Home > Work > The Cabinet of Curiosities (Pendergast #3, Nora Kelly #0.5)
1 " One can reach the gates of hell just as easily by short steps as by large. "
― Douglas Preston , The Cabinet of Curiosities (Pendergast #3, Nora Kelly #0.5)
2 " PEE-WEE BOXER SURVEYED THE JOBSITE WITH DISGUST. THE FOREMAN was a scumbag. The crew were a bunch of losers. Worst of all, the guy handling the Cat didn't know jack about hydraulic excavators. Maybe it was a union thing; maybe he was friends with somebody; either way, he was jerking the machine around like it was his first day at Queens Vo-Tech "
3 " Boxer altered his course subtly, as if that was the way he'd already been going, not looking up to acknowledge he had heard, letting his attitude convey the contempt he felt for the scrawny foreman. He stopped in front of the guy, staring at the man's dusty little workboots. Small feet, small dick. Slowly, he glanced up. "Welcome to the world, Pee-Wee. Take a look at this. "
4 " Dr. Kelly, are you familiar with the term, ‘cabinet of curiosities’?” Nora wondered at the man’s ability to pile on non sequiturs. “Wasn’t it a kind of natural history collection?” “Precisely. It was the precursor to the natural history museum. Many "
5 " talus "
6 " There is an old French curse: may your fondest wish come true. If this treatment is cheap and available to everyone, it will destroy the earth through overpopulation. If it is dear and available only to the very rich, it will cause riots, wars, a breakdown of the social contract. Either way, it will lead directly to human misery. What is the value of a long life, when it is lived in squalor and unhappiness? "
7 " If you’re honest with yourself, you can still feel the terrible weight of time pressing on you; that awful, relentless, bodily corruption that is happening constantly to us all. "
8 " I’m afraid I don’t suffer petty bureaucrats gladly. A very bad habit, but one I find hard to break. Nevertheless, you will find, Dr. Kelly, that humiliation and blackmail, when used judiciously, can be marvelously effective "
9 " The wise and good are outnumbered a thousand to one by the brutal and stupid. "
10 " New York Public Library. "
11 " prolixity. "
12 " January 1881, "
13 " the city. "
14 " P.S. 1984, "
15 " TriBeCa. "
16 " P.S. 1984. "
17 " high school, "
18 " the New York Public Library. "
19 " The whole city was on the verge of panic. "
20 " The wise and good are outnumbered a thousand to one by the brutal and stupid. When you give an Einstein two centuries to perfect his science, you give a thousand others two centuries to perfect their brutality. "