Matt Hughes

Quotes

1. “That is unfair,” said Filidor.

   Gavne shrugged. “Things are as they are. If you quest after justice, young women are the wrong continent to explore. They run more to clemency or spite.”

   p. 347

2. 

   “We are all used, all users. With luck, the final tally approximates a balance in our favor. But I think you are one of those who calls the proverbial glass half empty, while I prefer to call it half full.”

   “No,” said Filidor, “in truth, I have never given these matters much thought. I am one who quaffs the glass empty and calls for it to be refilled.”

   p. 276

3. 

   I cannot comment on your beliefs. What appears self-evident to one person may seem to another observer to be entirely the product of an idiosyncratic bent.

   p. 151

4. 

   “This conversation would be more easily conducted,” said Filidor, “if I had any notion of what you are talking about.”

   p. 124

5. 

   “We all use the world, and are used by it,” he said, after a moment. “Some of us are more aware than others of using and being used. It is our fortune to have fewer illusions.”

   p. 136

6. 

   Also, there was a remarkable display of objects that primitive humanity had allegedly thrust through various parts of their bodies—some of them extremely sensitive—for decorative effect. I shuddered slightly at the thought: self-mutilation, though everyone’s right, had always taken me aback.

   p. 68

7. 

   Talking was only one of the uses to which Chalivire liked to put her large and loose-lipped mouth; another was filling it with the products of The Braid’s renowned kitchens.

   p. 21

8. 

   The direct approach is not always the wisest strategy, as those who have fallen off mountains can testify.

   p. 302

9. 

   My alter ego was awake and listening. “Magic,” he said.

   “To one whose only instrument is a drum, all melodies are much the same,” I answered inwardly.

   p. 132

10. 

    Things are as they were meant to be.

    “But it was arranged so by you and me.”

    Then we are instruments of fate.

    “Knowing instruments,” said Filidor.

    How does that make a difference?

    p. 308

11. 

    Assigning blame is a fixation of an ineffective mind.

    p. 318

12. 

    Filidor was becoming more and more convinced that he had recently been inhabiting a reality that was at sharp variance to the rest of the world’s.

    p. 368