The Lie Tree Quotes
"It was as if he had opened a door to her that bright, salt day, but then closed it again."
"With the finely tuned instincts of the solitary, she guessed that the servants had already been laughing at her."
"The past was all around her. She could smell it. It did not feel dead. It felt alive, and as curious about her as she was about it."
"Faith wrapped her arms around Howard as the chain was let out and their basket started to descend."
"She wanted to reach out across countless aeons and hold it, just as its maker had once held it."
"Every time visitors came to the house she would bubble over with the latest facts she had discovered and the newest words to capture her imagination."
"But then gentlemen of science had worked out how long it took rock to fold itself like puff pastry."
"The Bible did not lie. Every good, God-fearing scientist knew that. But rocks and fossils and bones did not lie either, and it was starting to look as though they were not telling the same story."
"Tiny spits and spots of spray tickled Faith’s cheek and gleamed on her eyelashes."
"My apologies, madam, but it would seem we have nothing in your daughter’s size at present."
"Miss Hunter’s eyes settled upon them, and then slid off, like a water drop from wax."
"‘They did not see us,’ said Myrtle, a slight wobble in her voice."
"‘Faith, must you always whine so?’ hissed Myrtle."
"Please be honest with me, Mr Clay – have I done something perfectly dreadful to offend everyone?"
"‘I am accustomed to handling something a mite bigger than a lizard,’ he said at last."
"‘My father paints in the eyes,’ said Paul, ‘if the family wants them to look natural.’"
"A girl cannot be brave, or clever, or skilled as a boy can. If she is not good, she is nothing."
"I wonder if perhaps it might be worth keeping Jeanne on a little longer, just to spare ourselves such trials."
"You will never be anything but a burden, and a drain on my purse."
"It is my fault. I kept him talking late last night – we did not go to bed until one o'clock."
"Perhaps we should try knocking on his door again."
"Sounds were startlingly real in this world of ghosts."
"The rough path gave way to pebble beach, and each step became a high-pitched chhh of little stones rasping."
"With calm innocence, the mists thinned just enough for her to make out a gauzy white shape, with a familiar curve of a prow."
"Humans are always looking for one another, and human eyes have a gift for spotting a human shape."
"Let it be somebody else, or let him be alive, she begged Fate."
"Something warm was spilling from her eyes down her cheeks. Suddenly she was hotly, unbearably alive."
"The glass front was cold against her skin as she opened it. The pendulum slowed to her touch."
"Her emotions were so large and strange that they seemed to be something outside her, vast cloud patterns roiling and colliding above while she watched."
"I cannot advise you to hope. His neck is broken..."
"She was anything but good, that much could be seen at a glance."
"In the dull light of the room, the mirror might have been a gilt-edged doorway."
"She felt the way snakes looked when they moved."
"We thought ourselves kings of the ages. Now we find that all our civilization has been nothing but a brief, brightly lit nursery, where we have played with paper crowns and wooden sceptres. Beyond the door are the dark wastes where Leviathans wrestled for millennia. We are a blink of an eye, a joke amidst a tragedy."
"I have lived long enough to see the death of wonders. Like many others, I have dedicated my life to investigating the marvels and mysteries of Creation, the better to understand the designs of our Maker. Instead, our discoveries have brought us doubt and darkness."
"Choose a lie that others wish to believe, was written beneath it. They will cling to it, even if it is proven false before their face. If anyone tries to show them the Truth, they will turn on them and fight them tooth and nail."
"If I knew, then my turbulence of mind would be over. I could recover my peace of mind, or resign myself to despair."
"In the interests of Truth, I would lie. I would deceive the world, then bring back knowledge that would benefit all of Mankind and perhaps save its soul."
"All these thoughts were unspeakable torment to me."
"A wife always had to go begging to her husband for housekeeping money, but a widow could spend her inheritance however she pleased."
"The darkness was lonely, and time was running out."
"Scientists asked questions, and answered them through observation and logic."
"Magic’ was not an answer; it was an excuse to avoid looking for one."
"A poisonous realization crept unbidden into Faith’s mind."
"I see how it is. I will have no help from the law. If I want the killer found, I will have to do it myself."
"Faith felt some of the tense coils in her stomach loosen."
"I am flesh and blood, not a fairy. I would break and bleed just like you."
"The truth is, we need a proper inventory of your father’s effects."
"Everything needed to be observed properly and methodically, including her own reactions."
"Try to see it from the gentlemen’s point of view! If they had continued to associate with your father, with such a scandal breaking, all their findings would be thrown into doubt! Nobody would take their discoveries seriously!"
"Anyway, it’s not your fault, Uncle Miles. You just wanted to help us."
"It seems that it was suggested one evening at a dinner, and everybody took to the idea. Now, of course, nobody wants to admit to having come up with it."
"Whose idea was it to invite Father anyway? I suppose it must have been Mr Lambent."
"We do need to build bridges. Can I help? When you next go to the excavation, can you take me with you?"
"It was difficult to look at Uncle Miles, now that Faith understood him better. She could almost see thoughts squirming behind his placid face, like worms in a bun."
"The murderer had made use of Uncle Miles’s ambition, but perhaps Faith could use it too."
"Under the jovial surface lurked rivalries, distrust and resentment – cracks just waiting for her to drive in her chisel."
"Faith was learning that you only had to provide part of a lie. You could rely on other people’s imaginations to fill the gaps."
"A lie was like a fire, Faith was discovering. At first it needed to be nursed and fed, but carefully and gently. A slight breath would fan the new-born flames, but too vigorous a huff would blow it out."
"Life to death, life to death, with no more drama than turning over a counterpane."
"Everybody was shouting, calling. Bellowing meat, laughing meat. Meat with only a tiny, brief wink of life."
"It was freeing to know that nothing mattered."
"People were animals, and animals were nothing but teeth. You bit first, and you bit often. That was the only way to survive."
"Silence itself could be used as deftly and cruelly as a knife."
"Women find themselves on battlefields, just as men do. We are given no weapons, and cannot be seen to fight. But fight we must, or perish."
"You spoils everything, and spreads poison everywhere she goes. And she is going to hell!"
"You can write your scripture now, How, and you can use your left hand as much as you like."
"You have to give it back after you shoot the ghost."
"The Tree itself had harmed nobody – her lies alone had done that."
"Dreams like cut flowers, with no nourishing root."
"I do not feel as if I am, but I did not last time either."
"Much as it hurt Faith to admit it, Agatha had a point."
"‘Please, miss.’ Crock’s smile was not unfriendly, but nor was it without menace."
"Faith could hear her shoulder seams tearing."
"I am so glad Mother never put me in full corsets, she thought."
"‘No.’ Faith clasped her hands and tried to calm herself ‘No, I have not been despoiled. I am just bruised and bumped and . . . and I have been running. A band of murderers are coming this way, Mother! We all need to leave, right now, or they will kill us!’"
"‘Secrets are power,’ continued Agatha, ‘and money, if one uses them correctly. If I cannot be famous, I may as well be rich.’"
"‘Hope is a dangerous thing for a scientist,’ Agatha said coolly."
"Just because something has not been explained, does not mean it cannot be explained!"
"When every door is closed, one learns to climb through windows. Human nature, I suppose."
"Men are no cleverer than we are, Just taller."
"‘I want to be a natural scientist,’ confessed Faith."
"‘I am tired of lies,’ said Faith. ‘I do not want to hide, the way Agatha did.’"