Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle #1)

by Neal Stephenson

Halfway up one of the ladders was a stout, fair-haired man who was not far from the end of his natural life span—though he apparently did not entertain any ambitions of actually reaching it.

“I’ll handle the money.” “But we have no money.” “That is why you need someone to handle it.”

For as any French-influenced courtier could explain, to insist on everything’s being reasonable, in a world that wasn’t, was, in itself, unreasonable.