John Irving, The Cider House Rules Quotes

What is hardest to accept about the passage of time is that the people who once mattered the most to us wind up in parentheses.

It's because even a good man can't always be right, that we need ... rules.

No one but me ever put a hand on me to feel that baby. No one wanted to put his ear against it and listen...You shouldn't have a baby if there's no one who wants to feel it kick or listen to it move.

At times, he admitted, he had been very happy in the apple business. He knew what Larch would have told him: that his happiness was not the point, or that it wasn't as important as his usefulness.

And what were the rules at St. Cloud's? What were Larch's rules? Which rules did Dr. Larch observe, which ones did he break, or replace--and with what confidence?

Men who believe in good and evil, and who believe that good should win, should watch for those moments when it is possible to play God