78 Quotes by Marie Brennan

Entomologists trap insects in their killing jars and then pin their corpses to cards, and no one utters a single squeak of protest. For that matter, let a gentleman hunt a tiger for its skin, and everyone applauds his courage. But to shoot a dragon for science? That, for some reason, is cruel.

All hail that bane of the upper class, a scene. The spectre of being publicly shamed.

It’s a wonderful feeling to have one’s brain stretched and tested, to know both that one has knowledge, and that one is gaining more.

It is not easy to fling oneself down stairs in a skirt; there is always the risk that you will tangle your legs and go headlong. But I made it.

I sometimes imagine there is a clerk behind a desk situated between the brain and the mouth. It is his job to examine utterances on their way out, and stamp them with approval or send them back for reconsideration. If such a clerk exists, mine must be very harried and overworked; and on occasion he puts his head down on the desk in despair, letting things pass without so much as a second glance.

Jake shrugged, in the way that only nine-year-old children can manage – and usually male children at that, girls not being permitted the same kind of insouciance.