139 Quotes by Deanna Raybourn

"The truth, dear reader, is that I was as ready for him as any filly ready for the stud. My blood thrummed whenever he came near, the air crackling between us like one of Galvani’s electrical experiments. It was a mercy that we had not been alone in our train compartment on the journey back to London; otherwise, I suspect the urgent swaying of the conveyance would have proven too much for my increasingly limited self-control."

"There was nothing more promising than the first stage of a new expedition. Everything was possible in that moment; there was no past, no future, only that hollow in time when everything paused."

"If I were going to play the adventuress, I might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb, I supposed."

"We are mere humans, Veronica. We are destined to prefer beauty to ugliness.” His."

"A good wet weep is always just the thing. You will feel better soon. Not just yet, but soon. And when you do, enjoy it. Life is too uncertain, my dear. You must seize happiness where you find it."

"Africa is a land of dreams and memories. It is rifts of remembrance stitched together with the sighs of time."

"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."

"Will it ever be perfect?” I wondered. “No,” he told me with a smile. “Nothing in life is. But, my dear mademoiselle, life is not about achievement. It is about the effort. If one takes pleasure in every step, one enjoys the whole journey."

"What was it that Napoleon said, my lady? ‘Impossible is a word only to be found in the dictionary of fools."

"Did you know that if you rub a cat’s fur the wrong way with a piece of silk, you can make sparks? Little flickers of electricity conjured from your bare fingertips. it is the nearest thing to being a god. That is how I feel when I spar with you."