The Aeronaut's Windlass (The Cinder Spires, #1)

by Jim Butcher

“We are bold and daring, Commander, but not maniacs.

“I am cat,” Rowl said smugly, “which means I have made better use of my time.”

The best way to prepare for fighting was to fight. Any kitten knew that.

“I should be friends with taller people,” Grimm panted. “Bite your tongue, old boy, or I’ll hack apart your ankles.”

“The heart of democracy is violence,

Fear was really quite tedious. She wanted to be rid of it as soon as possible.

“The academy is where knowledge begins—not where it ends.

“I think we shall need that grim captain.” “Captain Grimm?” “Don’t correct my grammar; it’s an aesthetic choice of word order.

“There are many things you have never done,” Rowl responded. “To be frightened of them is of no use to you.”

Grimm was a rather remarkable man—perhaps even the kind of man who could match tacticians of historic brilliance, the kind that made coincidences happen, rather than letting them happen to him.

to simply hang in open air from the side of the Spire. He had to give humans credit where it was due—they did seem to have a knack for building interesting places for cats to explore.

wasting even more time by talking to armed humans who were not even so important as to have large hats.

It was a well-known fact that humans became more addled than usual when running in herds.

“Money is a madness, a delusion-illusion. It’s not made of metal, really. It’s made of time.

there are so many of those things about, it would be like searching for a needle in a barge-load of needles.”

“There is madness and madness, Master Sorellin,”

“In my experience, the worst madmen don’t seem odd at all,”

“Everyone begs everyone’s pardon, but I’ve never seen a pardon. Is it near the spleen?”

When the enemies of Spire Albion were in the walls, the great-great-granddaughter of old Admiral Tagwynn had refused to have a nice lie-down, and it was as simple and as profound as that.

Rowl was not prepared to tolerate incompetence where his personal human was concerned. He had just gotten her properly trained.

There was nothing like playing to their curiosity when it came to catching the attention of cats.

Journeyman ground his teeth. “Always improving things that don’t need improving,” he muttered.

Humans could manage knots easily, and cats could do everything else.

“If you could go back to exactly those moments, with exactly the knowledge you had at that time—would you do it any differently?”

your choices can be judged based only against what you knew at the time.

“After the way I left, I suddenly find myself wanting very much to go home. But . . . it won’t be the same when I get back. Will it?” “It will be the same,” Grimm said. “You’re the one who has changed.”