Dorothy Dunnett - The Game of Kings (1961)

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But I despised men who accepted their fate. I shaped mine twenty times and had it broken twenty times in my hands.

Dorothy Dunnett
And habits are hell's own substitute for good intentions. Habits are the ruin of ambition, of initiative, of imagination. They're the curse of marriage and the after-bane of death.

Dorothy Dunnett
If I can't be personal, I don't want to argue, said his hostess categorically. I may be missing your points, but you're much too busy dodging mine.

Dorothy Dunnett
Oh, well. Everyone else has suave, cosmopolitan sheep: why not us? The Millers at Hepple have a ewe that's been to Kelso three times, and they've never been farther than Ford in their lives. Kate peered absently into the farm pond, and clucked again. Thoughtless creatures. They've forgotten the fish.

Dorothy Dunnett
To the men exposed to his rule Lymond never appeared ill: he was never tired; he was never worried, or pained, or disappointed, or passionately angry. If he rested, he did so alone; if he slept, he took good care to sleep apart. —I sometimes doubt if he's human, said Will, speaking his thought aloud. It's probably all done with wheels.

Dorothy Dunnett
Versatility is one of the few human traits which are universally intolerable. You may be good at Greek and good at painting and be popular. You may be good at Greek and good at sport, and be wildly popular. But try all three and you're a mountebank. Nothing arouses suspicion quicker than genuine, all-round proficiency.

Dorothy Dunnett
So she was on her own, Kate thought, and instilled all the friendly helpfulness she could into her next question. Excuse me, but are you the bad company young Mr. Scott has got into?

Dorothy Dunnett