Genevieve Cogman Quotes

It was only a hypothesis, but it made an uncomfortable amount of sense.

It was the sort of overly complex plan dreamed up by armchair manipulators who thought they could play chess with the universe and didn’t realize that the universe ignored rulebooks.

If my friends—my brothers and sisters—have sacrificed themselves, then it was their choice. You, on the other hand, have lied to us and kept us in the dark and used us. You’re probably going to tell me that you did it for a higher cause, that you were just protecting us. But true higher causes don’t have everyone deserting them when they find out the truth, grandmother. Genuine ethical purposes don’t have everyone walking out once they know what’s really going on. And causes that people care enough to die for…”

You can’t trust people in power, dearie. They’ll say whatever they want, all the witnesses will be paid to agree, and then you’re behind bars till the end of your days. Or worse.

What is written can be erased, alas.

She’d thought the situation couldn’t get much worse. She’d been wrong. The situation could always get worse.

Oh, history," Silver said, cutting her off. "You'll be talking about reality next, as if it were something special too.

Catherine looked as if she was about to boil over. “We have been poisoned,” she said again. “We’re about to die! I’ll never get at those books!”
“Now, that’s the right attitude,” Kai agreed, glad to see her demonstrating a proper sense of priorities.

“May I be frank?” Sherrington asked.
Irene sighed. This was always the sign of a fast-approaching insult.

Nothing lasts," he said, his voice guttural with age and remembered pain. "Neither knowledge, nor skill, nor family, nor the bond between master and student. In another thousand years I will be gone. And in time you both will pass as well, and this place will be dust. For all that we pride ourselves on our power and our length of years, Prince Kai, ultimately dragons too are as fleeting as fireflies. There was a time when we never existed; there will also come a time when nobody will remember us. War changes to peace. But, ultimately, peace collapses into war and the cycle continues."
"I've told you before, sir, you will be remembered as long as my fathers kingdom lasts." Shan Yuan spoke with affection, clearly repeating an old reassurance.
"That's not as reassuring as you might think.

Irene didn’t need Vale’s deductive skills to tell her she was in trouble. But there was something liberating about this. She was surrounded by known enemies, not politics. And she didn’t have anyone to worry about—apart from herself.

The room on the other side was elegant and gracious, even in the moonlight that slanted in through the long rectangular windows. It breathed with the scent of old books and wax polish: the dark volumes that filled the shelves promised countless secrets, and Irene itched just to reach out and touch them.

What business is it of mine if they should want to kill each other? I'd say they both show excellent judgement."
"Sounds about right to me," Evariste said harshly. "Not my circus, not my monkeys. If they want to tear each other to bits, they can get on with it, and good luck to them.

Sometimes the obvious answer is the true answer.

I don’t care about politics or the greater good or universal peace or whatever. I just want to be left in peace with books.