“Alek was right behind her now, his body pressing close as he adjusted her sword arm. She hadn't realized this fencing business would be so touchy.
He grasped her waist, sending a crackle across her skin.
If Alek moved his hands any higher, he might notice what was hidden beneath her careful tailoring.
“Always keep sideways to your opponent,” he said, gently turning her. “That way, your chest presents the smallest possible target.”
“Aye, the smallest possible target,” Deryn sighed. Her secret was safe, it seemed.”
“She smiled, turning toward Alek. "You don't know what a friend you have in Dylan.”
“Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.”
“I go where the lizards tell me.”
“Lilt pulled away. "I saw what he was doing, so I cleared a path for him. I helped him do it..." She shook her head, tears tracking the dust off her face, and turned to stare at the fallen tower. "Have we all gone mad to want this?”
“The world rests upon a turtle, which itself stands on the back of an elephant!”
Alek tried not to laugh. “Then what does the elephant stand on, madam?”
“Don’t try to be clever, young man.” She narrowed her eyes. “It’s elephants all the way down!”
“You’d best ask the lady boffin, sir,” Newkirk said. “Midshipmen aren’t allowed to have opinions.”
“Dr. Barlow, it is, of course, customary to check with the caption before, uh, giving away his ship."
-Deryn Sharp”
“Alek: "Am I that obvious?"
Deryn: "No. Im just dead clever.”
“So my foolhardiness has produced the correct strategy, Count?”
“Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.”
“But it wasn’t any of those reasons that had set her on this course, Deryn knew. Alek was here in the city and needed help. Perhaps it was daft to risk everything for some barking prince, a boy who didn't even know she was a girl. But it was no more daft than Alek walking across a glacier to assist a wounded enemy airship, was it?”
“But it won't be much of a battle, will it?" Alek asked. "What can an airship do to a pair of ironclads?"
"My guess is, we'll stay absolutely still for an hour. Just so we don't fall into any bad habits.”
“The Germans were still hunting Alek, trying to finish the job they’d started on his parents. Someone had to be on his side.
And, as Deryn had gradually admitted to herself these last few days, she didn’t mind if that someone wound up being her.”
“Aya, that's the barking strangest thing about battle - that it's real”
“A country with two kings will always falter.”
“One way of overcoming the fear of the new is to make it look like the old.”
“The absurdity of it, she thought, this quest for the love of a man who was her equal. She loathed herself for it. She thought of her life (and herself) as a missed opportunity. Somewhere, back there, she had missed something. What was it? When was it? The worse horror beneath: that she hadn't missed anything, that her life was merely the sum of her choices and that her choices had led her to this: another truncated encounter; the carcinogenic belief in the idea of a Great Love; clammy sex; loneliness in the small hours.”
“Briar: "They never tell you some things. They tell you mages have wonderful power and they learn all kinds of secrets. Nobody ever mentions that some secrets you don't ever want to learn."
Rosethorn: "All you can do is learn good to balance the bad. Learn and do all the good within your reach. Then, if you wake in a sweat, you have something to set against the dream.”
“Marena looked at all of them out of her big, calm, shining eyes. "Love is no nonsense," she said. "It has to come.”
“Oui, oui, he snapped with an obvious lack of awe. "Ding dong the demon's dead, now can we admire
our delightful handiwork someplace where the ceiling is not about to cave in and your oh-so-handsome
vampire is not about to become a dust bunny? (Levet)”
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.