Home > Work > Rivers of London (Rivers of London, #1)
41 " It had a long and varied history, mostly involving crime, prostitution and the theater, "
― Ben Aaronovitch , Rivers of London (Rivers of London, #1)
42 " Your ghost,' she said, 'Nicholas Nickleby. Do you think he might still be at the crime scene?' 'How should I know?' I said. 'I don't even believe in ghosts. "
43 " The voice belonged to a plump, round-faced woman of the sort that develops a good personality because the alternative is suicide. "
44 " Who knows why the fuck anything happens? "
45 " Ever since mankind stopped wandering around aimlessly and started cultivating its own food, society has been growing more complex. As soon as we stopped sleeping with our cousins and built walls, temples and a few decent nightclubs, society became too complex for any one person to grasp all at once, and thus bureaucracy was born. "
46 " This is why you have procedure, training and drill, so that you do things when your brain is too shocked to think for itself—ask any soldier. "
47 " My dad had once told me that the secret to a happy life was never to start something with a girl unless you were willing to follow wherever it leads. "
48 " I, Anna Maria de Burgh Coppinger Isis solemnly swear on "
49 " Richmond won on points, but only because one of them had a flask full of coffee. "
50 " As soon as we stopped sleeping with our cousins and built walls, temples and a few decent nightclubs, society became too complex for any one person to grasp all at once, and thus bureaucracy was born. "
51 " But risking a fair fight – not so easy. That’s why you see those pissed young men doing the dance of the ‘don’t hold me back’ while desperately hoping someone likes them enough to hold them back. "
52 " Because who is more oppressed,” exclaimed Leslie. “Those that seek nothing but entitlements for themselves or those that claim for everything, social security, housing benefit, disability and pay for nothing.” One "
53 " Street towards Covent Garden. There was "
54 " Under the vaulted arch of its white iron-and-glass roof it was as if IKEA had been hired to refit St. Pancras station. If Thomas the Tank Engine had been Swedish, his living room would have looked just the same. "
55 " You have to call me Master.” “Master?” “That’s the tradition,” said Nightingale. I said the word in my head and it kept on coming out massa. "
56 " So Newton, like all good seventeenth-century intellectuals, wrote in Latin because that was the international language of science, philosophy and, I found out later, upmarket pornography. "
57 " A civilizáció és bürokrácia egy másik kulcsfontosságú jellemzője a tehetetlenség. "
58 " Welcome to the Folly,” he said. “Official home of English magic since 1775.” “And your patron saint is Sir Isaac Newton?” I asked. Nightingale grinned. “He was our founder and the first man to systemize the practice of magic.” “I was taught that he invented modern science,” I said. “He did both,” said Nightingale. “That’s the nature of genius.” Nightingale "
59 " There’s a goddess of the river,” I said. “Yes—Mother Thames,” he said patiently. “And there’s a god of the river—Father Thames.” “Are they related?” “No,” he said. “And that’s part of the problem.” “Are they really gods?” “I never worry about the theological questions,” said Nightingale. “They exist, they have power and they can breach the Queen’s Peace—that makes them a police matter.” A "
60 " Sometimes I wonder whether, if I’d been the one that went for coffee and not Lesley May, my life would have been much less interesting and certainly much less dangerous. Could it have been anyone, or was it destiny? When I’m considering this I find it helpful to quote the wisdom of my father, who once told me, ‘Who knows why the fuck anything happens?’ Covent "