Mother of God, Francis Crawford of Lymond, you've made a slut of your art, have you not, as well as a whore of yourself?
Lymond considered this with every appearance of seriousness. I see. Thus the baseness of my morals is redeemed by the stature of my manners? You admire consistency?Yes, I do.But prefer consistency in...
Let us save everyone’s faces,’ Lymond said, ‘while we can. And before Master Buchanan is hurled to the floor by either Nicolas or a thunderbolt from the late Copernicus.
Kiaya Khátún is of the happy family circle.’‘You didn’t marry her!’ said Richard sharply.‘No! No,’ said Lymond soothingly. ‘All but the ceremony. We hope to have the four children legitimized.’For a m...
Jerott’s hand increased its grip on her arm. ‘He is an island with all its bridges wantonly severed. What hostage to evil,’ said Jerott, poetic in his thumping displeasure, ‘will this night’s business...
Jerott had no reason to challenge her wit. For a woman, it seemed to him at times excessive to tiresomeness.
I’ll take care of it,’ said Richard Crawford quietly, and Lymond lifted his head. ‘Oh, Richard. Timely as ever. I want.…’‘I know what you want,’ said Lord Culter comfortably, and hooked an arm under h...
It was only the first stage, that was all. It was only the first knot in the snare, the first flick of the hook; the first hint of the spin in the arrow. The first letting of blood not his own.
It was a piece of advice only, and aimed at myself as much, I suppose, as at you.—For those of easy tongues, she said. Remember, some live all their lives without discovering this truth; that the nobl...
It is not advisable to crow. It might be oneself next time.
Immoderation, Mariotta, is a thief of money and intestinal joy, but who’d check it? Not I. Here I am, weeping soft tears of myrrh, to prove it.
If I am dead I cannot sponsor your travels. Except, clearly, in a direction you will never be called on to follow.
I, said Lymond, in the voice unmistakably his which honeyed his most lethal thoughts, I am a narwhal looking for my virgin. I have sucked up the sea like Charybdis and failing other entertainment will...
I would give you my soul in a blackberry pie; and a knife to cut it with.
I wish to God, said Gideon with mild exasperation, that you’d talk—just once—in prose like other people.
I prefer a society which accepts that I have no choice, and does not pretend that I have. I prefer a God who does what he wills, and rules as he desires, and enjoins on me not to prevent anything agai...
I have said the intellect is all that can matter. I haven’t said it is easy—or painless … to rid oneself of all that is left.
I don’t need to strike you. Words will do just as well.
I do not ask,’ said Dee. ‘You note I do not ask—but I would swear, by all I have learned, that you are Scorpio.’‘With the sting in the tail?’ Lymond said. ‘You are probably right.
I could see you drop dead this minute from paralysis of the brain cells and burst into uninhibited applause.