Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel

"I believe in good and evil,"said Jem. "And I believe the soul is eternal. But I don't believe in the fiery pit, the pitchforks, or endless torment. I do not believe you can threaten people into goodness."Tessa looked at will. "What about you? What do you believe?"Pulvis et umbra sumus,"said Will, not looking at her as he spoke. "I believe we are dust and shadows. What else is there?"

"Pulvis et umbra sumus. It's a line from Horace. 'We are dust and shadows'. Appropriate, don't you think?"Will said. "It's not a long life, killing demons; one tends to die young, and then they burn your body - dust to dust, in the literal sense. And then we vanish into the shadows of history, nary a mark on the page of a mundane book to remind the world that once we existed at all."

"Well, she's not responding to my advances,"he observed more brightly than he felt, "so she must be dead.""Or she's a woman of good taste and sense."

"Sometimes, when I have to do something I don't want to do, I pretend I'm a character from a book. It's easier to know what they would do."

"Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry."

"Remember when you tried to convince me to feed a poultry pie to the mallards in the park to see if you could breed a race of cannibal ducks?""They ate it too,"Will reminisced. "Bloodthirsty little beasts. Never trust a duck."

"Your angel cannot protect you against that which neither god nor the devil had made"

"It was odd, (Tessa thought), what brought out tenderness in people."

"If no one in the entire world cared about you, did you really exist at all?"

"There's plenty of sense in nonsense sometimes, if you wish to look for it."

"Will rolled up his sleeves. "We'll probably have to knock down the door--""Or,"said Jem, reaching out and giving the knob a twist, "not."The door swung open onto a rectangle of darkness. "Now, that's simply laziness,"said Will."

"You know,"Gabriel said, "there was a time I thought we could be friends, Will.""There was a time I thought I was a ferret,"Will said, "but that turned out to be the opium haze. Did you know it had that effect? Because I didn't."

"Will suspected Jem was in fact cleverer than he was himself - but he lacked Will's tendency to assume the absolute worst about people and proceed from there."

"So you're a Shadowhunter,' Nate said. 'De Quincey told me that you lot were monsters.''Was that before or after he tried to eat you?' Will inquired."

"Bloodthirsty little beasts. Never trust a duck."

"Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry."

"Pulvis et umbra sumus. It's a line from Horace. 'We are dust and shadows'. Appropriate, don't you think?"Will said. "It's not a long life, killing demons; one tends to die young, and then they burn your body - dust to dust, in the literal sense. And then we vanish into the shadows of history, nary a mark on the page of a mundane book to remind the world that once we existed at all."

"Are you implying that shreds of my reputation remain intact?"Will demanded with mock horror. "Clearly I have been doing something wrong. Or not something wrong, as the case may be."He banged on the side of the carriage. "Thomas! We must away at once to the nearest brothel. I seek scandal and low companionship."

"Will looked horrified. "What kind of monster could possibly hate chocolate?"

"Let me give you a piece of advice. The handsome young fellow who's trying to rescue you from a hideous fate is never wrong. Not even if he says the sky is purple and made of hedgehogs."