Skip to content

Tom Holt Quotes

born 1961 England

Thomas Charles Louis Holt (born September 13, 1961) is an author of parodic mythopoeic fiction. He is the son of novelist Hazel Holt.

England
Novelists
Short story writers

Random Tom Holt quote

69 quotes

The more he asserted it, the less they believed him, which is human nature for you.

The Devil You Know (2016)

Nothing helps a lie succeed more than a generous helping of the truth.

The Devil You Know (2016)

Like fish, accountants see things in a different way from people, and details which people find unimportant are their reason for existing.

Flying Dutch (1991)

There is no word for artist in the Mysian language; instead there’s a long-winded periphrasis that translates as man-who-deceives-others-into-giving-food-by-spoiling-bits-of-wood.

The Devil You Know (2016)

Take anything to its logical conclusion and you’re likely to end up with the grotesque and the absurd.

The Devil You Know (2016)

Our lot may be all-seeing and all-knowing, but that’s a long way removed from all-understanding.

The Devil You Know (2016)

The great thing about not necessarily believing in your beliefs is that it’s so much easier to revise them.

The Devil You Know (2016)

It may not be true, but it provides a much-needed focal point for baffled indignation.

Flying Dutch (1991)

Wise is he who knows when to speak; wiser still, he who knows when to stay silent.

Who's Afraid of Beowulf? (1988)

All the great conspiracies of history have been bizarre, usually because of the incompetence of the leading conspirators.

Who's Afraid of Beowulf? (1988)

If he had any philosophy of life, it was that everything happens by accident, and that at any given time, ninety-nine-point-nine-five per cent of the human race are a confounded nuisance.

Flying Dutch (1991)

That’s bureaucracy for you. Never follow a straight line when a spiral will get you there eventually.

The Devil You Know (2016)

“Humans!” laughed the male duck. “And it’s the likes of you run the world. No wonder the rivers are full of cadmium.”

Expecting Someone Taller (1987)

An over-excited accountant, like the University of Hull, is a contradiction in terms.

Flying Dutch (1991)

Why get so worked up about a nonexistent threat? Answer: someone somewhere is covering something up.

The Devil You Know (2016)

It’s a basic tenet of military science. No stronghold can be taken if a mule laden with gold bars can leave it unobserved.

The Devil You Know (2016)

The authors of all the sagas she had read had been notably reticent about the cost of mass catering.

Who's Afraid of Beowulf? (1988)

Here and there a doorway or low arch concealed the occasional mugger, rapist or lawyer.

Paint Your Dragon (1996)

And, like many missionaries, she was not above a little persecution in the cause of the communication of Enlightenment.

Expecting Someone Taller (1987)

Talking to yourself is a sign of madness. Talking to yourself, dead, is class.'

Paint Your Dragon (1996)

Attribution

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