Home > Author > William Ritter
1 " But trust me, men are never worth it. Behind every great man is a woman who gave up on greatness and tied herself into an apron. Romance is for saps, Abbie. You’re sharp and you’ve got pluck. Don’t waste it. "
― William Ritter , Beastly Bones (Jackaby, #2)
2 " Give me some credit. You don't get far in my game with your eyes closed. I get it-who doesn't like a man in uniform? But trust me, men are never worth it. Behind every great man is a woman who gave up on greatness and tied herself into an apron. Romance is for saps, Abbie. You're sharp, and you've got pluck. Don't waste it. "
― William Ritter
3 " The greatest figures in history are never the ones who avoid failure, but those who march chin-up through countless failures, one after the next, until they come upon the occasional victory. "
4 " Monsters are easy, Miss Rook. They're monsters. But a monster in a suit? That's basically just a wicked man, and a wicked man is a more dangerous thing by far. "
― William Ritter , Jackaby (Jackaby, #1)
5 " Names have power... And he kept the one I gave him. My dear, sweet Jackaby. - Eleanor "
6 " All due respect to Romeo and Juliet, but I don’t think love is sacrifice at all. Real love is when you let another person make you better. You don’t lose yourself in love—you find yourself there. "
― William Ritter , The Dire King (Jackaby, #4)
7 " There are lots of people out there who are terribly hateful. She could avoid a whole lot of trouble and dress and act as they want her to, but she chooses to be herself. That's brave. Also - the last time we met she stopped Jackaby from hurting the men who hurt her. They might have killed her. Kindness is an act of bravery. I think, just as hatred is an act of fear. I'm sure can appreciate that not all strength is muscle, Mr. Finstern. She has a strong spirit, and I believe she is brave about the way she chooses to use it. "
― William Ritter , Ghostly Echoes (Jackaby, #3)
8 " To the attention of the New Fiddleham Police Department: You've got my middle-C, and I would like it back....Please return Jackaby's tuning fork. He's getting even more obnoxious than usual. "
9 " I had heard of offices feeling like prisons, but in this case our prison felt, rather anticlimactically, like an office. "
10 " He flashed a winning smile and I saw that he was missing a canine on one side. He caught my gaze and closed his lips self-consciously. "Never mind about that," he said. His tongue brushed over the gap. "I ate something that disagreed with me.""Eating something that disagreed with you dislodged a tooth?" I asked. "
11 " Commissioner Marlowe stood on the platform with his arms crossed as we disembarked. He had the cheerful demeanor of someone who has been beaten about the face all night with a sock full of porridge--only even more so than usual. "
12 " So often,” Jackaby said, “people think that when we arrive at a crossroads, we can choose only one path, but—as I have often and articulately postulated—people are stupid. We’re not walking the path. We are the path. We are all of the roads and all of the intersections. Of course you can choose both. "
13 " R.F. JACKABYINVESTIGATIVE SERVICESASSISTANT WANTED-$8 PER WEEK-Must be literate and possess a keen intellect and open mind.Strong stomach preferred.Inquire at 926 Augur Lane.Do not stare at the frog. "
14 " Follow my lead, Miss Rook," Jackaby said, rapping on the ornately trimmed door to 1206 Campbell Street. Were my employer a standard private investigator, those might have been simple instructions, but in the time I've been his assistant, I've found very little about Jackaby to be standard. Following his lead tends to call for a somewhat flexible relationship with reality. "
15 " Everything is a science. Science is just paying attention and sorting out the rules already in place. "
16 " I’m beginning to think a dictionary would have been a far more advantageous birthday gift for you.”“More advantageous than being eaten alive by a giant, carnivorous bunny? Yes, most things fall in that category, I think. "
― William Ritter , The Map (Jackaby, #1.5)
17 " There is magic in your life! Not appreciating it does not make it any less magical. Yes, some of that magic is dangerous, but so are scissors and electricity and politics- and plenty of other completely human inventions! "
18 " Maybe if you would bother reading a book once in a while instead of hurling them about every chance you get, you would have put the pieces together yourself by now "
19 " It wasn’t that I did not believe in ghosts; it was that I believed in them in the same noncommittal way that I believed in giant squids or lucky coins or Belgium. They were things that probably existed, but I had never given any occasion to really care one way or another. "
20 " Does this smell like paprika or gunpowder to you? "
