Quote-y, Quote-y, Quotes!

[Doktor Estrella]

I thought that it would be fun to do a thread of our favorite quotes from JS&MN, so to start us off here's one that I've come across during my re-read:

"...and in the same moment that the spell broke, which [they] knew by a curious twist of their senses, as if they had tasted a string quartet, or been, for a moment, deafened by the sight of the colour blue." (from Ch. 11 "Brest")

[Catherine of Winchester]

Well, I've long been a particular fan of 'Gentlemen are often invited to stay in other people's houses. Rooms hardly ever are.'

However, I've also become quite fond of the first line of Uskglass' prophecy:

'I reached out my hand; thought and memory flew out of my enemies' heads like a flock of starlings . . . .'

[Silvery Bells]

Oh, there are too, too many. Every time I read the book, I find amazing quotes, and then forget all about them. My name comes from chapter three, I believe.
But anyway, I like the prophecy a great deal, and can recite some of it from memory.

"The silence of half a hundred cats is a strange thing, like fifty individual silences piled on top of each other."

"It has been remarked (by a lady infinitely cleverer than the present author) how kindly disposed the world in general feels to young people who either die or marry. Imagine then the interest that surrounded Miss Wintertowne! No young lady ever had such advantages before: for she died upon the Tuesday, was raised to life in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and was married on Thursday, which some people thought too much excitement for one week."

[Doktor Estrella]

What great quotes! And welcome (back to Cath) to the pair of you to the forums!

[Lillie]

This one always makes me laugh.

"Other countries have stories of kings who will return at times of great need. Only in England is it part of the constitution."

[Martin Pale]

"Childermass inquired drily if Mr Norrell wished him to seek out architecture expressive of the proposition that magic was as respectable as the Church?
Mr Norrell (who knew there were such things as jokes in the world or people would not write about them in books, but had never actually been introduced to a joke or shaken its hand) considered a while before replying at last that no, he did not think they could quite claim that."

[Doktor Estrella]

The gentleman with the thistle-down hair regarded the carpet thoughtfully. "It is possible, of course," he said, "to imprison someone within the patterns of the carpet for a thousand years or so . . . . The endless repetition of colour and pattern -- not to mention the irritation of dust and the humiliation of stains -- never fails to render the prisoner completely mad! The prisoner always emerges from the carpet determined to wreak revenge upon all the world and then the magicians and heroes of that Age must join together to kill him or, more usually, imprison him a second time for yet more thousands of years in some even more ghastly prison. And so he goes on growing in madness and evil as the millennia pass..." (from Ch. 34 "On the edge of the desert")

[Crucifer]

Can I make a suggestion?

Instead of just posting quotes, let's make a game of it. If it's a character quote (i.e. descriptive), guess who it's about. If it's said by a character, guess who said it and in what circumstances. If it's just a quote, guess where it's from!

[Doktor Estrella]

That should be interesting. Shall we leave the information in the posts and put the font of the answers in white or wait for others to guess and declare which answer is correct after it's given?

[Crucifer]

I think wait. Otherwise, people could cheat. (Not that anyone of us would, but. y'know)

[Bracton]

I love the poem that I’ve quoted in my signature and the line, ‘All magicians lie, this one more than most.’

[Lillie]

Ok.

Who said this, to whom and what was untrue?

"Untrue. I had entirely forgotten how quarrelsome you are. Hand me that piece of paper. I shall make a note of it."

[Doktor Estrella]

Bracton--I believe that Vinculus said that to Childermass in reference to Norrell.

Lillie--Strange said that to Arabella; she stated to him that he never troubled to look at her that much before.

Who said this, who was the old man, what was the person talking attempting to do, and whom was he behaving like?

"He has come hundreds of miles to the most luxurious city in the world and all he cares about is what some old man in London thinks! How ridiculous!"

[Lillie]

Strange is talking, he has taken the madness juice, the old man is Norrell and Strange is talking about himself.
He is behaving like Lascelles or Drawlight.
He took the juice to summon a fairy, which he will do in just a moment when he sees the spell on the table.

[Martin Pale]

The prisoner always emerges from the carpet determined to wreak revenge upon all the world and then the magicians and heroes of that Age must join together to kill him or, more usually, imprison him a second time for yet more thousands of years in some even more ghastly prison. And so he goes on growing in madness and evil as the millennia pass..."

It just occurred to me that this might have happened to the gentleman with the thistledown hair at some point.

[Doktor Estrella]

I think that it's more likely that he's done it to someone at some point, mostly because he always casts himself in the light of the (misunderstood) hero :)

[Edimene]

There are so many sentences I could quote! In this novel everything is perfect and each scene is memorable.
But if I have to chose, well, one is the phrase I use as signature (together with what comes right before, which was too long to post); and another is this:

Mr Norrell had many talents, but penetration in the hearts of men and women was not part of them. Strange did not speak of the restoration of his wife and so, Mr Norrell imagined that it could not have affected him very deeply. (chapter 68: "Yes")

I can't really say why this phrase conquered me: it's not the smartest, the funniest or the more intense; but it owns somekind of sweetness, of delicateness, it makes a sublime ending for the chapter... I truly love it!