One of the things that I love about mostly reading ebooks is how easy it is to highlight great passages. Here are some that I’ve enjoyed recently.
“Trying matters. Efforts aren’t wasted if full success isn’t achieved the first time.”
“Any gentleman not thoroughly dazzled by her eyes and smile will quickly notice that she has no substantial response to his questions. Unfortunately, this general lack of wit has not tempered the lady’s opinion of herself–on the contrary, she has decided she is highly intelligent, which is the most dangerous kind of stupid.”
“…as a whole, she found that the male race tended to abandon any challenge at the first setback.”
“For a country that profited so well from trading in spices, its citizens were violently averse to actually using them;”
“‘Why are you girls?’ The white girl gave him a look of such withering scorn that Robin wilted on Ramy’s behalf. ‘Well,’ she drawled, ‘I suppose we decided to be girls because being boys seems to require giving up half your brain cells.’”
“They had the keys to the kingdom; they did not want to give them back.”
“It took him a moment to realize what it was that grated on him, and when he did, it would bother him constantly, now and thereafter; it would seem a great paradox, the fact that after everything they had told Letty, all the pain they had shared, she was the one who needed comfort.”
“People tend to fear what they don’t understand. And fear can far too easily become hatred. Why, the Great Bug Conflict of ’69 comes to mind. The Society of Sentient Insects had gone and invented ‘people repellent’ spray. You’d think a reasonable person would understand that turnabout is fair play, but you’d be surprised how quickly reason goes out the window when the bugs start spraying back.”
“People are going to form opinions and say nasty things about you based on nothing more than what you are. You sure you’re prepared for that?” I smile a little. Am I prepared for that? It’s kind of like how being a Black kid from the projects makes Mr. Jenson feel the need to watch me extra close every time I come in his store. Or how surprised my scholarship interviewers were that I could speak so well. People assume stuff about you based on things you can’t change about yourself.”
““Try two plus two. . . . The calculator said it equals five? Oh, this is serious. The math gods are clearly upset with you. You’ll be wanting to make an in-person apology. You can make an appointment at the nearest tax office.””
“Had he, like the other fae I knew, completely underestimated humans to the point that he hadn’t expected me to come back, or had he simply thought that I was under the thumb enough—or just not stupid enough—to try and get back in? Well, if so, the joke was on him, because I was definitely stupid enough to come back in.”
“There were tenants in number eight at that time,” Vesper added, knitting steadily. “They weren’t big knitters, so they were inclined to get a bit flustered when odd things happened: it gives your hands something to do, you see.”
“I gazed at him for a few moments, then said, “Don’t you threaten me with the consequences of my actions.””
“You’re not supposed to enjoy killing people.” “Ah,” he sighed. “But then, there’s such satisfaction in a job well done, don’t you think?”
