Quotes from The Amulet of Samarkand

“One magician demanded I show him an image of the love of his life. I rustled up a mirror.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“And then, as if written by the hand of a bad novelist, an incredible thing happened.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“Watch where you leave your victims! I stubbed my toe on that.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“That did it. I'd gone through a lot in the past few days. Everyone I met seemed to want a piece of me: djinn, magicians, humans...it made no difference.I'd been summoned, manhandled, shot at, captured, constricted, bossed about and generally taken for granted. And now, to cap it all, this bloke is joining in too, when all I'd been doing was quietly trying to kill him.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“I had a chance at him now. Things were a bit more even. He knew my name, I knew his. He had six years' experience, I had five thousand and ten. That was the kind of odds that you could do something with.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“Jabor finally appeared at the top of the stairs, sparks of flame radiating from his body and igniting the fabric of the house around him. He caught sight of the boy, reached out his hand and stepped forward.

And banged his head nicely on the low-slung attic door.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“Minor magicians take pains to fit this traditional wizardly bill. By contrast, the really powerful magicians take pleasure in looking like accountants.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“He was transfixed at the sight of the lords and ladies of his realm running about like demented chickens.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“If anyone else asked that question, O He Who Is Terrible and Great, I would have said they were an ignorant fool; in you it is a sign of the disarming simplicity which is the fount of all virtue.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“The column hung above the middle of the pentacle, bubbling ever upward against the ceiling like the cloud of an erupting volcanoe. There was a barely perceptible pause. Then two yellow staring eyes materialized in the heart of the smoke.
Hey, it was his first time. I wanted to scare him. And it did, too.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“Ambition is all very well, my lad, but you must cloak it.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“Bartimaeus: "A small piece of advice," I said "it isn't wise to be rude to someone bigger than you, especially when they've just trapped you under a boulder."
Imp: "You can stick your advice up...."

"This brief pause replaces a short, censored episode, characterized by bad language and some sadly necessary violence. When we pick up the story again, everything is as before, except that I am perspiring slightly and the contrite imp is the model of cooperation."

Bartimaeus: "I'll ask again: who is Rupert Deveraeux?"
Imp: "He's the British Prime Minister, oh Most Bounteous and Merciful one.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“The Amulet of Samarkand. It was Simon Lovelace's. Now it is yours. Soon it will be Simon Lovelace's again. Take it and enjoy the consequences.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“There was a loud cough from the man on the stand. I replaced My Magic Mirror carefully on his tray, gave him a cheesy smile, and went my way.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“A word of friendly advice could have saved him, but dear me, I was too busy watching him unravel to think of it until it was far too late.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“The bristling eyebrows shot up in mock surprise. Mesmerized, the boy watched them disappear under the hanging thatch of white hair. There, almost coyly, they remained just out of sight for a moment, before suddenly descending with a terrible finality and weight.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“Haven't you done enough for a lifetime? Think about it—two power—crazed magicians killed, a hundred power—crazed magicians saved…”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“I am Bartimaeus! I am Sakhr al-Jinni, N’gorso the Mighty, and the Serpent of Silver Plumes! I have rebuilt the walls of Uruk, Karnak, and Prague. I have spoken with Solomon. I have run with the buffalo fathers of the plains. I have watched over Old Zimbabwe till the stones fell and the jackals fed on its people. I am Bartimaeus!”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“Woman, man, mole, maggot – they’re all the same, when all’s said and done, except for slight variations in cognitive ability.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“Dazu bedarf es [...] vor allem des richtigen Namens. Ich meine, es ist ja nicht so, als bestellte man ein Taxi—bei einer Beschwörung kommt nicht einfach irgendwer!”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“When I set out from the boy's attic window, my head was so full of competing plans and complex stratagems that I didn't look where I was going and flew straight into a chimney.

Something symbolic in that. It's what fake freedom does for you.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“many weighty books on magic that looked as if they had been bound in human skin at the beginning of time but had probably been mass-produced last week by a factory in Catford.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“I'm sorry, Miraculous One, it's difficult to think of new titles for you when you ask short questions.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“The mole dug its way deep, deep down, under the foundations of the wall. No magical alarm sounded, though I did hit my head five times on a pebble.
Once each on five different pebbles. Not the same pebble five times. Just want to make that clear. Sometimes you human beings are so dense.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“The short, fat fingers moved like dancing sausages across the strings;”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“Freedom is an illusion. It always comes at a price. Thinking”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“Hey, it was his first time. I wanted to scare him”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“La libertad es una fantasía, siempre tiene un precio.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“My mind works on several levels at once.1”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

“They passed a succession of granite monuments to the conquering magicians of the late Victorian age and the fallen heroes of the Great War, then a few monolithic sculptures representing Ideal Virtues (Patriotism, Respect for Authority, the Dutiful Wife).”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand

About the author

Popular quotes

“...but loving had left her skinless.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds

“This wasn’t about the chase. We all knew who would win. It was about defiance.”
― Pepper Winters, quote from First Debt

“I know you. I remember you. You’re the girl I was designed to love, my God-given match, my solnyshko.”
― Tillie Cole, quote from Raze

“…he knew no other pleasure but what consisted in opposition.”
― James Hogg, quote from The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner

“My grandfather used to like the word 'mitigate,'" Harry said. "He liked the sound of it, and he used it whenever he could. When he was a very old man, he often got on the subject of dying. 'You cant talk your way out,' he'd often say, 'and you can't buy your way out, and you can't shoot your way out, and the only thing that mitigates the matter in the slightest is the fact that nobody else is going to escape. Nobody-no, not one.'"
"I know, I know," said Mr. Hewitt, "but what's the purpose of it?"
"You supported your wife, didn't you?" asked Harry. "You raised a family, didn't you? That's the purpose of it."
'That's no purpose," said Mr. Hewitt. "The same thing that's going to happen to me is going to happen to them."
"The generations have to keep coming along," said Harry. "That's all I know."
"You're put here, " said Mr. Hewitt, "and you're allowed to eat and draw breath and go back and forth a few short years, and about the time you get things in shape where you can sit down and enjoy them you wind up in a box in a hole in the ground, and as far as I can see, there's no purpose to it whatsoever.”
― Joseph Mitchell, quote from Up in the Old Hotel

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 2018, 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.