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21 " It's a police mantra that all members of the public are guilty of something, but some members of the public are more guilty than others. "
― Ben Aaronovitch , Broken Homes (Rivers of London, #4)
22 " The white boys knew they had my attention now, but hesitated -- that's the trouble with being a racist in the white heartlands, you don't get a lot of practical experience. "
― Ben Aaronovitch , Foxglove Summer (Rivers of London, #5)
23 " Most people don't see half of what's in front of them. Your visual cortex does a shit load of imaging processing before the signal even gets to your brain, whose priorities are still checking the ancestral Savannah for dangerous predators, edible berries and climable trees. That's why a sudden cat in the night can make you jump and some people when distracted, can walk right out in front of a bus. Your brain just isn't interested in those large moving chunks of metal or the static heaps of brightly colored stuff that piles up in drifts around us. Never mind all that, says your brain, it's those silent fur-covered merchants of death you've got to watch out for. "
24 " The world was different before the war,' he said. 'We didn't have this instantaneous access to information that your generation has. The world was a bigger, more mysterious place - we still dreamed of secret caves in the Mountains of the Moon, and tiger hunting in the Punjab. "
― Ben Aaronovitch , Moon Over Soho (Rivers of London, #2)
25 " The clever people at CERN are smashing particles together in the hope that Doctor Who will turn up and tell them to stop "
26 " In the winter she curls up around a good book and dreams away the cold. "
27 " This I know for a fact: the reason African women have children is so that there's someone else to do the housework. "
― Ben Aaronovitch , Rivers of London (Rivers of London, #1)
28 " You know there's always things in life that you have to do despite the fact that you know for certain the outcome is going to be messy, painful, humiliating, or all three. "
― Ben Aaronovitch , Whispers Under Ground (Rivers of London, #3)
29 " Despite my mum being from a small village in the middle of a forest, I'm not a country person. I don't like my bacon sandwich to be curiously snuffling at my fingers. But sometimes being police means holding your breath and fondling a pig. "
30 " He was a Parisian,’ he said. ‘You can never be sure what Parisians believe in – beyond Paris of course. "
― Ben Aaronovitch , The Home Crowd Advantage (Rivers of London, #1.5)
31 " First law of gossip - there's no point knowing something if somebody else doesn't know you know it. "
32 " If you find yourself talking to the police, my advice is to stay calm but look guilty; it's your safest bet. "
33 " My dad was a fairy," said Zach. "And by that I don't mean he dressed well and enjoyed musical theatre. "
34 " The Metropolitan Police Service is still, despite what people think, a working-class organisation and as such rejects totally the notion of an officer class. That is why every newly minted constable, regardless of their educational background, has to spend a two-year probationary period as an ordinary plod on the streets. This is because nothing builds character like being abused, spat at and vomited by members of the public. "
35 " If you ask any police officer what the worst part of the job is, they will always say breaking bad news to relatives, but this is not the truth. The worst part is staying in the room after you've broken the news, so that you're forced to be there when someone's life disintegrates around them. Some people say it doesn't bother them - such people are not to be trusted. "
36 " Dedication This book is dedicated to Sir Terry Pratchett OBE who has stood like a wossname upon the rocky shores of our imaginations – the better to guide us safely into harbour. "
37 " That which does not kill us,” I said, “has to get up extra early in the morning if it wants to get us next time. "
38 " It’s a truism in policing that witnesses and statements are fine, but nothing beats empirical physical evidence. Actually it isn’t a truism because most policemen think the word ‘empirical’ is something to do with Darth Vader, but it damn well should be. "
39 " We were aiming for a cross between Kafka and Orwell, which just goes to show how dangerous it can be when your police officers are better read than you are. "
40 " He was from Yorkshire, or somewhere like that, and like many Northerners with issues, he'd moved to London as a cheap alternative to psychotherapy. "