Educational Fiction Quotes

“For decades, chalk and alum have been added to bread, and burnt corn and peas ground up to make coffee. Vinegar is rendered sharper by the addition of sulphuric acid, arrowroot is added to milk to thicken it, mustard is eked out with flour, strychnine is added to beer for bitterness and green vitriol to encourage a foaming head. And these are but the harmless manipulations.”
― M.J. Carter, The Devil's Feast

“Culture is the best society has to offer...How can we pass on civilization to those who do not value civilization. (Terrence Rattigan)”
― Beth Fine, The Picaresque of Imagine Purple

“Do you mean that Zane is some kind of bird magnet?”
― C.J. Milbrandt, Into the Hills: A Zane Johns Adventure

“Good heavens!” I said. “Strychnine and vitriol in beer?”

“And in gin too. Enough to impart hallucinations and a nasty disruption of the bowels. And I have seen far worse: indianberry – very toxic – added to beer to make it more intoxicating. Custard flavoured with laurel – a mortal poison; pepper made from floor sweepings, comfits from china clay. Double Gloucester cheese coloured with red lead. Lead, copper, mercury, arsenic – deadly, all – they are everywhere. I myself can attest that lead salts taste quite delicious.”
― M.J. Carter, The Devil's Feast