The Henchmen of Zenda Quotes

“I have no quarrel with democrats in principle, except that they are as much frauds and liars as the rest. It is often said that mankind will not be free till the last king is strangled with the guts of the last priest; if you ask me, the man who ordered the strangling would promptly step forth to proclaim himself Lord Protector, and it would all begin again.”
― K.J. Charles, The Henchmen of Zenda

“Goodnight, sweet schoolmaster. It's been a pleasure."
On which he walked out, arse-naked, carrying his clothes under his arm and his boots by the heels so as not to mar their leather with thumbprints. I lay back on my bed and stared at the ceiling.
A moment later the door reopened and Hentzau stuck his head in. "Are you going to tell me what you were up to that night? I meant to seduce it out of you, but I forgot.”
― K.J. Charles, The Henchmen of Zenda

“He was an excellent swordsman, sported a waxed moustache that was in my opinion a greater crime than any he committed with the blade, and had no sense of humour, but he was tolerable.”
― K.J. Charles, The Henchmen of Zenda

“Red is the hue of royalty in Ruritania: as the old saying has it, "If he's red, he's right!" I invite you to consider what this means. For a family to remain red-headed and blue-eyed down two centuries, in a land not filled with redheads or aristocrats, requires either careful breeding or a failure to grasp simple principles of stock management.”
― K.J. Charles, The Henchmen of Zenda

“I don't need fidelity, or adoration, or extravagant vows. Those are all will-o'-the-wisps. Whereas good manners require effort." And so we rode on, talking for all the world as though we were not two murderers in the process of committing treason at a funeral, and I can only say, that is what Ruritania and Rupert Hentzau do to a man.”
― K.J. Charles, The Henchmen of Zenda

“He was watching me under those drooping lids, with need and satisfaction too, much as if he imagined he had the whip hand of me now. That was his youth showing, the peculiar conviction that a hard prick is a source of power rather than a vulnerability, not to say a weakness.”
― K.J. Charles, The Henchmen of Zenda

“There comes a point at which a trail of bodies becomes a problem instead of a solution.”
― K.J. Charles, The Henchmen of Zenda

“But I am a killer by trade, and I know the look of a man who commands death—more than that, of one who enjoys doing it.”
― K.J. Charles, The Henchmen of Zenda

“I’m starting to conclude that love is best avoided altogether,” I said. “It is rarely anything but a bloody nuisance.”
― K.J. Charles, The Henchmen of Zenda