The Grand Tour Quotes

“I had to ask. “Do you really think everything I write down is about you?” Thomas said, “Well, this next bit had better be. I insist.” It is very bad for Thomas’s character when he gets his own way all the time. That’s why I’m going to omit the next bit. If he has forgotten it in fifty years or so, too bad for him. I won’t have.”
― Patricia C. Wrede, The Grand Tour: or The Purloined Coronation Regalia

“I gathered that Napoleon’s feat in crossing the Alps paled in comparison with the Romans’, who had been up and down these mountain passes more often than I have been up and down the back stairs at home. At first I found that a comforting thought, but as we ascended into the heights, my respect for the Romans increased. Imagine marching through such terrain wearing sandals.”
― Patricia C. Wrede, The Grand Tour: or The Purloined Coronation Regalia

“I schooled my countenance to convey my respect for their wisdom, my regard for their position, and the possibility that butter wouldn’t melt in my mouth.”
― Patricia C. Wrede, The Grand Tour: or The Purloined Coronation Regalia

“Perfect happiness is good for one’s soul. It is wonderful for one’s temper. However, in my experience, it tends to impair one’s wits.”
― Patricia C. Wrede, The Grand Tour: or The Purloined Coronation Regalia

“I think some people are lucky to be so fond of a place they are going back to. But it’s not lucky if they let that blind them to the place they find themselves”
― Patricia C. Wrede, The Grand Tour: or The Purloined Coronation Regalia

“An unintentional conflict would never do.” “Whereas intentional conflicts are the done thing?” Thomas said. “Only when I do them, dear.”
― Patricia C. Wrede, The Grand Tour: or The Purloined Coronation Regalia

“When things do go wrong, one would think that worry would’ve prepared one in some way. This is not the case.”
― Patricia C. Wrede, The Grand Tour: or The Purloined Coronation Regalia

“It is a great disadvantage to spend one’s time worrying about what may go wrong. When things do go wrong, one would think that worry would’ve prepared one in some way. This is not the case. Instead, the senseless disorder of one’s thoughts grows more and more uncontrollable as one rehearses the events that befell, to no good effect since nothing can undo the damage, no amount of muddled thinking can ever result in any other outcome.”
― Caroline Stevermer, The Grand Tour