Hilm

“Tambi’s expression changed again, this time to one of a humble supplicant. ‘I am not asking much,’ he said. ‘Only a miracle. Can you do this?’
Wong looked down at the briefing papers in front of him for a moment. Then he looked Tambi in the eye. ‘Miracles we have fifteen per cent extra surcharge. Is it okay?”
― Nury Vittachi, The Feng Shui Detective

“If anyone else asked that question, O He Who Is Terrible and Great, I would have said they were an ignorant fool; in you it is a sign of the disarming simplicity which is the fount of all virtue.”
― Jonathan Stroud, The Amulet of Samarkand

“Piero is only twenty years old, but is married already to a Roman aristocrat, an Orsini like his mother. People say he thought himself too good for Florence. When you think you are too good to marry your neighbors, you start expecting them to be your servants.”
― Jo Walton, Lent

“I am Bartimaeus! I am Sakhr al-Jinni, N’gorso the Mighty, and the Serpent of Silver Plumes! I have rebuilt the walls of Uruk, Karnak, and Prague. I have spoken with Solomon. I have run with the buffalo fathers of the plains. I have watched over Old Zimbabwe till the stones fell and the jackals fed on its people. I am Bartimaeus!”
― Jonathan Stroud, The Amulet of Samarkand