Ruth Downie Quotes

Britannia's big enough to count, but remote enough not to matter.

But how can an ordinary girl not know this? Had Varana's mother not bothered to teach her anything at all or just shouted complaints from a distance while her children fought and argued amongst themselves like wolf cubs?

[regarding the sacrifice] It was all very professionally done, even to a man whose religion consisted mostly of half formed and unanswered questions, it was strangely reassuring.

And leave me alone when I tell ya to. I will have things to do that are private. I cannot always have you trailing around with me like a strand of goose grass.

There's no good in moping girl, there's work to be done... Have you forgotten, nobody likes a person who feels sorry for herself.

But, when she was alone, someone rapped on the door and she found herself on her feet, knife in hand, before she had time to reason with her fear.

Even now he could not say in his heart of hearts for which side he would draw his blade when he was finally called upon. What was a child of two worlds to do?

Blood for honor. That was the price then, as it was the price now. It was always the price of honor. Always blood. Always pain. And as the queen was scourged, he wondered if such a thing as honor really existed at all. For what was honor if it could not strip the pride from a barbarian woman even as she was beaten before her people? What was honor if he could only defend his own by doing this to her? Honor, Decianus thought, was just an excuse for war and mayhem. An excuse for taking. Whether the taking of a woman or the taking of one tribe against another, one empire over another, one emperor over the world. An emperor like the one he served . . . If this was honor, he wanted no part in it.

It was a mystery why the army bothered with a signal communication system when its men were so good at gossip.

That was one of the bad things about being able to read: people could nag you from a great distance.

Socrates was a wise man. Surveying the goods on a market stall, the great one was said to have remarked, What a lot of things a man doesn't need!

Sparrows and pigeons and a blackbird were celebrating the morning in the courtyard.

What color is time? Where do the thoughts of the dead go? How is it diseases spread but miracles don't? Have you ever thought of that?

Back from where? you're not going out again and leaving me here are you?? Holy Hercules I sound like somebody's wife

Such was the cost of dealing with the Romans: even when one fought against them, the stain of their violence licked and crackled at the soul like a fire about to engulf an entire forest.

British rain was rarely that simple. For days on end, instead of falling, it simply hung around in the air like a wife waiting for you to notice she was sulking.

But she's only a woman!" The watch captain shook his head again. "So was Helen of Troy, sir. Look what she started.

You can't do anything with a man whose mind is gone.

Wriggled to avoid the lump that always seemed directly under

A little knowledge would unlock the gates to vast and unsuspected gates of ignorance.

One of the many difficult things about women was that they tended to pick the most unsuitable times to tell you something they considered to be important, and then became irrationally upset when you failed to remember it.

The Empress Sabina had long ago formed her own theory about the nonsense in travel books. No traveler, having gone to the expense and trouble of venturing where most civilized people were too sensible to go, was going to come home and admit that it had been a waste of time. Instead, he had to pronounce his destination to be full of strange wonders, like the elk with no knees that could be caught by sabotaging the tree against which it leaned when it slept (Julius Caesar) or the men from India who could wrap themselves in their own ears (reported by the elder Pliny, who seemed to have written down everything he was ever told), or the blue-skinned Britons (Julius Caesar again).
Strangely, no traveler had ever brought one of these creatures home for inspection. Doubtless they were impossible to capture, or died on the journey, or the blue came off in the wash.

Quid nomen tibi est? She was not about to offer her name up to a stranger. It was almost the only thing she possessed that nobody had stolen.

There were many things a man might think he should be told when a woman agreed to marry him. She had choose not to mention several of them

Three years with Claudia had taught Ruso that when a woman said something did not matter and refused to tell you what it was, it usually mattered a great deal - to her, if not to you. Frequently her way of punishing you for not knowing what it was in the first place was to refuse to tell you until you gave up asking. This was her cue to accuse you of not caring about her, otherwise you would have known what she wanted you to know without having to be told. Finally, if you were lucky, she would explain the latest way in which you had failed her expectations. If you were not lucky, she would explain ...

I seem to remember sitting on a golden bench, and she started chattering about the sunset, or something. She seemed quite happy so I let her get on with it. Then she got hold of my hand and asked me what I was thinking about. So I said, "The treatment of anal fistulae".