Susan Elia MacNeal

Little girls, this seems to say,

Never stop upon your way,

Never trust a stranger-friend;

No one knows how it will end.

The historian can peg the point where a society begins its sharpest decline at the instant when women begin to take part, on an equal footing with men.

—ADOLF HITLER,

MEIN KAMPF

“Have you ever realized Dante was the first to think of hell as a planned space in an urban environment?

“Careful not to read too much—you’ll never get married,”

And you ended it with her?”
“She ended it with me.”
“And broke your heart. Are you over her?”
“Are we ever over the people we’ve loved?”

Why can’t we do something like go swimming, walk at night, cross the bloody street without constantly being reminded our bodies are merely things, ripe for insulting, leering at, and aggressive propositioning?

“ ‘There’s a war on, you know.’ ” Chuck hugged her. “Carpe diem, my friend,” she said. “Take it from me—carpe the fucking diem.”

The governing principle of forensic science, as laid down by Edmond Locard at the beginning of the last century, is ‘every contact leaves a trace.’ ”

“I just learned a great French expression,” Sarah told him. “Mi chien mi loup