#london

You must live a very free life." "Me?" she laughed. "I am not who swoops out of the sky to rain fire on pirates!" "Yeah, but before this I never did much. I mean I did a lot, but...I lived in a room at a university, and my whole world was in that little room. There was this world inside my head." De la Fitte studied his head as if she could see through his skull to a little globe inside it somewhere. ↗

— Sam Starbuck

#america #engineer #fire #london #pirates

Is Dust immortal then, I ask'd him, so that we may see it blowing through the Centuries? But as Walter gave no Answer I jested with him further to break his Melancholy humour: What is Dust, Master Pyne? And he reflected a little: It is particles of Matter, no doubt. Then we are all Dust indeed, are we not? And in a feigned Voice he murmered, For Dust thou art and shalt to Dust return. Then he made a Sour face, but only yo laugh the more. ↗

— Peter Ackroyd

#dust #history #london #time #art

I wander thro' each charter'd street, Near where the charter'd Thames does flow, And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe. In every cry of every Man, In every Infant's cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban, The mind-forg'd manacles I hear. How the Chimney-sweeper's cry Every black'ning Church appalls; And the hapless Soldier's sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls. But most thro' midnight streets I hear How the youthful Harlot's curse Blasts the new born Infant's tear, And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse. ↗

— William Blake

#experience

New York, like London, seems to be a cloacina [toilet] of all the depravities of human nature. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#new-york-city #nature

This is England," he explained. "Tell someone it's a procedure, and they'll believe you. The pointless procedure is one of our great natural resources. ↗

— Maureen Johnson

#law #london #procedures #nature

A man with a club [bat] is a law-maker, a man to be obeyed, but not necessarily conciliated. ↗

— Jack London

#clubs #london

Nowadays, people resort to all kinds of activities in order to calm themselves after a stressful event: performing yoga poses in a sauna, leaping off bridges while tied to a bungee, killing imaginary zombies with imaginary weapons, and so forth. But in Miss Penelope Lumley's day, it was universally understood that there is nothing like a nice cup of tea to settle one's nerves in the aftermath of an adventure- a practice many would find well worth reviving. ↗

— Maryrose Wood

#england #governess #london #tea #england

He was a killer, a thing that preyed, living on the things that lived, unaided, alone, by virtue of his own strength and prowess, surviving triumphantly in a hostile environment where only the strong survive. ↗

— Jack London

#survival-of-the-fittest #london

After all, bachelors are a challenge. Spinsters are merely pathetic. And in case you hadn't noticed, I'm female. ↗

— Julia Quinn The Duke and I

#julia-quinn #london #the-duke-and-i #historical-romance

Do you realise that people die of boredom in London suburbs? It's the second biggest cause of death amongs the English in general. Sheer boredom... ↗

— Alexander McCall Smith

#death #england #london #suburbia #death