Silent in the Grave Quotes

“To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband's dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“Fate is by far the greatest mystery of all.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“If you were a man, your ladyship, I would cordially horsewhip you for that remark.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“I adored history, not the dry dates and boring battles, but the stories and the people who populated them.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“From the first note I knew it was different from anything I had ever heard.... It began simply, but with an arresting phrase, so simple, but eloquent as a human voice. It spoke, beckoning gently as it unwound, rising and tensing. It spiraled upward, the tension growing with each repeat of the phrasing, and yet somehow it grew more abandoned, wilder with each note. His eyes remained closed as his fingers flew over the strings, spilling forth surely more notes than were possible from a single violin. For one mad moment I actually thought there were more of them, an entire orchestra of violins spilling out of this one instrument. I had never heard anything like it--it was poetry and seduction and light and shadow and every other contradiction I could think of. It seemed impossible to breathe while listening to that music, and yet all I was doing was breathing, quite heavily. The music itself had become as palpable a presence in that room as another person would have been--and its presence was something out of myth.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“Life is too uncertain... You must seize happiness where you find it.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“She left me then, surrounded by my extravagantly simple finery and I sat for a long time, uncomfortable both with the person I had been and the person I was finally becoming. Caught between the two of them, I felt rather lonely, as one often does with a new acquaintance.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“Without an expectation of success, one is rarely successful.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“Of course, he was absolutely correct, it was no concern of mine. So naturally I thought about it--excessively.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“My face grew hot. "We were discussing the investigation," I told him quickly. "He was here a quarter of an hour at the most."
Father smiled at me sadly. "My dear girl, if you din't know what mischief can be gotten up to in a quarter of an hour you are no child of mine.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“Did you mean what you said? You will pursue this?'

Brisbane sipped at his tea. 'I suppose. I have a few other matters that I must bring to conclusion, but nothing that cannot wait. And I have no other clients questioning either my integrity or my courage at present.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“Brisbane put one in mind of wolves and lithe jungle cats, while Edward conjured images of seraphim and slim young saints. It required an entirely different aesthetic altogether to appreciate Brisbane, one that I lacked. Entirely.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“Verá, doctor, los aristócratas somos como los funámbulos. No nos damos cuenta de lo que hay debajo de nosotros.-Julia Grey”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“No Julia necesitas aventuras. Necesitas un amante unas vacaciones en el extranjero. Tienes que cortarte el pelo y nadar desnuda en un río. Necesitas comer cosas que nunca hayas visto y hablar lenguajes que no conoces. Necesitas besar a un hombre que haga que te fallen las rodillas y que te acelere el corazón. -Portia”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“Apparently, he uses disguises sometimes in the course of his investigations. In his liaison with Mariah, he used them for discretion. He came to her once dressed as a chimney sweep. Quite invigorating, don't you think?”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“If you were a man, your ladyship, I would cordially horsewhip you for that remark. As you are not, I will simply bid you farewell and leave you to your fresh and obviously debilitating grief.' He said this last with a contemptuous glance at the Italian books piled on my desk and strode from the room.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“A good wet weep is always just the thing. You will feel better soon. Not just yet, but soon. And when you do, enjoy it. Life is too uncertain, my dear. You must seize happiness where you find it.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“Yo no he dicho eso. Tiene usted el don de sacar el peor significado posible de mis palabras. Nicholas Brisbane”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“I had heard once that age stamps character on the face, that one’s passions were slowly etched over time, limning both experience and desire upon the features.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“I wondered, late into the darkness, why malevolence in the elderly should be so much more frightening than in the young. Is it because they were supposed to be wiser? Nobler? Or simply because we liked to believe they were past such passions? It was comforting to think that the sharper emotions could simply dull with time, taking the worst of our suffering with them.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“I sat for a long time, uncomfortable both with the person I had been and the person I was finally becoming. Caught between the two of them, I felt rather lonely, as one often does with a new acquaintance.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“You have suffered a terrible blow, but you shall recover. You are young and strong, and you will feel this pain acutely because as yet in your life you have not suffered much. But you must believe me when I tell you that this will be blunted, the edge will not cut so deep after a while. You will enjoy life again, and you will laugh and love and weep for others.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“had long thought we would be a far more respectable family if our motto had been “I sit quietly in the corner and mind my own business.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“The vicar likes to talk about the great wall that exists in all of us, the end place at which each of us will say ‘That is as far as I shall go.’ He is very interested in how those walls are formed.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“Of course, I did not realize it at the time, but it was to be nothing like a year before I came home again. I did not know when I would see Brisbane again, but I knew that I would. Someday.

And indeed I did. That is when we found the body in the chapel. But that is a tale for another time.”
― deanna raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“I am talking about seizing your life and truly living it before it is too late.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“No, Julia, you need adventure. You need a lover, a holiday abroad. You need to cut your hair and swim naked in a river. You need to eat things you have never even seen before and speak languages you do not know. You need to kiss a man who makes you feel like your knees have turned to water and makes your heart feel as though it would spring from your chest.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“vituperative”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave