“It's no good choosing your first husband from a school for evil geniuses. Much too difficult to kill.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“He ... boasted an unassuming mustache, which was perched atop his upper lip cautiously, as though it were slightly embarrassed to be there and would like to slide away and become a sideburn or something more fashionable.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“What’s that?” she asked the girl, wrinkling her nose.
“Oh, that? That’s just Pillover.”
“And what’s a pillover, when it’s at home?”
“My little brother.”
“Ah, I commiserate. I have several of my own. Dashed inconvenient, brothers.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“Isn't Bunson's training evil geniuses?"
"Yes, mostly."
"Well, is that wise? Having a mess of seedling evil geniuses falling in love with you willy-nilly? What if they feel spurned?"
"Ah, but in the interim, think of the lovely gifts they can make you. Monique bragged that one of her boys made her silver and wood hair sticks as anti-supernatural weapons. With amethyst inlay. And another made her an exploding wicker chicken."
"Goodness, what's that for?"
Dimity pursed her lips. "Who doesn't want an exploding wicker chicken?”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“She had to give her teachers credit: they were right to insist all pupils carry scissors, handkerchiefs, perfume and hair ribbons at all times. At some point she'd learn why they also required a red lace doily and a lemon.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“If there is gossip to be garnered, garner it. If there are new dress styles to be imitated, imitate them. If there are hearts to be broken, break them.
That's my girls.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“I do not giggle without purpose. Lady Linette says you should never misapply a giggle.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“The bowl landed, in glorious perfection, atop the head of Mrs Barnaclegoose, who was not the kind of woman to appreciate the finer points of being crowned by trifle.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“It'll all end in tears and oil.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“But I don't want to be a vampire drone.' Sophronia winced. 'They'll suck my blood and make me wear only the very latest fashions.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“Really, Sophronia, it makes me most uncomfortable how you manage to sort everything out every time I faint.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“But we were talking about me and my problems."
Sophronia looked Monique up and down gravely.
"I don't think we're going to solve those in the space of one carriage ride.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“How have I never noticed she only required praise to find me acceptable? wondered Sophronia, not quite realizing that this, too, was a mark of her new education. Many was the lady whose belief in another's sound judgment was based solely upon that other judging her favorably.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“Quietly Sophronia added, "And the soot on my dress, sir?"
"I didn't see anything." Professor Braithwope smiled down at her, showing a small hint of fang.
Sophronia grinned back. "I'm glad we understand each other, sir."
The vampire looked out into the night. "This is the right finishing school for you, isn't it, whot?"
"Yes sir, I think it might very well be."
"A piece of advice, Miss Temminnick?"
"Sir?"
"It is a great skill to have friends in low places. They, too, have things to teach you."
"Now, sir, I thought you didn't see any soot.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“Her hair was wild, her eyes were flashing, and her tattered underskirts floated around her. She looked like a glorious avenging goddess from some ancient erotic myth.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“No one said learning etiquette and espionage would be easy, my dear.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“Captain Niall, having apparently resigned himself to losing his quarry, was savaging her horsehair petticoat into teeny, tiny shreds.
"Really, what did my poor petticoat do to offend?”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“What on earth could we girls possibly learn from a werewolf?" Sophronia wondered.
"How to keep a hat on no matter what the circumstances?" hazarded Dimity.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“How often have I warned you against fraternizing with technology?”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“His eyes were jet-colored circles of perpetual disapproval.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“The boy gestured with his chin at Dimity. “She was shot.” He sounded remarkably unconcerned for a brother with any degree of affection for his sibling.“Good lord!” Sophronia climbed in to see to her new friend’s health. The bullet had grazed Dimity’s shoulder. It had ripped her dress and left a partly burned gash behind, but didn’t look all that bad. Sophronia checked to make certain Dimity had no other injuries. Then she sat back on her heels.“Is that all? I’ve had worse scrapes from drinking tea. Why has she come over all crumpled?”Pillover rolled his eyes. “Faints at the sight of blood, our Dimity. Always has. Weak nerves,father says. It doesn’t even have to be her blood.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“Who doesn’t want an exploding wicker chicken?”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“Coming to the ball, Mr. Plumleigh-Teignmott?”
“Ball? If you insist.” Pillover slid off his trunk, and Roger jumped down to help him load it into the cart.
“Ball?” said one of the Pistons with interest. “We like balls.”
Dimity gave them her best, most haughty look. “Yes, but are you certain they like you?”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“Mummy and Daddy want him to be an evil genius, but he has his heart set on Latin verse. Don’t you, Pill?” The boy gave his sister a nasty stare. “Pillover is terribly bad at being bad, if you take my meaning. Our daddy is a founding member of the Death Weasel Confederacy, and Mummy is a kitchen chemist with questionable intent, but poor Pillover can’t even bring himself to murder ants with his Depraved Lens of Crispy Magnification. Can you, Pill?”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“Dimity pursed her lips. “Who doesn’t want an exploding wicker chicken?”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“What Sophronia did not know, and had yet to learn to control, was that her smile was rather more powerful than most. The face she saw in the mirror each morning was passingly pretty, if not terribly thrilling, but when she smiled with the full force of her personality behind it, she came over vibrant and striking. It was one of the reasons Monique disliked her so.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“Sophronia was minding her own business and running late to luncheon, as was her custom. She'd let to learn the advantage of punctuality. As she told Sister Mattie the third time she was late to household potions and poisons, nothing interesting happened until after an event commenced.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“Petunia Temminnick’s coming-out ball was pronounced a resounding success by all in attendance. There had been highly intoxicating punch, a variety of dances, good music, and intermission entertainment. No one knew why the beautiful Miss Pelouse had stripped, rolled about in the garden, and then chucked a cheese pie at the youngest Temminnick girl before being taken away in floods of tears, but it was surely the highlight of a most enjoyable evening.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
“How often have I warned you against fraternizing with technology?” Sophronia wondered if that was a rhetorical question and began counting up the number of times just in case it wasn’t.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Etiquette & Espionage
Gail Carriger
Born place: San Francisco, The United States
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“My lady looks so gentle and so pure When yielding salutation by the way, That the tongue trembles and has nought to say, And the eyes, which fain would see, may not endure. And still, amid the praise she hears secure, She walks with humbleness for her array; Seeming a creature sent from Heaven to stay On earth, and show a miracle made sure. She is so pleasant in the eyes of men That through the sight the inmost heart doth gain A sweetness which needs proof to know it by: And from between her lips there seems to move A soothing essence that is full of love, Saying for ever to the spirit, “Sigh!”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Vita Nuova
“Reading Proust isn't just reading a book, it's an experience and you can't reject an experience.”
― William Gaddis, quote from The Recognitions
“The name that no human research can discover--
But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.
When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.”
― T.S. Eliot, quote from Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
“Some hours later Cooper took the packet of ash from his pocket, where earlier in the evening he had put it for greater security, and threw it angrily at a man who had given him great offence. It bounced, burst, off the wall on to the floor, where at once it became the object of much dribbling, passing, trapping, shooting, punching, heading and even some recognition from the gentleman's code. By closing time the body, mind and soul of Murphy were freely distributed over the floor of the saloon; and before another dayspring greyened the earth had been swept away with the sand, the beer, the butts, the glass, the matches, the spits, the vomit.”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Murphy
“Heather looked Scarlet up and down for the first time that day. “The brown shirt, Scarlet? Wow. I know you’ve already snagged the most delicious thing to ever walk this earth—” Heather shot Gabriel a smile, “but you’ve still gotta try to look like you care. No brown. I repeat, no brown. Brown looks like death on you.”
Scarlet smiled tightly. “Aw, I feel so pretty now.”
― Chelsea Fine, quote from Anew
The Blood of Others
My Notorious Life
Everything and the M...
Victory of Eagles
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