Michael Kurland

““You’re from Liverpool, of course,” He was very proud of his ability to place different accents.“No,” Sylvia told him. “Boston.””

““A lot of things seem to be happening, all at once,” I told Chester.“That’s what you told me once. An old Army motto you found when you were doing those war books. Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action. This is the third time.””

“I am not in the habit of letting someone else decide what I can and cannot do.”

““God is just,” he said.“Just watching.””

“The trains take us anywhere we want on earth. They’re very fast and dependable. If I remember from history we tried personal mechanical vehicles for a short time, but gave them up as a bad idea. They smell up the road, take up too much room, caused many accidents and just proved a general nuisance.”

““A curious mixture, you,” I said, pulling her firmly toward me over the bowl of cement and commencing a lengthy kiss of agreement, exploration, adoration and lust.”

““How are you on the high wire?”“Wire walking? It’s simple. Any child of ten can do it—with about fourteen years practice.”

“I don’t like eating in the dark. Dimly lit restaurants always make me think they’re trying to hide the food.”

“An amphibophile is the sort of girl who goes around kissing princes in the hope that one of them will turn into a frog.”

“They were a well-behaved group, too; getting in trouble often enough so there could be no doubt about their masculinity, but not enough so that the discipline officer would remember any of their names.”

““Good thinking,” the tall man agreed. “In this case it’s not true, but it is good thinking.””

““I mistrust these artificial things,” O’Malley said. “Food doesn’t grow surrounded by tinfoil.””

““I’ve been taught certain things all my life,” she said. “Just as you have. I’m just as much a prisoner of my training and my environment as you are of yours.”Alyssaunde took his hand. “Neither did I,” she said.”

““Any truth,” Chester said, “no matter how obscure, or seemingly unimportant, is a piece of the mosaic and a step toward completion.””

“It was obvious that insufficient education was a serious handicap.”

“It’s what a man thinks is true which controls his actions, not what is really true.”

“He could have assigned this part of the job to another, but it was not in his conception of his duties to do so. The shorter the chain, the less chance for a broken link.”

“It had been a long time ago, when life had been less complex. Or, perhaps, it had only seemed less complex.”

“Everyone leaned over the map and examined it with interest. Here was a tangible thing to look at, to make them feel that something was being accomplished. Everything’s under control, Lord Darcy said wryly to himself, we have a map.”

““I don’t want to color my facts with my suppositions,” he said. “My facts are the results of good, reliable magic. My suppositions are just that—suppositions—and may be totally wrong.””

““My Lord, I am not a superstitious man,” Master Sean said. “Being a sorcerer leaves little room for superstition. A superstitious magician is unable to manipulate symbols properly, and symbolism is a large part of magic.””

“By their works we shall know them. Always assuming that they exist.”

“Lord Darcy nodded. “It is difficult to look for something that you hope doesn’t exist,” he said. “I suppose we can all use the practice.””

“There’s more leg room in first class, to be sure, but there’s more poetry in second class—and more honesty in third.”

““‘Be not the first by whom the new is tried,’ as that poet fellow said, ‘Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.’””

“The Duchess of Cumberland smiled at the little sorcerer. “Really, Master Dandro,” she said. “That’s certainly an orthodox view.”Master Dandro turned to her and smiled a rabbity smile. “Orthodoxy is my only doxy,” he said.”

““That man is a fool,” Lady Marta said, her dark eyes staring at Baron Hepplethong’s retreating back. “Most men are fools, but he carries it to unnatural extremes. I have the misfortune to be distantly related to him. He believes in the natural superiority of the white race, the noble class, and the male sex. He also feels that people who wear green are morally superior to those who wear red or brown. I do not jest.””

““Yours is a minority opinion, Major, as I suppose you know,” Lord Darcy told him. “But it is one which should be heard more often. It is a question that deserves to be debated and discussed, and not simply have the answers assumed by those in authority.””

““We are greatly complimented, my lord,” Marquis Sherrinford said dryly. “You don’t think we’re gibbering madmen.””

“I won’t say it’s impossible, my lord, but I will say that it’s so close to impossible as to be inconceivable.”

“The pleasure of receiving an accolade is somewhat diluted by the problem of living up to it.”

“He takes every change that has taken place over the past two hundred years as a personal affront.”

“I apologize for asking the obvious, but I have learned in matters magical to always state what I think is happening, because it so often is not what is actually the case at all.”

“A possibility eliminated is a risk not taken.”

“Now, let us think our way out of this perplexity. How can you kill me without my suffering any ill effects from the deed?”