The wicked have weakness other than their willingness to kill and maim. Even the bleakest, cruelest soul can have its tender spots. Even the harshest desert has its pools, its shady trees and gentle streams.
- Paul Hoffman
Foggier yet, and colder! Piercing, searching, biting cold.
- Charles Dickens
The shape of the city stood in the grayness like a charcoal drawing sketched across the waste.
- Cormac McCarthy
[I]n the gloomy month of February.... The Deserts of Arabia are not more dreary and inhospitable than the streets of London at such a time.