93 Quotes by Anne Perry

You do not need to believe evil, only to use its methods. You will get accustomed to them, until eventually they are not your last choice, but your first. For awhile, you can justify it to yourself, and then eventually you will not bother. You have forgotten what you are fighting for; now winning is the only objective! And the more you win, the more you justify it, until the whole idea of right and wrong disappears and only winning matters.

Your own gown is most delicately suitable, both to the occasion and to yourself,' to be translated: Your gown is insipid and entirely forgettable. If you wear it on every other occasion this entire season, no one will notice or care.

The very power of evil is that it is not recognizable to us most of the time. It is not repellent at all. It does not attack, it seduces.

...perhaps great sins start as simple weakness, and the consistent placing of self before others.

You wanted a peaceful, comfortable Christmas, with all reminders of poverty, injustice, or other people's griefs well out of sight, so as not to disturb your pleasure. That isn't what Christmas is about, Wallace. Christmas is about offering hope to all people, not just those like ourselves. Christmas is about everyone: rich or poor, friend or stranger. The moment you exclude anyone, you exclude yourself.

How quickly a moment sinks into the past.

He was a man built to yearn for what he could not have.

People only tell lies when the truth is disagreeable to them, or frightens them, or to cover sin.

The truth can be very sharp. But it makes a cleaner wound than lies. It will not fester