“Sa fugi de tine o zi, doua, douazeci nu e usor, dar nici imposibil. Faci matematici sau marxism ca S.T.H., faci sionism ca Winkler, citesti carti ca mine, umbli dupa femei sau joci sah, sau te dai cu capul de pereti. Dar intr-o zi, intr-un minut de neatentie, te intalnesti cu tine insuti la un colt de suflet, cum te-ai intalni la un colt de strada cu un creditor de care te-ai ferit zadarnic. Dai ochii cu tine si atunci intelegi cat de inutile sunt toate evadarile din aceasta inchisoare fara ziduri, fara porti si fara gratii, din aceasta inchisoare care este insasi viata ta.”
―
Mihail Sebastian,
De două mii de ani; Cum am devenit huligan
“Honor was a luxury item, like hair pomade and snuff. Its only purpose was to show the world that you could afford to be impractical, that you had enough money to behave in a way that was compatible with some ludicrous code instead of acting out of self-preservation like the rest of humanity.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Soldier's Scoundrel
“Nobody had been more surprised than Jack to discover that when he was happy, he wanted to make others happy. What a soggy lot of rubbish, but there you had it.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Soldier's Scoundrel
“I used to think that revenge was about defending one’s honor, but it turns out that honor is just spite dressed up for Sunday.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Queer Principles of Kit Webb
“Desperately trying to remember her manners, she curtseyed and murmured, "Your Grace."The smile lines at his eyes deepened subtly. "You appear to be in need of rescue. Why don't you come inside with me, away from this riffraff? The duchess is eager to meet you." As Pandora hesitated, thoroughly intimidated, he assured her. "I'm quite trustworthy. In fact, I'm very nearly an angel. You'll come to love me in no time.""Take heed," Lord St. Vincent advised Pandora sardonically, fastening the loose sides of his vest. "My father is the pied piper of gullible women.""That's not true," the duke said, "The non-gullible ones follow me as well."Pandora couldn't help chuckling. She looked up into silvery-blue eyes lit with sparks of humor and playfulness. There was something reassuring about his presence, the sense of a man who truly liked women.When she and Cassandra were children, they had fantasized about a handsome father who would lavish them with affection and advice, and spoil them just a little, but not too much. A father who might have let them stand on his feet to dance. This man looked very much like the one Pandora had imagined.She moved forward and took his arm."How was your journey, my dear?" the duke asked as he escorted her into the house.Before Pandora could reply, Lord St. Vincent spoke from behind them. "Lady Pandora doesn't like small talk, Father. She would prefer to discuss topics such as Darwin, or women's suffrage.""Naturally an intelligent young woman would wish to skip over mundane chitchat," the duke said, giving Pandora such an approving glance that she fairly glowed. "However," he continued thoughtfully, "most people need to be guided into a feeling of safety before they dare reveal their opinions to someone they've only just met. There's a beginning to everything, after all. Every opera has its prelude, every sonnet its opening quatrain. Small talk is merely a way of helping a stranger to trust you, by first finding something you can both agree on.""No one's ever explained it that way before," Pandora said with a touch of wonder. "It actually makes sense. But why must it be so often about weather? Isn't there something else we all agree on? Runcible spoons- everyone likes those, don't they? And teatime, and feeding ducks.""Blue ink," the duke added. "And a cat's purr. And summer storms- although I suppose that brings us back to weather.""I wouldn't mind talking about weather with you, Your Grace," Pandora said ingenuously.The duke laughed gently. "What a delightful girl.” ― Lisa Kleypas, Devil in Spring
“If the old lady who’s been giving me tea and biscuits for twenty-five years is a trained assassin, I suppose I might like assassins after all. I might have very positive and warm associations with assassins.” ― Cat Sebastian, Hither, Page
“He took hold of Jack’s collar and bent down for a kiss. With each stroke of his tongue he thought, This is ours. It wasn’t something he was doing to Jack, or Jack was doing to him. Neither of them owned it. It was theirs. This was what he had wanted; as much as the physical pleasure he wanted the sense of shared desire, mutual longing.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Soldier's Scoundrel
“Percy realized he had had it all wrong when he told Kit that honor is just spite dressed up; spite was honor when it was the only weapon you had against someone more powerful.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Queer Principles of Kit Webb
“When you smile I want to do awful things to you,” Oliver said, leering wolfishly.“A lucky coincidence, because when I’m smiling it’s because I’m thinking of you doing filthy things to me.” Jack grinned back at him.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Soldier's Scoundrel
“That was how it was when your soul was in pieces and somebody else had one of them. Only when you were together would the pieces fit into place and become whole.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Ruin of a Rake
“Missing you is profoundly inconvenient, I’ll have you know. I have things to do and places to be, and all the while I’ll feel like I’ve mislaid a piece of my soul and I won’t get it back until I see you again. That can’t be normal.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Ruin of a Rake
“The man meant to stay here, to meddle and talk and distract; he planned to smell good and be handsome and obviously Lawrence should never have agreed to any of this.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Lawrence Browne Affair
“You’re mine,” Jack repeated, dusting kisses along Oliver’s jaw. “I’ve tried being without you, and it’s not any good, Oliver.”“It really isn’t,” Oliver agreed. “Let’s not do that again.”“Never again.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Soldier's Scoundrel
“The lady obviously spent her days reading, napping, and eating biscuits. He didn’t know whether to be disgustedor jealous.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Soldier's Scoundrel
“Even the absence of information was included: “Wraxhall. No debts, no secrets.” And “Servants overpaid,”followed, amazingly, by “Very friendly dog.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Soldier's Scoundrel
“He couldn't be serious and stern with a man who had ducklings in his hair, or who talked to baby birds like they were guests at a tea party, or who seemed to dearly want Phillip to smile.” ― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble
“So, is this to be a business arrangement?”“No! Of course not. I want to share my meals and my bed and my life with the man I love. Christ, Jack. Don’t say such filthy things.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Soldier's Scoundrel
“He tended to think that when the Bible condemned something practically everyone did, whether it be tossing oneself off or eating pork, there was likely some nuance that had been lost either to history or to translation. And then he didn’t think about it anymore.” ― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble
“Rivington seemed unperturbed by Jack’s loss of temper. He rubbed has hand along his jaw. “In that case, wecould pretend to be cousins by marriage. And then we can both act appalled by the connection.” Jack laughed,feeling his anger dissipate.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Soldier's Scoundrel
“Honor was a luxury item, like hair pomade and snuff. Its only purpose was to show the world that you could afford to be impractical, that you had enough money to behave in a way that was compatible with some ludicrous code instead of acting out of self-preservation like the rest of humanity.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Soldier's Scoundrel
“Nobody had been more surprised than Jack to discover that when he was happy, he wanted to make others happy. What a soggy lot of rubbish, but there you had it.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Soldier's Scoundrel
“I used to think that revenge was about defending one’s honor, but it turns out that honor is just spite dressed up for Sunday.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Queer Principles of Kit Webb
“Desperately trying to remember her manners, she curtseyed and murmured, "Your Grace."The smile lines at his eyes deepened subtly. "You appear to be in need of rescue. Why don't you come inside with me, away from this riffraff? The duchess is eager to meet you." As Pandora hesitated, thoroughly intimidated, he assured her. "I'm quite trustworthy. In fact, I'm very nearly an angel. You'll come to love me in no time.""Take heed," Lord St. Vincent advised Pandora sardonically, fastening the loose sides of his vest. "My father is the pied piper of gullible women.""That's not true," the duke said, "The non-gullible ones follow me as well."Pandora couldn't help chuckling. She looked up into silvery-blue eyes lit with sparks of humor and playfulness. There was something reassuring about his presence, the sense of a man who truly liked women.When she and Cassandra were children, they had fantasized about a handsome father who would lavish them with affection and advice, and spoil them just a little, but not too much. A father who might have let them stand on his feet to dance. This man looked very much like the one Pandora had imagined.She moved forward and took his arm."How was your journey, my dear?" the duke asked as he escorted her into the house.Before Pandora could reply, Lord St. Vincent spoke from behind them. "Lady Pandora doesn't like small talk, Father. She would prefer to discuss topics such as Darwin, or women's suffrage.""Naturally an intelligent young woman would wish to skip over mundane chitchat," the duke said, giving Pandora such an approving glance that she fairly glowed. "However," he continued thoughtfully, "most people need to be guided into a feeling of safety before they dare reveal their opinions to someone they've only just met. There's a beginning to everything, after all. Every opera has its prelude, every sonnet its opening quatrain. Small talk is merely a way of helping a stranger to trust you, by first finding something you can both agree on.""No one's ever explained it that way before," Pandora said with a touch of wonder. "It actually makes sense. But why must it be so often about weather? Isn't there something else we all agree on? Runcible spoons- everyone likes those, don't they? And teatime, and feeding ducks.""Blue ink," the duke added. "And a cat's purr. And summer storms- although I suppose that brings us back to weather.""I wouldn't mind talking about weather with you, Your Grace," Pandora said ingenuously.The duke laughed gently. "What a delightful girl.” ― Lisa Kleypas, Devil in Spring
“If the old lady who’s been giving me tea and biscuits for twenty-five years is a trained assassin, I suppose I might like assassins after all. I might have very positive and warm associations with assassins.” ― Cat Sebastian, Hither, Page
“He took hold of Jack’s collar and bent down for a kiss. With each stroke of his tongue he thought, This is ours. It wasn’t something he was doing to Jack, or Jack was doing to him. Neither of them owned it. It was theirs. This was what he had wanted; as much as the physical pleasure he wanted the sense of shared desire, mutual longing.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Soldier's Scoundrel
“Percy realized he had had it all wrong when he told Kit that honor is just spite dressed up; spite was honor when it was the only weapon you had against someone more powerful.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Queer Principles of Kit Webb
“When you smile I want to do awful things to you,” Oliver said, leering wolfishly.“A lucky coincidence, because when I’m smiling it’s because I’m thinking of you doing filthy things to me.” Jack grinned back at him.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Soldier's Scoundrel
“That was how it was when your soul was in pieces and somebody else had one of them. Only when you were together would the pieces fit into place and become whole.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Ruin of a Rake
“Missing you is profoundly inconvenient, I’ll have you know. I have things to do and places to be, and all the while I’ll feel like I’ve mislaid a piece of my soul and I won’t get it back until I see you again. That can’t be normal.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Ruin of a Rake
“The man meant to stay here, to meddle and talk and distract; he planned to smell good and be handsome and obviously Lawrence should never have agreed to any of this.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Lawrence Browne Affair
“You’re mine,” Jack repeated, dusting kisses along Oliver’s jaw. “I’ve tried being without you, and it’s not any good, Oliver.”“It really isn’t,” Oliver agreed. “Let’s not do that again.”“Never again.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Soldier's Scoundrel
“The lady obviously spent her days reading, napping, and eating biscuits. He didn’t know whether to be disgustedor jealous.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Soldier's Scoundrel
“Even the absence of information was included: “Wraxhall. No debts, no secrets.” And “Servants overpaid,”followed, amazingly, by “Very friendly dog.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Soldier's Scoundrel
“He couldn't be serious and stern with a man who had ducklings in his hair, or who talked to baby birds like they were guests at a tea party, or who seemed to dearly want Phillip to smile.” ― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble
“So, is this to be a business arrangement?”“No! Of course not. I want to share my meals and my bed and my life with the man I love. Christ, Jack. Don’t say such filthy things.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Soldier's Scoundrel
“He tended to think that when the Bible condemned something practically everyone did, whether it be tossing oneself off or eating pork, there was likely some nuance that had been lost either to history or to translation. And then he didn’t think about it anymore.” ― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble
“Rivington seemed unperturbed by Jack’s loss of temper. He rubbed has hand along his jaw. “In that case, wecould pretend to be cousins by marriage. And then we can both act appalled by the connection.” Jack laughed,feeling his anger dissipate.” ― Cat Sebastian, The Soldier's Scoundrel
