Curtis Craddock > Quotes

“The most important things we have are dreams," Isabelle said. "Without them we cannot conjure new truths or better worlds. Where we get into trouble is when we tell ourselves dreams don't matter, or we let other people tell us our dreams are silly or stupid. I dream of peace, and I won't give it up.”
― Curtis Craddock, An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors

“Why did tradition always insist that ignorance was the optimum state for important transactions involving women?”
― Curtis Craddock, An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors

“She slapped down a mug of something that was, he suspected, technically alcohol, but only because it had a good lawyer.”
― Curtis Craddock, An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors

“After a moment he added, "Though if you do find it necessary to execute me, I request that my funeral include a tower of horse shit burned in my honor."

Grand Leon glanced at him from the corner of his eye. "In the tradition of a great hero being sent off with his preferred weapon?"

"Yes, sire.”
― Curtis Craddock, An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors

“Joy doesn’t negate sorrow, but shows it at its proper scale.”
― Curtis Craddock, A Labyrinth of Scions and Sorcery

“Forgiveness missed the point. Once you’d forgiven yourself the first time, once you’d given yourself permission, what was to stop you from doing it again? If there was any truth at all in the business of bloodletting, it was that the bloodstains must remain. They might not show on the outside, but they were always right there, under the skin, a reminder of the cost of power.”
― curtis craddock, A Labyrinth of Scions and Sorcery

“Real power comes from the mind. When someone wants to keep you powerless, the first thing they do is try to control what is permissible for you to think. They write your story for you without your consent and tell you this is how you must believe until even your own thoughts seem like alien things in your head. They hem you in so there is no escape or relief, until in desperation you step off the page, out of the story, into a place their narrative cannot find you. Then you can see the world as it really is.”
― Curtis Craddock, A Labyrinth of Scions and Sorcery

“Men of action must be led by men of virtue, else there is no honor, merely chaos and barbarism.”
― Curtis Craddock, An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors

“Alas, there are no happy endings, only interesting middles,”
― Curtis Craddock, An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors

“Truth does not sway men's minds unless it first serves their ambitions.”
― Curtis Craddock, A Labyrinth of Scions and Sorcery

“And he was trying to stuff her into the middle of this museum, as if by surrounding her with things of the past he could blend and brush her onto the canvas of his memory and pretend she had been there all along.”
― Curtis Craddock, An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors

“if justice doesn’t work for the weak then it doesn’t work for anybody, and we are nothing more than barbarians with shinier buttons.”
― Curtis Craddock, A Labyrinth of Scions and Sorcery

“Well done," BItterlich said. "You definitely showed those peacocks you're not chicken."

Isabelle dragged herself out of her mental cyclone and bestowed him the glower he was looking for. "You've been waiting to say that all day, haven't you?"

Bitterlich contrived to look innocent. "I just thought it was another feather in your cap."

Isabelle resisted the urge to groan. As handsome and dashing and daring as BItterlich was, his sense of humour drifted toward vile puns. The only way to deal with him when he got like this was to play dumb. She took off her hat and examined it carefully. '"I don't understand. It doesn't have any more feathers than it did this morning."

Bitterlich glanced aside at her. "Since when did you become fusty?"

Isabelle replaced her hat and said primly, "I heard an atrocity being committed, and I stifled it."

"I have no egrets," Bitterlich said.”
― Curtis Craddock, The Last Uncharted Sky

“BItterlich tilted his head and his whiskers twitched forward, a tension on his lip. "How are you feeling?"

"I'll live," Isabelle said.

Bitterlich put on an expression so attentive that it very nearly had its own notebook.”
― Curtis Craddock, The Last Uncharted Sky

“Any decision we make, no matter how wise or foolish, bold or timid, will be paid for in blood and pain and suffering. If we order a road built, inevitably someone will die building it, and once it is finished trade will shift from one town to another, one man will grow rich while another will starve. If we are wise, we do more good than harm, but we can no more avoid causing harm than we can avoid growing old.”
― Curtis Craddock, An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors

“Is that what your other past lives did?" Bitterlich asked. That might explain why forward-facing Isabelle was afraid of the idea.

"Oh yes. They all worshipped their ancestors, craved the legendary skills, the unbeatable warrior, the ultimate strategist, the most cunning merchant, and the most passionate lover. You name it and there was someone in the past who did it better."

Bitterlich dusted nonexistent lint off his cuffs. "Better mathematician?"

Isabelle snorted. "No, thank the saints. None of them were ever interested in math outside counting coins, soldiers, and bedposts."

"So that's something you can keep for yourself," Bitterlich said.

Isabelle bestowed him a thankful smile. "Yes, but that's only a fraction of it."

"I see what you did there," Bitterlich said.”
― Curtis Craddock, The Last Uncharted Sky

“You know this pirate?" Isabelle was not surprised. Jean-Claude seemed to know every crook and brigand on the craton by name.

Jean-Claude said, "I beat him in a game of thwarts once. He has not forgiven me."

"Rarely have I heard so much left out of a story," Isabelle said.”
― Curtis Craddock, The Last Uncharted Sky

“While the signalmen fenced, the black-and-red war balloon glided around the Saint Asne's stern. It was like being sneaked up on by a heavily armed circus tent.”
― Curtis Craddock, The Last Uncharted Sky

“Dead men might tell fewer tales than living ones, but they had at least forgotten how to lie.”
― Curtis Craddock, A Labyrinth of Scions and Sorcery

“Several times they passed insets where some very wealthy family had carved out crypts with one or more graven stone sarcophagi lined up within, as if extravagant grief were somehow superior to the ordinary kind.”
― Curtis Craddock, A Labyrinth of Scions and Sorcery

“Men seeking power only acknowledged fact insofar as it supported their ambitions.”
― Curtis Craddock, An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors

“I seem to recall that's the standard length for a quest in the old tales. Sounds more dramatic than just 'next year'. The point being that if I'm going to live every day as if it were my last, it seems rather unfair to hand some poor suitor only the last page of my book."

"Not if it's pure poetry," Marie said.”
― Curtis Craddock, The Last Uncharted Sky

“If you ever want a good day, find someone who really needs help and give it to them”
― Curtis Craddock, A Labyrinth of Scions and Sorcery

“Isabelle was supposed to say something to Jean-Claude, to acknowledge him in a princessly way, but her mouth was dry and her voice didn't want to work. What if her father was listening in through Marie? Isabelle had cost Marie her humanity with one ill-chosen word. How much more damage might she cause with another?

After a difficult moment, Isabelle muttered, "Musketeer," which wasn't so much a greeting as an unsupported noun.”
― Curtis Craddock, An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors

“If you ever want a good day, find someone who really needs help and give it to them.”
― Curtis Craddock, A Labyrinth of Scions and Sorcery

“He was one of the very few people Isabelle had ever met who could make the word honor sound like something to be aspired to rather than as a synonym for “willful pride” or “indefensible privilege.”
― Curtis Craddock, A Labyrinth of Scions and Sorcery

“Principe Julio, I deduce," Jean-Claude said, even as his mind lifted into a gallop. If Julio was here..."Where is Princess Isabelle?"

"Safe for now, on a reef in the upper sky four days' sail from here. She bids me give a message to her faithful musketeer, Jean-Claude. She says she is safe, sound, secure, and several synonyms starting with 'S.'"

"What?" Jean-Claude stiffened to hear Isabelle's private speech uttered from Julio's lips.

Julio said, "She's also fine, feisty, fabulous, and fierce if that helps.”
― Curtis Craddock, An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors