Quotes and Notes on Darkness at Noon – #8

Here are my favorite quotes and thoughts from Darkness at Noon. These are really only about half of what I highlighted for myself. Loved this book! See my more thorough review here. The page and location numbers are from the Kindle edition.

“Above the spy-hole was a card with his name on it, Nicola Salmanovitch Rubashov. They have prepared everything nicely, he thought; the sight of his name on the card made an uncanny impression on him.” (page 11, location 158)

“…he had no objection to dozing straight off into death, there and then, if only one let him remain lying under the warm blanket.” (page 12, location 173)

“Each gave his life into the other’s hands, and neither trusted the other an inch.” (page 31, location 422)

“If the party embodied the will of history, then history itself was defective.” (page 58, location 783)

“We brought you truth, and in our mouth it sounded a lie. We brought you freedom, and it looks in our hands like a whip. We brought you the living life, and where our voice is heard the trees wither and there is a rustling of dry leaves. We brought you the promise of a future, but our tongue stammered and barked.” (page 59, location 752)

“Even for dying there was no etiquette. What was more honorable: to die in silence – or to abase oneself publicly, in order to be able to pursue one’s aims?” (page 128, location 1695)

“Should we sit with idle hands because the consequences of an act are never quite to be foreseen, and hence all action is evil?” (page 164, location 2155)

“  ‘Experience teaches,” said Gletkin, “that the masses must be given for all difficult and complicated processes a simple, easily grasped explanation.’ “ (page 231, location 3025)

“Did there really exist any such goal for this wandering mankind? That was a question to which he would have liked an answer before it was too late.” (page 271, location 3534

Keep reading! Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence is next, and then The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Balance those out with a few romance novels here and there, such as Everglades by Petie McCarthy.