Quotes from The Hanging Tree

“Boss,’ I said into my Airwave. ‘It’s getting needlessly metaphysical out here.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“Now, personally, I'd have been happier driving an armored personnel carrier in through the front door. But since we're the Met, and not the police department of a small town in Missouri, we didn't have one.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“When the Treaty of Ghent ended the War of 1812, the British, in time-honoured fashion, abandoned their allies. Who were subsequently wiped out by the Americans along with any other tribes that happened to be in the same general vicinity – even those that had actually been allied with the US government during the war. It’s exactly this sort of thing, of course, which gives colonialism a bad name.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“Bollocks, I thought, or testiculi or possibly testiculos if we were using the accusative.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“Once the telephone had been invented, it was only a matter of time before the police got in on the new technology and, first in Glasgow and then in London, the police box was born. Here a police officer in need of assistance could find a telephone link to Scotland Yard, a dry space to do “paperwork” and, in certain extreme cases, a life of adventure through space and time.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“The designer had probably been going for Turkish Bath but had hit Czech Porn Shoot instead.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“The word “bollocks” is one of the most beautiful and flexible in the English language. It can be used to express emotional states ranging from ecstatic surprise to weary resignation in the face of inevitable disaster.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“When the treaty of Ghent ended the War of 1812, the British, in time honored fashion, abandoned their allies. Who were subsequently wiped out by the Americans along with any other tribes that happened to be in the same general vicinity—even those that had actually been allied with the US government during the war. It’s exactly this sort of thing, of course, which gives colonialism a bad name. Nightingale”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“The main purpose of an administrative meeting is to establish collective guilt for whatever fuck-up arises out of its decisions. That”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“The word ‘bollocks’ is one of the most beautiful and flexible in the English language. It can be used to express emotional states ranging from ecstatic surprise to weary resignation in the face of inevitable disaster. And”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“I happened to know for a fact that the whole of Belgravia nick were running a pool on how long I would last and how I would go—the options being death, medical discharge (physical), medical discharge (psychological), indefinite disciplinary suspension, sacked for misconduct, secondment to Interpol and, with just one vote, ascension to a higher plane of existence. I suspected the last one was a bit unlikely. Guleed”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“I was pleased to see that even back in the glory days of the Folly people left their mugs of tea on their magical textbooks.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“Then he smiled at me and for that moment, and just that moment, I forgave him everything—everything—because now I knew what joy looked like and I was part of it. It”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“With a grunt he levered himself to his feet, causing the chair to bang against the bookcase behind him and set the various objet d’bollocks rattling.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“Jeremy Beaumont-Jones had been lucky enough to be born rich. He wasn’t in the mad oligarch class but once you’re past a certain point, the sheer weight of your money sucks in wealth like a financial singularity. If you’re sensible enough not to blow it on race horses, cocaine or musical theatre, then it becomes a perpetual-motion money making machine.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“five story Georgian terrace whose elegant proportions would have caused the most hardened Canadian property developer’s soul to weep to see such beauty—just prior to having the place gutted and filled with the latest in personality-free interior design.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“There was a list, Kimberley imagined, and in an obscure subsection of that list, a section that had not been properly updated since George Bush was President,”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“Boss,” I said into my Airwave. “It’s getting needlessly metaphysical out here.” “Ignore”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“The very rich, having fundamentally missed the point of urban living, have long been frustrated by the fact that it’s impossible to squeeze the amenities of a country mansion—car showroom, swimming pool, cinema, servants quarters etc.—into the floor space of your average London terrace. Those without access to trans-dimensional engineering, a key Time Lord discovery, have had to resort to extending their houses into the ground. Thus proving that all that stands between your average rich person and a career in Bond villainy is access to an extinct volcano. They”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“Or at least of fending him off for long enough that we can sweep in heroically like the Seventh Cavalry.’ Burning tipis and shooting women and children, I thought. And”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“Sir Isaac Newton legendarily wrote the famous Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, which gave us principles that a couple of hundred years later were good enough to land a man on the moon. Then he wrote the slightly less well known Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Artes Magicis, which codified the magical techniques that allow me to inconvenience paper targets and Nightingale to demolish small agricultural buildings. “There”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“Hyde Park Corner is what happens when a bunch of urban planners take one look at the grinding circle of gridlock that surrounds the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and think—that’s what we want for our town.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“Now, personally, I’d have been happier driving an armored personnel carrier in through the front door. But since we’re the Met, and not the police department of a small town in Missouri, we didn’t have one. I”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“I know it’s hard, Peter,” she’d said. “But if you could contain your erudition and ready wit for just a little while we’d be most grateful.” “Am I allowed to be cheeky?” I’d asked. “No you’re fucking not,” said Seawoll. “I’m”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“Now, personally, I’d have been happier driving an armored personnel carrier in through the front door. But since we’re the Met, and not the police department of a small town in Missouri, we didn’t have one.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“One Hyde Park squatted next to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel like a stack of office furniture, and with all the elegance and charm of the inside of a photocopier. Albeit a brand new photocopier that doubled as a fax and document scanner.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“Perhaps, I thought, the dead god gets folded into the existence of the new god, the way a dormant genetic variation can exist within an organism’s DNA—hanging about like an actor’s understudy until the right environmental conditions give it expression and—hey presto—suddenly a bacteria is heat resistant, our Chloe gets her big break on Broadway and a sniper for hire gets an unexpected half a meter of cold steel through the chest. Perhaps”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“So, actions were still being actioned and me and Guleed were actioning them, and the wheels of justice ground on. Albeit in first gear. So”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

“Even at ten o’clock in the morning it was going to be full of members of the public. Rich, influential members of the public, many of them foreign, a lot of them with some level of diplomatic immunity.
‘What I’m saying here,’ Seawoll had said, ‘is try to limit the amount of damage you do to none fucking whatsoever.’
I don’t know where I got this reputation for property damage, I really don’t”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from The Hanging Tree

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Popular quotes

“Human beings want to know too much abut each other, and that's why there are so many lies.”
― Pete Hamill, quote from Forever

“You have responsibilities now, Bob. You must lose this naïve understanding of violence! You are embarrassin’ me in front of the lads! You can’t play by their rules or they’ll win unfailingly! You don’t engage in courtly play-fightin’ with one such as this. You get a great friggin’ tree-branch and keep hittin’ him with it until he dies. Like that. D’you see, boys?”
― Neal Stephenson, quote from The Confusion

“It is usually imagined that a thief, a murderer, a spy, a prostitute, acknowledging his profession as evil, is ashamed of it. But the contrary is true. People whom fate and their sin-mistakes have placed in a certain position, however false that position may be, form a view of life in general which makes their position seem good and admissible. In order to keep up their view of life, these people instinctively keep to the circle of those people who share their views of life and their own place in it. This surprises us, where the persons concerned are thieves, bragging about their dexterity, prostitutes vaunting their depravity, or murderers boasting of their cruelty. This surprises us only because the circle, the atmosphere in which these people live, is limited, and we are outside it. But can we not observe the same phenomenon which the rich boast of their wealth, i.e., robbery; the commanders in the army pride themselves on their victories, i.e., murder; and those in high places vaunt their power, i.e., violence? We do not see the perversion in the views of life held by these people, only because the circle formed by them is more extensive, and we ourselves are moving inside of it.”
― Leo Tolstoy, quote from Resurrection

“After the presentations, we had to fill out these questionnaires. The first question was, 'Where do you see yourself in fifteen years?'
I know EXACTLY where I will be in fifteen years: in my pool, at my mansion, counting my money. But there weren't any check boxes for THAT option.”
― Jeff Kinney, quote from Rodrick Rules

“كانت جميلة, ربما ليست الأجمل بين الحضور الأنثوي, ولكنها جميلة بصورة غير محددة, بصورة خاصة, لا يمكن شرحها بالكلمات, مثل بيت شعر يفلت معناه من المترجم, إذا كان ثمة وجود لهذا الشيء في بيت شعر.”
― José Saramago, quote from Death with Interruptions

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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.