Edison Payen

“The Manchus drank tea with a lot of milk. In her case, the milk came from the breasts of a nurse. Cixi had been taking human milk since her prolonged illness in the early 1880s, on the recommendation of a renowned doctor. Several wet nurses were employed, and took turns to squeeze milk into a bowl for her. The nurses brought their sucking babies with them, and the woman who served her the longest stayed on in the palace, her son being given education and an office job.”
― Jung Chang, Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China

“It was one thing to live in a world where death stood a distant figure, quite another to hold it in your hands.”
― David Wroblewski, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

“When you are Real you don't mind being hurt.”
― Margery Williams Bianco, The Velveteen Rabbit

“Mary’s hands clenched. She’d been through fire, what with a murder, and white supremacists. And what about Caroline, who had gone undercover to rescue the Scroll’s Key Keeper? Where were the College’s thanks for that?”
― Susan Rowland, The Alchemy Fire Murder