“When Brother Francis had removed the last tray, he touched the papers reverently: only a handful of folded documents here, and yet a treasure; for they had escaped the angry flames of the Simplification, wherein even sacred writings had curled, blackened, and withered into smoke while ignorant mobs howled and hailed it a triumph.”
Ch 2
A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959), Fiat Homo
Context: When Brother Francis had removed the last tray, he touched the papers reverently: only a handful of folded documents here, and yet a treasure; for they had escaped the angry flames of the Simplification, wherein even sacred writings had curled, blackened, and withered into smoke while ignorant mobs howled and hailed it a triumph. He handled the papers as one might handle holy things, shielding them from the wind with his habit, for all were brittle and cracked from age. There was a sheaf of rough sketches and diagrams. There were hand-scribbled notes, two large folded papers, and a small book entitled Memo.
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Walter M. Miller, Jr. 37
American fiction writer 1923–1996Related quotes
Ch 1 (First lines).
A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959), Fiat Homo

“He didn't curl his lip because it had been curled when he came in.”
Source: The High Window (1942), chapter 3

The Poet's Lot; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

The God-Seeker (1949), Ch. 50