“Every man has within him only one life and one nature ... It behooves a man to look within himself and turn to the best dedication possible those endowments he has from his Maker. You do no wrong in questioning what once you held to be right for you, if now it has come to seem wrong. Put away all thought of being bound. We do not want you bound. No one who is not free can give freely.”

“Bitter though it may be to many, Cadfael concluded, there is no substitute for truth, in this or any case.”

“There is in the end no remedy but truth. It is the one course that cannot be evil.”

“Truth can be costly, but in the end it never falls short of value for the price paid.”

“There is in the end no remedy but truth. It is the one course that cannot be evil.”

“Truth like the burgeoning of a bulb under the soil however deeply sown will make its way to the light.”

“Murder is murder,as much a curse to the slayer as to the slain, and cannot be a matter of indifference, whoever the dead may be.”

“Well, you can fairly claim the day hasn't been wasted,' owned Cadfael generously, 'if something's been learned.”

“He prayed as he breathed, forming no words and making no specific requests, only holding his heart, like broken birds in cupped hands,”

“Well, a man can but hold fast to what he believes right, and even the opponent he baulks should value him for that.”

“There never was, for all I could ever learn, a time when living was easy and peaceful.”