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The Fear Institute (Johannes Cabal, #3) QUOTES

The Fear Institute (Johannes Cabal, #3) QUOTES

1 " No churchmen, I notice. Of course not. What use have they for a world without irrational fear? "

― Jonathan L. Howard , The Fear Institute (Johannes Cabal, #3)

2 " Everyone is so desensitised that the potency of artfully deployed italics has long been lost. It was good enough for H. P. Lovecraft, but apparently it isn’t good enough for the modern world, filled as it is with obtuse bastards. "

― Jonathan L. Howard , The Fear Institute (Johannes Cabal, #3)

3 " Cats, as any rational person knows, are solitary, opportunistic, ambush predators, much like spiders, but with fewer legs and a better fan club. "

― Jonathan L. Howard , The Fear Institute (Johannes Cabal, #3)

4 " For the first time, he truly understood what Nietzsche had meant when he had yammered about looking into abysses. Not only had the abyss looked into him, it had noted his name, address and shoe size. "

― Jonathan L. Howard , The Fear Institute (Johannes Cabal, #3)

5 " Your argument is as specious as it is fallacious. I do not give a damn that we have crossed a sea to be here. By your logic, if one was to circumnavigate the globe before being given the option of jumping off a cliff or not jumping off a cliff, you would fling yourself off immediately because - oh, my goodness - you've gone all that way and it would be a shame not to do something memorably stupid at the end. Not memorable to you, of course: you'd be dead. But everyone for miles around will always remember the day the idiot from afar threw himself to his death because, well, it would have been a shame not to. "

― Jonathan L. Howard , The Fear Institute (Johannes Cabal, #3)

6 " I had wanted some cheese, but couldn't find any at short notice. It was a shame. Cheese goes so well with tragedy. "

― Jonathan L. Howard , The Fear Institute (Johannes Cabal, #3)

7 " Real history was unromantic, steeped in greed and blood and abject eye-rolling stupidity. An endless parade of putative Ozymandiases marching off to glory before snapping off at the ankles in the depths of the desert: that was human history. Every now and then there would be the pretence of civilisation, but soon enough the restless, hateful, atavistic hearts of humanity would tear down the towers and slide back into barbarism, squealing with glee. Decadence loves the taste of blood, even though it is poison. "

― Jonathan L. Howard , The Fear Institute (Johannes Cabal, #3)

8 " Instead he gave Cabal his most professional pat on the shoulder. It was his best pat, the one that said, You have my most sincere albeit non-specific sympathies. It was all he could do. "

― Jonathan L. Howard , The Fear Institute (Johannes Cabal, #3)

9 " The lesson seemed to be twofold: do not anger the gods, but if you must, at least make sure your city isn't next to a lake, as that's just asking for trouble. "

― Jonathan L. Howard , The Fear Institute (Johannes Cabal, #3)

10 " This was true, in a largely false way: "

― Jonathan L. Howard , The Fear Institute (Johannes Cabal, #3)

11 " Admittedly, given the Dreamland's tendency towards the dramatic, should any ship come to the island it would probably be full of cannibalistic pirates, piratical cannibals, Jehovah's witnesses or similar. That was acceptable, however. He was sure they could come to some arrangement that didn't involve any unpleasantness. Any unpleasantness to himself,at any rate. "

― Jonathan L. Howard , The Fear Institute (Johannes Cabal, #3)

12 " You wish to isolate fear. Ah, well, if only I'd realised your ambitions were so simple. Perhaps we can work up to it by capturing faith, bottling hope, and presenting love to the world as a commodity, available by the pound, wrapped in greaseproof paper and topped with a bow. "

― Jonathan L. Howard , The Fear Institute (Johannes Cabal, #3)

13 " His pièce de résistance was the-thing-I-shot-with-my-crossbow-au-vin, which was universally praised on the second evening. "

― Jonathan L. Howard , The Fear Institute (Johannes Cabal, #3)

14 " It was like being threatened by wolves dressed as sheep, who had sunk so deep into their method acting that they were now unclear about the whole ‘being dangerous’ thing. "

― Jonathan L. Howard , The Fear Institute (Johannes Cabal, #3)

15 " IN WHICH THERE ARE MONSTERS AND CATS, WHICH IS TO SAY, VERY MUCH THE SAME THING "

― Jonathan L. Howard , The Fear Institute (Johannes Cabal, #3)

16 " Cabal slapped him hard. Perhaps harder than necessary, but he felt he deserved a little recreation. "

― Jonathan L. Howard , The Fear Institute (Johannes Cabal, #3)

17 " Is the human creature as perfect in function as it might be?’ ‘Meaningless,’ replied Cabal, ‘with no definition as to what that function might conceivably be. We are good communicators, passable runners, middling swimmers, and poor at flying. "

― Jonathan L. Howard , The Fear Institute (Johannes Cabal, #3)

18 " Real history was unromantic, steeped in greed and blood and abject eye-rolling stupidity. An endless parade of putative Ozymandiases marching off to glory before snapping off at the ankles in the depths of the desert: that was human history. "

― Jonathan L. Howard , The Fear Institute (Johannes Cabal, #3)

19 " Given that Nyarlothotep’s revenge would likely be biblical in scale, Dadaist in commission, and cruel enough to make de Sade wince, not offending the god seemed very sensible. "

― Jonathan L. Howard , The Fear Institute (Johannes Cabal, #3)

20 " He had seen inferno and tempest, and had not only looked into the abyss but the abyss had looked into him, and then made disparaging comments. "

― Jonathan L. Howard , The Fear Institute (Johannes Cabal, #3)