The Watchmaker of Filigree Street (Watchmaker of Filigree Street, #1)

by Natasha Pulley

‘They were philosophers; they put two and two together and got a goldfish.

‘The upper classes accumulate unnecessary letters. There are other names like that. Risley is spelt Wriothsley. Villers is Villiers. It makes them look old and important.’

‘Is

that my signature?’ ‘Yes.’ He considered. ‘Good. Carry on.’

‘Think of horse races. People like to bet on the one with three legs and a wheeze. They don’t bet on that one because they think it will win, but because they can see how very glorious it would be if it were to win.’

Your science can save a man’s life, but imagination makes it worth living.

the mechanics of it: compromise, diplomacy, and the avoidance of war, which was what happened when statesmen failed. War was punching the clock instead of looking at the broken mechanisms.

Friends were things that he liked to surround himself with for a while, like good curtains, before he moved on and forgot them and bought new curtains elsewhere.

Mori sighed. ‘I hardly ever know what you’re going to say. You change your mind too often.’