Quotes from Speaking from Among the Bones

“No point in wasting time with false vanity when you possess the real thing.”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“I wanted to cry.

I also wanted to go to my laboratory and prepare an enormous batch of nitrogen triiodide with which to blow up, in a spectacular mushroom cloud of purple vapor, the world and everyone in it.”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“Was sorrow, in the end, a private thing? A closed container? Something that, like a bucket of water, could be borne only on a single pair of shoulders?”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“I was the eighth dwarf. Sneaky.”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“There's an unwritten law of the universe which assures that the thing you seek will always be found in the last place you look. It applies to everything in life from lost socks to misplaced poisons. . .”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“IT WAS ONE OF those glorious days in March when the air was so fresh that you worshipped every whiff of it; that each breath of the intoxicating stuff created such new universes in your lungs and brain you were certain you were about to explode with sheer joy; one of those blustery days of scudding clouds and piddling showers and gum boots and wind-blown brollies that made you know you were truly alive.”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“I was learning that the best conversations consisted of keeping quiet and listening, and speaking, when one spoke at all, in words of a single syllable.”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“I had found by experience that putting things down on paper helped to clear the mind in precisely the same way, as Mrs. Mullet had taught me, that an eggshell clarifies the consommé or the coffee, which, of course, is a simple matter of chemistry. The albumin contained in the eggshell has the property of collecting and binding the rubbish that floats in the dark liquid, which can then be removed and discarded in a single reeking clot: a perfect description of the writing process.”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“As was your mother, you have been given the fatal gift of genius. Because of it, your life will not be an easy one - nor must you expect it to be. You must remember always that great gifts come at great cost.”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“The word “actually,” like its cousin “frankly,” should, by itself, be a tip-off to most people that what is to follow is a blatant lie— but it isn’t.”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“Ordinarily, anyone who made such a remark to my face would go to the top of my short list for strychnine.”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“Why do people always quote hamlet when they want to seem clever?”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“Could it be that goodness waxes and wanes like the moon, and that only evil is constant?”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“We Three Kings of Leicester Square,
Selling ladies’ underwear,
So fantastic, no elastic,
Only tuppence a pair.”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“Revenge is a dish best eaten cold. The reason for this, of course, is that while you're gleefully anticipating the event, the victim has plenty of time to worry about when, where, and how you're going to strike.”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“The best thing for soothing a disappointed mind is oxygen. A couple of deep inhalations of the old “O” rejuvenates every cell in the body.”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“The press was ruthless, but then so was the church.

Flavia de Luce”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“History is like the kitchen sink,” Adam answered. “Everything goes round and round until eventually, sooner or later, most of it goes down the waste pipe. Things are forgotten. Things are mislaid. Things are covered up. Sometimes, it’s simply a matter of neglect.”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“There had fallen between us what Dogger once referred to as "a companionable silence," a little parcel of time during which neither of us felt any particular need to talk.”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“Whenever I’m a little blue I think about cyanide, whose color so perfectly reflects my mood. It is pleasant to think that the manioc plant, which grows in Brazil, contains enormous quantities of the stuff in its thirty-pound roots, all of which, unfortunately, is washed away before the residue is used to make our daily tapioca.”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“I dwelt there by choice in privacy and peace.”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“I flipped on the switch marked "Shuddering Sobs," but nothing came.

Damnation! I used to be a dab hand at water on demand. What on earth was happening to me? Was I becoming hardened? Was this what being twelve was going to be like?”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“Lobsters, snails, crabs, clams, squids, slugs, and members of the European royal families, by contrast, have blue blood, due to the fact that it’s based on copper rather than iron.”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“You can pray in the churchyard," the sergeant said. "The Lord has large ears.”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“There are things that are worse than glass and crocodiles.”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“I had once remarked to Feely that, because of the oxygen, breathing fresh air was like breathing God, but she had slapped my face and told me I was being blasphemous.”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“I did not elaborate, nor did I need to. The human imagination is capable of anything when left on its own to fill in the blanks.”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

“Even after five hundred years?” “A seed is a remarkable vessel,” he told me. “Our one true time machine. Each of them is capable of bringing the past, alive, into the present. Think of that!”
― Alan Bradley, quote from Speaking from Among the Bones

About the author

Popular quotes

“in my opinion those who strive for fame will lose their lives on account of fame; those who live in quest of fortune will perish because of riches; those who have titles sleep embracing a tiger; and those who receive official favors walk with snakes in their sleeves.”
― Wu Cheng'en, quote from The Journey to the West, Volume 1

“You flambe one car and now you think every song with fire is about you," Logan says. "Get over yourself, Catalano.”
― Jennifer Salvato Doktorski, quote from How My Summer Went Up in Flames

“As it turned out, imagining the fate of seven billion people was far less emotionally affecting than imagining the fate of one.”
― Neal Stephenson, quote from Seveneves

“Fucking bastards are simple by nature.”
― Alice Sebold, quote from The Almost Moon

“Who can really be faithful in great things if he has not learned to be faithful in the things of daily life?”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, quote from Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

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.