“The judge smiled. It is not necessary, he said, that the principals here be in possession of the facts concerning their case, for their acts will ultimately accommodate history with or without their understanding. But it is consistent with notions of right principle that these facts—to the extent that they can be readily made to do so—should find a repository in the witness of some third party. Sergeant Aguilar is just such a party and any slight to his office is but a secondary consideration when compared to divergences in that larger protocol enacted by the formal agenda of an absolute destiny. Words are things. The words he is in possession of he cannot be deprived of. Their authority transcends his ignorance of their meaning.”

— Cormac McCarthy , book Blood Meridian

Source: Blood Meridian (1985), Chapter VII

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Cormac McCarthy 270

American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter 1933

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