Deanna Raybourn > Quotes

“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

“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

“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

“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

“One cannot innovate new improvements without understanding old failures.”
― 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

“Stoker’s smile was slow and terrible. ‘You think that is love, brother? That I should kill for her?’ He shook his head, his eyes locked with mine. ‘You are the fool, Tiberius, because you still do not understand. I do not love her enough to kill for her.’ He stepped to the edge of the rock. ‘I love her enough to die for her.’

And without another word, he disappeared over the edge of the rock and into the blackness of the sea.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Dangerous Collaboration

“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

“I have faith that men can be as reasonable and logical as women if they but try.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning

“You are not among the good that has happened to me. You are the best of all that I have known. You are what I searched for when I left that house and wandered this earth, boy and man. You are the part of myself I never thought to find because I did not even dare to dream you existed. You are all that I want and more than I deserve, and I will go to my grave thanking a god in whom I do not believe for bringing me you.”
― Deanna Raybourn, An Unexpected Peril

“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

“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

“One is not born English without knowing how to converse easily about the weather.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Dark Road to Darjeeling

“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

“In my experience it is far better to tell a man what he wants to hear then do as you please, than attempt to reason with him.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning

“Boys!” I said sharply. “There will be no brawling with your shirts on. Kindly remove your upper garments and give them into my keeping.” Both men turned to look at me, wearing identical expressions of astonishment. Mornaday spoke first. “I beg your pardon?” I adopted my best nanny tone—one that I had used with excellent results to bring unruly suitors to heel. “You cannot strike an opponent properly while hampered by a tight coat,” I pointed out. “Or a fitted waistcoat. And white does show the blood so badly. The shirt must come off as well.” I put out my hands. “Come on, then. Shirts off, both of you. Shall you fight to first blood or unconsciousness? I always think first blood is a little lacking. Let’s go until one of you is entirely senseless, shall we?”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Treacherous Curse

“I have known enough of women to understand they are as duplicitous and vicious as men. If they are capable of being our equals in malice, why not in our better qualities as well? There are no masculine virtues, Veronica. And none sacred to women either. We are all of us just people, and most badly flawed ones at that.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning

“He considered that a moment, rolling the sweet over his tongue. "There are times when it is entirely safe to show one's vulnerability, to roll over and reveal the soft underbelly beneath. But there are other times when pain must be borne without a murmur, when the pain is so consuming that if you give in to it, even in the slightest, you have lost everything.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning

“I am sorry " I murmured.

"I know. I ought not to have threatened to beat you " he returned. He pressed a kiss to my hair.

"I just cannot bear to be kept out of your life " I said into the dark.

He gave a sigh. "Julia you daft woman. When you will you understand You are my life.”
― Deanna Raybourn, The Dark Enquiry

“But this is a thing that I know--to live with fear is not to live at all. A man will die every moment he is afraid.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Spear of Summer Grass

“The truth is a hard mirror, and I am in no mood to look upon my reflection.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning

“Everyone has a capacity for cruelty. Not everyone gets the chance to exercise it.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning