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Quotes from Opening of the World — Harry Turtledove

born 1949 United States

← All quotes by Harry Turtledove

21 quotes

A man who gets angry at the truth will have a hard time in life, don’t you think?

Opening of the World (2007)

From what I’ve seen, people who brag a lot are usually trying to convince themselves even more than other people.

Opening of the World (2007)

If they had lawyers instead of teeth, they’d be as bad as people.

Opening of the World (2007)

If barbarians recognized that they were barbarians, they wouldn’t be so barbarous any more.

Opening of the World (2007)

If you were half as funny as think you are, you’d be twice as funny as you really are.

Opening of the World (2007)

What people believed often turned out to be true just because they believed it. Charlatans and mages were quick to take advantage of that.

Opening of the World (2007)

Liv worried less about how important other people thought she was and more about things that really mattered.

Opening of the World (2007)

Ulric Skakki’s smile was so charming, it made Hamnet distrust him on sight—as if he didn’t already.

Opening of the World (2007)

He didn’t care what she thought, and, in not caring, he felt as if a curse were lifted from his back.

Opening of the World (2007)

Hopes were only shadows that too often vanished in the pitiless light of reality.

Opening of the World (2007)

He thought she was the most wonderful woman in the world. Of course he did—she agreed with him.

Opening of the World (2007)

Women are what made me the way I am now. I do not believe the illness is also the cure.

Opening of the World (2007)

Hamnet Thyssen wondered if Witigis was a holy man or simply a madman. His vacant features didn’t promise much in the way of brains.

Opening of the World (2007)

Believe worked well enough when a man could not measure it against facts. But when he could…Facts crushed to belief like a mammoth crushing a vole.

Opening of the World (2007)

“And do you know of opossums? Have they come this far north?”
“I have seen one or two.” Sarus made a face. “Horrible things, like big rats with pointed faces.”

Opening of the World (2007)

“And if you don’t bet, how do you expect to win?”
Hamnet Thyssen didn’t look at things that way. To him, not betting meant you couldn’t lose. He hadn’t even thought of winning.

Opening of the World (2007)

And Ulric was a man of parts, no doubt about it. Just what the parts added up to…Yes, that was a different question.

Opening of the World (2007)

If Earl Eyvind wanted to talk nonsense, he was welcome to, as far as Hamnet was concerned.
If he wanted anyone else to take him seriously when he did…that was another story altogether.

Opening of the World (2007)

Mosquitoes laid eggs in those ponds and then rose in buzzing, biting swarms. Sometimes the clouds of them were thick enough to dim the sun. It was as if the soul of a vampire were reincarnated in a million beings instead of just one.

Opening of the World (2007)

“Foolishness,” Ulric Skakki said. “Everything that goes on between men and women is full of foolishness.”

Opening of the World (2007)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Harry Turtledove (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.