up to Alabama. Plenty of good farm country there. You’d live high on the hog.” “Thanks, amigo, but no thanks.” Rodriguez’s smile was sweet and sad. “I want to go home. I want to talk español, to see my friends and family. And in Sonora, I am a man. In Alabama, I am a damn greaser.” He tapped a brown hand with a brown finger to remind Pinkard of what he meant. In the trenches, Jeff had long since stopped worrying about their being of different colors. Hip was right, though; it would matter in Alabama."

"“Do I tell you how to arrange your life, Carlton?” he demanded. “Only when you open your mouth,” Ben answered. “Sir.”"

"“Pretty damn soon, the Rebs’ll pack it in here, too, I expect,” Carlton said. “Every blasphemy that passes your lips means a hotter dose of hellfire in the world to come,” McSweeney answered.” I’ve seen enough hellfire right here on earth,” Carlton said. “The kind of the preachers go on about don’t worry me as much as it used to.”"

"“You’re still learning the difference between being an agitator and being a politician. Listen to me, Flora.” He sounded very earnest. “Compromise is not a dirty word.” “Maybe it should be,” she answered."

"Chester wasn’t about to commit the sin of optimism. Justifiably or not, he feared it would jinx everything."

"What people believe and what they’ll do because they believe it is a big part of what’s real, especially in politics."

"“I’ve been thinking,” George Enos said…. Beside him, Carl Sturtevant was panting more than a little. “Probably won’t do you any lasting harm,” he said."

"It was like dying and going to hell, except a little hotter and a little stickier. July in Tennessee was not the ideal weather in which to fight in a barrel."

"Scipio would sooner have gone on without the revolution than the other way around."

"Life was what you got, not what you expected."

"Down near the Florida border, Georgia could give South Carolina lessons in heat and humidity."

"She looked so angelic, any real angel who saw her would have been extremely suspicious."

"Don’t do anything to make things worse was the eleventh commandment of the ghetto, at least as important as the original ten."

"“I must conclude that my views on the subject are also the views of the large majority of the American people.” That was probably true. Because of it, Flora did not have a good opinion of the political wisdom of the large majority of the American people. Nationalism kept too many from voting their class interests."

"“Maybe we’ll get some use out of battleships in the next war after all.” He didn’t doubt there would be a next war; there would always be a next war."

"He hated parliamentary procedure, but he’d started learning it anyhow, even if he did think it was only a way to cheat by the numbers."

"“You're lucky as hell, kid,” Moss said, glad to have something to talk about besides the pounding of his heart. “That's only a scratch, and you'll get yourself a Purple Heart on account of it.” “If I'd been lucky, they would have missed me,” the lieutenant said, which held more than a little truth. If he'd been unluckier, though, all the infinite cleverness and articulation of that hand would have been smashed to bloody, bony ruin in less than the blink of an eye."

"The only people who love a war are those who have never fought in one."

"Potter studied him. “I never have figured out how smart you are, Featherston, but you’ve made it plain you’re shrewd enough and to spare. If you hadn’t made the fatal mistake of being right at the wrong time, we might have the same rank by now.”"

"He was still very young, young enough to believe in the tooth fairy, the common sense of Congress, and a great many other unlikelihoods."

"I’ll tell you, though, this whole business of war would be a hell of a lot more fun if you didn’t get shot."

"Anne saw his attention focus on her. It still wasn’t the look a man gave an attractive woman: more like the look a sniper gave a target."

"Some of those men were black, the new units going forward along with the white troops who have been in the field for years. The Negro soldiers charged straight at the U.S. trenches; they weren’t skilled in the fire-and-move tactics the veterans had learned by painful experience. And they went down in gruesome numbers. When they screamed, Bartlett couldn’t tell their voices from those of white men."

"Anne took her own attractiveness so much for granted, a man who showed he wasn’t completely in her grasp often succeeded in piquing her interest by sheer contrariness."

"Cincinnatus Driver hadn’t been under fire for more than twenty-five years. He’d forgotten how much fun it wasn’t."

"Lieutenant Crowder reported that submersible as probably destroyed, and if you don’t think Lieutenant Crowder knows everything in the world, well, shit, just ask him."