“To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband's dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor.”
―
Deanna Raybourn,
Silent in the Grave
“I abhorred weakness of any kind but most particularly in my tea.” ― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning
“Fate is by far the greatest mystery of all.” ― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave
“Mrs. Clutterthorpe, I can hardly think of any fate worse than becoming the mother of six. Unless perhaps it were plague, and even then I am persuaded a few disfiguring buboes and possible death would be preferable to motherhood.” ― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning
“I am quite determined to be mistress of my own fate, Mrs. Clutterthorpe, but I do sympathize with how strange it must sound to you. It is not your fault that you are entirely devoid of imagination. I blame your education” ― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning
“Oh, yes. I mean to marry him. But not because I want him to give me a life. I want to marry him to share the life I already have. The difference, I think you will find, is a significant one.” ― Deanna Raybourn, Silent on the Moor
“O, the perfidy of men.” “What have I done?” he protested. “Nothing at present, but you are the only representative of your sex I have at hand to abuse. Take your lumps for your brothers.” ― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning
“I stepped closer still. He closed his eyes again and covered my hand with his own. 'You smell of violets. You always smell of violets,' he said. 'You've no idea how many times I have walked these moors and smelled them and thought you were near. On and on I walked, following the scent of you, and you were never there. When I saw you in the hall tonight, I thought I had finally gone mad.” ― Deanna Raybourn, Silent on the Moor
“What virtue is there in a man who demonstrates goodness because he has been bred to it? It is his habit from youth. But a man who has known unkindness and want, for him to be kind and charitable to those who have been the cause of his misfortunes, that is a virtuous man.” ― Deanna Raybourn, Silent on the Moor
“If you were a man, your ladyship, I would cordially horsewhip you for that remark.” ― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave
“Because there is no power on earth that could make me abandon our friendship. There is no deed you could confess so dark that it would make me forsake you. You said of us once that we were quicksilver and the rest of the world mud. We are alike, shaped by Nature in the same mold, and whatever that signifies, it means that to spurn each other would be to spit in the face of whatever deity has seen fit to bring us together. We are the same, and to leave you would be to leave myself.” ― Deanna Raybourn, A Treacherous Curse
“That is the hallmark of a good partnership, you know - when one partner sees the forest and the other studies the trees.” ― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning
“Now I was more certain than ever of my decision. I could not love a man who did not love Jane Austen.” ― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Sanctuary
“I would give up everything for you, Giulia"I smiled at him gently. "But you must understand. I should never want a man to give up anything for me. I should want him to feel in winning me he has won the whole world...” ― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Sanctuary
“One cannot innovate new improvements without understanding old failures.” ― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning
“I adored history, not the dry dates and boring battles, but the stories and the people who populated them.” ― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave
“After a moment, he turned sharply to me. 'Are you quite all right?''Yes, perfectly. Why do you ask?''Because I have just called you contrary and you did not bother to contradict me. I thought you might be ill.” ― Deanna Raybourn, Silent on the Moor
“From the first note I knew it was different from anything I had ever heard.... It began simply, but with an arresting phrase, so simple, but eloquent as a human voice. It spoke, beckoning gently as it unwound, rising and tensing. It spiraled upward, the tension growing with each repeat of the phrasing, and yet somehow it grew more abandoned, wilder with each note. His eyes remained closed as his fingers flew over the strings, spilling forth surely more notes than were possible from a single violin. For one mad moment I actually thought there were more of them, an entire orchestra of violins spilling out of this one instrument. I had never heard anything like it--it was poetry and seduction and light and shadow and every other contradiction I could think of. It seemed impossible to breathe while listening to that music, and yet all I was doing was breathing, quite heavily. The music itself had become as palpable a presence in that room as another person would have been--and its presence was something out of myth.” ― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave
“One is not born English without knowing how to converse easily about the weather.” ― Deanna Raybourn, Dark Road to Darjeeling
“I abhorred weakness of any kind but most particularly in my tea.” ― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning
“Fate is by far the greatest mystery of all.” ― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave
“Mrs. Clutterthorpe, I can hardly think of any fate worse than becoming the mother of six. Unless perhaps it were plague, and even then I am persuaded a few disfiguring buboes and possible death would be preferable to motherhood.” ― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning
“I am quite determined to be mistress of my own fate, Mrs. Clutterthorpe, but I do sympathize with how strange it must sound to you. It is not your fault that you are entirely devoid of imagination. I blame your education” ― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning
“Oh, yes. I mean to marry him. But not because I want him to give me a life. I want to marry him to share the life I already have. The difference, I think you will find, is a significant one.” ― Deanna Raybourn, Silent on the Moor
“O, the perfidy of men.” “What have I done?” he protested. “Nothing at present, but you are the only representative of your sex I have at hand to abuse. Take your lumps for your brothers.” ― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning
“I stepped closer still. He closed his eyes again and covered my hand with his own. 'You smell of violets. You always smell of violets,' he said. 'You've no idea how many times I have walked these moors and smelled them and thought you were near. On and on I walked, following the scent of you, and you were never there. When I saw you in the hall tonight, I thought I had finally gone mad.” ― Deanna Raybourn, Silent on the Moor
“What virtue is there in a man who demonstrates goodness because he has been bred to it? It is his habit from youth. But a man who has known unkindness and want, for him to be kind and charitable to those who have been the cause of his misfortunes, that is a virtuous man.” ― Deanna Raybourn, Silent on the Moor
“If you were a man, your ladyship, I would cordially horsewhip you for that remark.” ― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave
“Because there is no power on earth that could make me abandon our friendship. There is no deed you could confess so dark that it would make me forsake you. You said of us once that we were quicksilver and the rest of the world mud. We are alike, shaped by Nature in the same mold, and whatever that signifies, it means that to spurn each other would be to spit in the face of whatever deity has seen fit to bring us together. We are the same, and to leave you would be to leave myself.” ― Deanna Raybourn, A Treacherous Curse
“That is the hallmark of a good partnership, you know - when one partner sees the forest and the other studies the trees.” ― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning
“Now I was more certain than ever of my decision. I could not love a man who did not love Jane Austen.” ― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Sanctuary
“I would give up everything for you, Giulia"I smiled at him gently. "But you must understand. I should never want a man to give up anything for me. I should want him to feel in winning me he has won the whole world...” ― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Sanctuary
“One cannot innovate new improvements without understanding old failures.” ― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning
“I adored history, not the dry dates and boring battles, but the stories and the people who populated them.” ― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave
“After a moment, he turned sharply to me. 'Are you quite all right?''Yes, perfectly. Why do you ask?''Because I have just called you contrary and you did not bother to contradict me. I thought you might be ill.” ― Deanna Raybourn, Silent on the Moor
“From the first note I knew it was different from anything I had ever heard.... It began simply, but with an arresting phrase, so simple, but eloquent as a human voice. It spoke, beckoning gently as it unwound, rising and tensing. It spiraled upward, the tension growing with each repeat of the phrasing, and yet somehow it grew more abandoned, wilder with each note. His eyes remained closed as his fingers flew over the strings, spilling forth surely more notes than were possible from a single violin. For one mad moment I actually thought there were more of them, an entire orchestra of violins spilling out of this one instrument. I had never heard anything like it--it was poetry and seduction and light and shadow and every other contradiction I could think of. It seemed impossible to breathe while listening to that music, and yet all I was doing was breathing, quite heavily. The music itself had become as palpable a presence in that room as another person would have been--and its presence was something out of myth.” ― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave
“One is not born English without knowing how to converse easily about the weather.” ― Deanna Raybourn, Dark Road to Darjeeling
