By Its Cover Quotes

“Brunetti had long been of the opinion that one of the handicaps of stupidity was its inability to imagine intelligence.”
― Donna Leon, By Its Cover

“She became his Ariadne, leading him through the labyrinth of books, stopping now and then to pass another one to him.”
― Donna Leon, By Its Cover

“He who lives to benefit only himself confers on the world a benefit when he dies.”
― Donna Leon, By Its Cover

“If you get rid of all the books, you get rid of memory,’ he said. ‘And culture, and ethics, and variety, and any argument that opposes what you choose to think,’ Paola said, as if reading from a list. Then, because he hadn’t answered, she repeated her question, ‘What are you thinking about?’ ‘Something she said. It’s as if she thinks the prettiness of books as important as the text.’ ‘To some people it is.”
― Donna Leon, By Its Cover

“Brunetti wondered if his wife had just discovered why Freud had replaced Christ but did not intend to spend time discussing this possibility with her, not when he wanted more information about the Contessa.”
― Donna Leon, By Its Cover

“Old books had always filled Brunetti with nostalgia for centuries in which he had not lived.”
― Donna Leon, By Its Cover

“He heard a page turning beside him: Paola obviously had kept some text secreted about her person or under the cushion where she sat, left there in the event that life presented her with the necessity of spending three minutes with nothing to read.”
― Donna Leon, By Its Cover

“There is nothing God does not wish to be understood and investigated by reason.’’ He”
― Donna Leon, By Its Cover

“what in God’s name was the thrust of that vast expanse of displaced water doing to those stones and to the centuries-old binding that kept them in place? Suddenly the air was unbreathable as a capricious gust blew the ship’s exhaust down on them for a few seconds.”
― Donna Leon, By Its Cover

“It’s more important to understand people than to forgive them.”
― Donna Leon, By Its Cover

“Brunetti shrugged. They believed him to be a member of the community of scholars...'Community of Scholars," she repeated , "It would make the chickens laugh”
― Donna Leon, By Its Cover

“If you work with only your body, all you'll do is work for enough to eat.”
― Donna Leon, By Its Cover

“That’s probably because they said a lot of other things, as well.”
― Donna Leon, By Its Cover

“Guilo, although a lawyer, never lied; at least not to his friends.”
― Donna Leon, By Its Cover

“You know, Guido, at times I find it difficult to believe you do the sort of work you do. (Medical examiner's view of Commissario Guido Brunetti)”
― Donna Leon, By Its Cover