Quotes by Geraldine Brooks

“Who is the brave man--he who feels no fear? If so, then bravery is but a polite term for a mind devoid of rationality and imagination.”

“One did not need to penetrate David's secret counsels or insinuate a man in his bodyguard. All one needed was a pair of years and access to the royal precincts. Just to eavesdrop upon his singing w...”

“I wonder where he lies. Wedged under a rock, with a thousand small mouths already sucking on his spongy flesh. Or floating still, on and down, on and down, to wider, calmer reaches of the river. I ...”

“From "Caleb's Crossing"--This is an excellent thought about family though it doesn't apply to me. I am lucky in my brothers."Now, of all times in my life, did I wish Caleb truly was my brother, rat...”

“Does any woman ever count the grains of her harvest and say: Good enough? Or does one always think of what more one might have laid in, had the labor been harder, the ambition more vast, the choice...”

“Curiosity if not desire, if not plain kindness might have led him to greater zeal.”

“[The haggadah] was made to teach, and it will continue to teach. And it might teach a lot more than just the Exodus story."What do you mean?"Well, from what you've told me, the book has survived th...”

“You know that your church has always taken a view on these matters very different from ours, from the day that the first printing press was assembled. Your church did not want your holy scriptures ...”

“When she thought of the letter beit, it was not of the thickness of lines or the exactitude of spaces. It was of mysteries: the number two, the dual; the house, the house of God on earth. 'They wil...”

“The common soldiers did not blame him for his excessive grief. They knew him. They knew his flaws. Indeed, I think they loved him all the more because he was flawed, as they were, and did not hide ...”

“As wars dwindled to skirmishes and our strength grew, so David was able to spend less time with military commanders and more with the engineers and overseers who were fanning out throughout the lan...”

“I have lived most of my life in soldiers camps. I know what they saw. I know how they think. Their confidence sours as sudden as curdled milk.”

“I thought it best to add nothing further, to let the line of his thought lead him to his own conclusions.”

“Avner had lived too long and become too canny to claim the crown of Israel for himself.”

“Even though he said no store in uncanny things, he was soldier enough to value with whatever weapon came to hand.”

“When a kingdom rests on it, I always expect difficulty. Then, if there is none, no blame. But if there is, one is prepared.”

“No one sits, as you do, so close to a king, who does not begin to grasp how the levers of power work, and the cost of the oil that must grease them.”

“This night he was a king before he was a man. At this time, this troubled me. Later, I would have cause to wish it were always so.”

“David was at his best in group settings, soldier enough to join in the raucous jests, king enough to make it matter that he remembered some moments of bravery or sacrifice, and praised each man acc...”

“He is able to put aside personal feelings and see the broad strokes. Experience counts in these things.”