Favorite Quotes

[Ink.Knight]

Various books. Just post your favorite quotes from your favorite books.

"Pretty. What do we blow up first?" - Myn Donos, later became Wraith Squadron motto.

"So? He was stupid. If I killed everyone who was stupid I wouldn't have time to sleep." - Alanna, In the Hands of the Goddess

"He says he's changed.
I suppose he could have changed, I myself have noticed my growing resemblance to a daffodil.
You do look yellow around the edges. I hadn't wanted to bring it up.
We daffodils like to have things brought up. It reminds us of spring." - Kel and Neal, Page

"Lord Raoul asked me to tell you that if you get yourself killed he'll never speak to you again." - ?, Squire

"I think it's fair rude to make him a tree and not know what kind he is." - Daine, Wolf Speaker

"You are a bloody-minded savage. I hope you are kidnapped by centaurs." - Neal, Page

"But, Seargent Osbern, Sir, I like my head." ?, Squire

"Neal had a gift for making someone want to punch him just for saying hello" - ?, Page

Just a few of my favorites.

[estar9821]

"Excuse me, but why are you talking to our luggage?" --High Wizardry, alien on Rirhath B.
I burst out laughing when I read this part.

[SilveredBlue]

"What is this?" said the Leopard, "that is so 'sclusively dark, and yet so full of little pieces of light?" -Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling

"The Nac Mac Feegle, also called Pictsies, The Wee Free Men, and 'Person or Persons Unknown, Believed to be Armed.' " -A Hat Full of Sky, Terry Pratchett (love him!)

"Roshuan's father put up his eyebrows. "You are outspoken," he said.
"Speaking truth to power," said Dairine, "is never 'out'." " -Can't you guess?

" 'Hope' is the thing with feathers." -Emily Dickinson

"She was eighteen. She was the most beautiful woman in a hundred years. She didn't seem to care." -The Princess Bride, William Goldstien (or Goldburg? I can't remember)

And the whole of the poems: Salutation by Ezra Pound, The Tyger by William Blake, and La Belle Dame Sans Merci.

Ah, I love quotes.

[kk]

SilveredBlue: William Goldman. Hehe, I love that book...

(Insert any quote from this book here) - Any character, The Princess Bride

Same with YW; So much of it is quotable, what is there that you cannot like? I love Fred's saying about how by believing you can change the world. (Too lazy to look it up and type it.)

I have more quotes I like, my brain just doesn't like me right now. I'm gonna go listen to a Leonard Nimoy record to make my brain relax.

I'll add more quotes later...

[Kathy Li]

Jane Eyre


[after Peter tells Harriet to get a wine-colored frock as he's always longed to see her in wine color, he takes off, and she runs after him, to ask:]
"Port or sherry?" she demanded.
"What?" said Wimsey, taken aback.
"The frock--port or sherry?"
"Claret," said Wimsey. "Chateau Margaux 1893 or thereabouts. I'm not particular within a year or two."

-- Dorothy L. Sayers, Have His Carcase


"He was born with a gift of laughter, and a sense that the world was mad. And that was all his patrimony."

--Rafael Sabatini, Scaramouche


Not to every young girl is it given to enter the harem of the Sultan of Turkey and return to her homeland a virgin.

--Dorothy Dunnett, Ringed Castle.


Men in bifocal glasses. I spit.

--Dorothy Dunnett, Dolly and the Singing Bird.


Like the famous mad philosopher said, when you stare into the void, the void stares also; but if you cast into the void, you get a type conversion error.

--Charles Stross, "Overtime"


Dad came down with the flu that week, so I had to go down to the subway and feed the unicorns.

-- Diane Duane. "Midnight Snack"


"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."

--Patrick O'Brian, HMS Surprise


He was advancing towards her. She brought her right arm from behind her, and levelled the pistol. "Stand where you are!" she said. "If you come one step nearer I shall shoot you down."
He stopped short. "Where did you get that thing?" he demanded.
"Out of your coach," she answered.
"Is it loaded?"
"I don't know," said Miss Challoner, incurably truthful.
He began to laugh again, and walked forward. "Shoot then," he invited, "and we shall know. For I'm coming several steps nearer, my lady."
Miss Challoner saw that he meant it, shut her eyes, and resolutely pulled the trigger. There was a deafening report and the Marquis went staggering back. He recovered in a moment. "It was loaded," he said coolly.

--Georgette Heyer, The Devil's Cub.


We hold a meeting in Mindy's on this proposition one night, and we get Sorrowful to agree to keep Marky out of his joint, but we know Marky is so fond of night clubs, especially where there is music, that it seems a sin and a shame to deprive her of this pleasure altogether, so we finally compromise by letting Sorrowful take her out one night a week to the Hot Box in Fifty-fourth Street, which is only a few blocks from where Marky lives, and Sorrowful can get her home fairly early. In fact, after this, Sorrowful seldom keeps her out any later than 2 a.m.

--Damon Runyon, "Little Miss Marker", Blue Plate Special


Camelot is served
By a sixteen-track stub terminal done in High Gothick Style,
The tracks covered by a single great barrel-vaulted glass roof framed upon iron,
At once looking back to the Romans and ahead to the Brunels.
Beneath its rotunda, just to the left of the ticket windows,
Is a mosaic floor depicting the Round Table
(Where all knights, regardless of their station of origin
Or class of accommodation, are equal),
And around it murals of knightly deeds in action
(Slaying dragons, righting wrongs, rescuing maidens tied to the tracks)...

--John M. Ford. "Winter Solstice, Camelot Station"

[SilveredBlue]

Xmas and Christmas, a Lost Chapter From Herodotus


Hint: Spell "Niatirb" backward.


I'll post some from Deep Secret (Diana Wynne Jones) later....oh I love that book....

[Kathy Li]

Those are SOO funny. Every time I read "Men in bifocal glasses. I spit." I fall over laughing. And the one about the void, too. Hah!

Grin. All of the Dorothy Dunnett "Dolly" books start with a line about men in bifocal glasses, since the only physical description we're given of Johnson Johnson (the hero) is that he has dark hair and wears bifocal glasses. Back in the '90s, a friend of mine made me a Dunnett fan, and created a mailing list for likewise-minded folks. They ended up deciding to gather physically, one group in NYC, the other in San Francisco, and Tovah wrote to all of us, "Fans in bicoastal conventions. I spit." And thus, they became known as I Spit East and I Spit West. Tovah made it to both of them. I think it was five years later that I Spit South happened in Atlanta. And I believe there was a Canadian I Spit North.

The Charles Stross story is here. It is a Laundry tale with Bob Howard.

BTW, I love the Toothpick of Virtue avatar. That line reminded me very much of another Diane Duane story: "Prince Ivan" from The Dreamery comic book [Eclipse] which was done in the late '80s. It's a retelling of a Baba Yaga story, and Prince Ivan has three other previously-enchanted princes on his side:

"He's never going to get out of there alive."
"We could get him the Sword of Innocence."
"Nope, they say it's not due back for another week and a half."
"How about the Shield of Virtue?"
"After he's been married to Marya Morevna? You've been hitting the Slivovitz again."
"How about the Flamethrower of Righteousness?"
"The catalog says you have to take the Rocket Launcher of Fair Dealing. It's a package deal."
"Mmf. Is that with tax included?"
"Nope."
"Forget it. How about the Low-Yield Tactical Nuke of Extreme Annoyance? That has tax included."
"Yeah, but look at the overkill surcharge. No way. How about this? The Machine Gun of Overstatement."
"Naah. They charge you extra for the ammo."
"Oh, c'mon, guys..."
...
"Okay, look. Here's a real bargain. The Laser Canon of Truth, along with the Ginsu Knife of Flexibility, and the Screwdriver of Cleverness. 499.95 plus tax and handling."
"But look, it says here, 'Your mileage may vary. Certification of Goodness of Cause and Environemental Impact Statement must be filed before--"
"Sergei, clam up. Do they take mastercharge?"

That's from Part Five, in issue #12.

[permafry_42]

[anotherBob]

"What's magic? Nothing but the ability to do what everybody knows is impossible.
...Only my dear little witch, just remember that nothing is impossible."

Marlowe to Anna Maria Rosalita
"Flight to the Lonesome Place" by Alexander Key

Kit: "What is grenfelzing exactly?"
Carmela: "It's kind of like emmfozing, but with chocolate."

Nita's thoughts: "So, a total of two weeks to save the universe, huh"

Both from Wizards at War

Bob

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

[after Peter tells Harriet to get a wine-colored frock as he's always longed to see her in wine color, he takes off, and she runs after him, to ask:]
"Port or sherry?" she demanded.
"What?" said Wimsey, taken aback.
"The frock--port or sherry?"
"Claret," said Wimsey. "Chateau Margaux 1893 or thereabouts. I'm not particular within a year or two."

-- Dorothy L. Sayers, Have His Carcase

Heh. Reminds me of the quote from Stalking Darkness:

She paused. "I sometimes wonder if things haven't worked out for the best, somehow."

"My being exiled, you mean?" Seregil stared at her. "How can you say that?"

"I'm not saying I'm glad you were taken from us, but in spite of all the loneliness and pain you must have known, I wonder if life among the Tirfaie doesn't suit you better? Truly now, could you ever be content to sit under the lime trees at home, telling tales to the children, or debating with the elders of the Bokthersa Council whether the lintel of the temple should be painted white or silver? Think back, Seregil. You were always restless, always demanding to find out what lay over the next hill. Perhaps there's some purpose in it."

Rising, she took his hands in hers. "I know you've paid for your mistakes. Believe me, I want your exile lifted, but you must be patient. Changes are coming for Aurenen, great ones. Make your stand here for now, in this dangerous, wonderful land of yours. What say you, my brother?"

Still frowning, Seregil muttered, "Silver."

"What?" asked Adzriel.

"Silver," Seregil repeated, looking up with the crooked grin that had always won her over. "Tell the elders of the Council I said the lintel should be silver."

Adzriel laughed, a wonderful, radiant sound. "By Aura, Father was right! I should have beaten you more."

[Sir Read-a-Lot]

There are so many good quotes...

My favorite is "Be what you would seem to be -- or, if you'd like it put more simply -- Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise." - The Dutchess, Alice in Wonderland

But there are many others in Alice in Wonderland, the Phantom Tollbooth, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Discworld, Young Wizards, etc, that it would take years to compile them all.