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Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus, #3) QUOTES

Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus, #3) QUOTES

1 " A dozen more questions occurred to me. Not to mention twenty-two possible solutions to each one, sixteen resulting hypotheses and counter-theorems, eight abstract speculations, a quadrilateral equation, two axioms, and a limerick. That's raw intelligence for you. "

― Jonathan Stroud , Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus, #3)

2 " It was Nathaniel's boundless capacity for stating the obvious that made him so charmingly human. "

― Jonathan Stroud , Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus, #3)

3 " To my astonishment I saw him standing at a table with Kitty Jones. It was the Kitty Jones bit that was astonishing. Not the table. Though it was very nicely polished. "

― Jonathan Stroud , Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus, #3)

4 " listen, a goad's anything that provokes or incites an enemy
---
let me have a go: cursed deamon! you have met your end! the shivering fire awaits you! i shall spread your vile essance across this hall like... um, like margarine, a very think layer of it...
---
ye-es... im not sure he'll pick up on that analogy. never mind, keep going. "

― Jonathan Stroud , Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus, #3)

5 " Thus, those with long and glittering careers (e.g. me) tend to look down on those (e.g. Ascobol) whose names have been unearthed more recently, and haven't amassed so many fine achievements. "

― Jonathan Stroud , Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus, #3)

6 " There was a devotion to detail here that could only come with genuine affection, perhaps even with love. "

― Jonathan Stroud , Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus, #3)

7 " Isn't it hard to maintain an argument when you can read each other's mind? "

― Jonathan Stroud , Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus, #3)

8 " The object that was pinning me haplessly to the ground, like a butterfly on a collector's tray, was of twentieth-century origin and of very specific function.
Oh, all right, it was a public lavatory. "

― Jonathan Stroud , Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus, #3)

9 " John Mandrake was an attractive young man, and the scent of power hung about him, sweet and intoxicating, like honeysuckle in the evening air. "

― Jonathan Stroud , Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus, #3)

10 " Nathaniel's trying to get hold of it right now.
All very well, but could he use—Wait a minute! The radiant features of the boy contorted, slipped out of true, as if the condoling intelligence had drawn back in shock; an instant later they were as perfect as before. Let's get this straight. He told you his name?
Yes. Now—
I like that . . . I like that! He's been giving me gyp for years, simply because I could have spilled the beans, and now he's telling any old broad he meets, free of charge! Who else knows? Faquarl? Nouda? Did he deck his name out in neon lights and parade it round the town? I ask you! And I never told anyone!
You let it slip last time I summoned you.
Well, apart from that.
But you could have told his enemies, couldn't you, Bartimaeus? You'd have found a way to harm him if you'd really wished it. And Nathaniel knows that too, I think. I had a talk with him. "

― Jonathan Stroud , Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus, #3)

11 " According to some, heroic deaths are admirable things. I've never been convinced by this argument, mainly because, no matter how cool, stylish, composed, unflappable, manly, or defiant you are, at the end of the day you're also dead. Which is a little too permanent for my liking. "

― Jonathan Stroud , Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus, #3)

12 " That didn't last long, of course. "Oh Bartimaeus, could you just irrigate the Fertile Cresent?""Could you just divert the Euphrates HERE and HERE?""Look, while you're at it, do you mind just planting a few million wheat seeds up and down the flood plain? Thanks." Didn't even give me a dibble. By the time I got to Ur I wasn't surging with any of that terrible joy, oh no. My back was KILLING me. "

― Jonathan Stroud , Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus, #3)

13 " That's just it. I'm the first. And if my venture goes well, and I return to record it, many others will follow after me. There will be a new era between djinn and men. I've made some of the notes already, Rekhyt-my book will take pride of place in every library on the Earth. I won't be there to see it-but who knows, perhaps you will. "

― Jonathan Stroud , Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus, #3)

14 " A typical master. Right to the end, he didn’t give me a chance to get a word in edgeways. Which is a pity, because at that last moment I’d have liked to tell him what I thought of him. Mind you, since in that split second we were, to all intents and purposes, one and the same, I rather think he knew anyway. "

― Jonathan Stroud , Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus, #3)

15 " Much has happened since last we met, Bartimaeus," he went on. "Do you remember how we parted?"
"No." I did.
"You set light to me, old friend. Struck a match and left me burning in a copse."
The crow shifted uneasily beneath the cleaver."That's a gesture of endearment in some cultures. Some hug, some kiss, some set each other on fire in small patches of woodland... "

― Jonathan Stroud , Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus, #3)

16 " The mercenary finished his coffee in a single gulp, It must have been piping hot, too. Boy, he was tough. "

― Jonathan Stroud , Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus, #3)

17 " He was a worried man (I'm stretching the term a bit here, I know. By now, in his mid to late teens, he might just about have passed for a man. When seen from behind. At a distance. On a very dark night). "

― Jonathan Stroud , Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus, #3)

18 " I thought I told you to stop doing that," he snapped.
A thin-lipped mouth opened; the jutting chin and nose knocked together indignantly. "Do what?"
"Taking on such a hideous appearance. I've just had my breakfast."
A section of brow lifted, allowing an eyeball to roll forward with a squelching sound.The face looked
unapologetic."Sorry, mate," it said. "It's just my job."
"Your job is to destroy anyone entering my study without authority. No more, no less."
The door guard considered. "True. But I seek to preempt entry by scaring trespassers away. To my way
of thinking, deterrence is more aesthetically satisfying than punishment."
Mr. Mandrake snorted. "Trespassers apart, you'll likely frighten Ms. Piper here to death."
The face shook from side to side, a process that caused the nose to wobble alarmingly. "Not so. When
she comes alone, I moderate my features. I reserve the full horror for those I consider morally vicious."
"But you just looked that way to me!"
"The contradiction being...? "

― Jonathan Stroud , Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus, #3)

19 " Burned and squashed to death in a silver vat of soup. There must be worst ways to go. But not many. "

― Jonathan Stroud , Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus, #3)

20 " We communicated with pithy, rather monosyllabic thoughts: viz. Run, Jump, Where? Left, Up, Duck, ect. (This latter was an observation I made on the edge of a lake. Nathaniel unfortunately took it as a command, which resulted in our temporary immersion.) We didn't ever quite say Ug, but it was a close-run thing. "

― Jonathan Stroud , Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus, #3)