Frances Hardinge quotes

Where is your sense of patriotism?"

I keep it hid away safe, along with my sense of trust, Mr. Clent. I don't use 'em much in case they get scratched. (Frances Hardinge)

Tea is the magic key to the vault where my brain is kept.

Frances Hardinge

I am anything I wish to be. The world cannot choose for me. No, it is for me to choose what the world shall be.

Frances Hardinge

The world is like a broken wrist that healed the wrong way, and will never be the same again.

Frances Hardinge

You, sir, are a romantic, and I'm afraid the condition is incurable. -Eponymous Clent.

Frances Hardinge

If wits were pins, the man would be a veritable hedgehog.

Frances Hardinge

In Mosca's experience, a ‘long story' was always a short story someone did not want to tell.

Frances Hardinge

Everybody knew that books were dangerous. Read the wrong book, it was said, and the words crawled around your brain on black legs and drove you mad, wicked mad.

Frances Hardinge

Sometimes fear made you angry. Perhaps after years anger cooled, like a sword taken from a forge. Perhaps in the end you were left with something very cold and very sharp.

Frances Hardinge

Push something in someone's face, and they will shove it away reflexively. Threaten to snatch it away from them, and sometimes they become convinced that it is what they want.

Frances Hardinge

If you want someone to tell you what to think..." "You will never be short of people willing to do so. (Frances Hardinge)

Revenge is a dish best served unexpectedly and from a distance - like a thrown trifle.

Frances Hardinge

We always find it difficult to forgive our heroes for being human.

Frances Hardinge

True stories seldom have endings. I don't want a happy ending, I want more story.

Frances Hardinge

Brand a man as a thief and no one will ever hire him for honest labor - he will be a hardened robber within weeks. The brand does not reveal a person's nature, it shapes it.

Frances Hardinge

Do you know why a vandal is worse than a thief?' asked the man on the right, in a soft growl. ‘A thief steals a treasure from its owner. A vandal steals it from the world.

Frances Hardinge