M. K. Hobson Quotes (47 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

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The Native Star

M. K. Hobson

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Famous M. K. Hobson Quotes

“But it was impossible to remain so long in the company of a female, even a divine one, without suffering some form of disillusionment.”

M. K. Hobson

Prologue (p. 14)
The Hidden Goddess (2011)

“Nothing is ever what you want it to be. The harder you grab for it, the more deeply it cuts. And it mocks you for being foolish enough to reach for it at all. You come to fear touching anything at all, because you know that if you do, it will become terrible.”

M. K. Hobson

Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 19, “The Ruined Woman” (p. 310)

“Sadly, there is a fine line between patriotism and paranoia.”

M. K. Hobson

Prologue (p. 3)
The Hidden Goddess (2011)

““Still feeling guilty, are we? I’d have thought you’d be over that by now.”
“I have a nettlesome little thing called a conscience,” Emily hissed. “Ever hear of it?”
“They’re out of fashion in New York,” Stanton said, and though she guessed she was joking, he didn’t sound humorous.”

M. K. Hobson book The Native Star

Source: The Native Star (2010), Chapter 5, “The Aberrancy” (p. 74)

“You know, there’s one thing about you that always astonishes me. The longer you talk, the wronger you get.”

M. K. Hobson book The Native Star

Source: The Native Star (2010), Chapter 23, “The Skycladdische and the Sangrimancer” (p. 331)

“I’d ask you to forego the jingoistic claptrap, but it’s terrifyingly obvious you truly believe it.”

M. K. Hobson book The Native Star

Source: The Native Star (2010), Chapter 20, “The Otherwhere Marble” (p. 284)

M. K. Hobson Quotes about love

“Credomancy may seek to exploit the human desire for a tidy narrative where an unblemished romantic hero vanquishes all obstacles, but such ideals have very little to do with reality. Reality requires pragmatism and compromise. Men fail. Women fail. There are no heroes, only human beings who somehow find the strength to behave heroically, no matter how many times they have been unable to do so in the past. If you understand that, Miss Edwards—if you truly and deeply understand that, then you will understand the most powerful thing anyone with a heart can understand.”

M. K. Hobson

“And what’s that?” Emily said softly.
“That love is not enough. But it’s a start.”
Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 19, “The Ruined Woman” (p. 291)

“Love. Such a lot of damn fuss.”

M. K. Hobson

Prologue (p. 15)
The Hidden Goddess (2011)

“The sight of Oakland sprawling on the horizon gave Emily’s spirits an additional boost. Oakland was by no means lovely, but it meant they were almost to San Francisco.”

M. K. Hobson book The Native Star

Source: The Native Star (2010), Chapter 7, “San Francisco” (p. 95)

“I wasn’t sure if we were still engaged.”
“After everything we’ve been through? After true love conquered all?” Emily shook her head. “Being dead had done nothing to alleviate your obtuseness, Mr. Stanton.”
“Being dead allowed me to learn the heart’s deepest secret,” he said. “That sometimes love—even true love—isn’t enough.”

M. K. Hobson

”But it’s a start,” Emily said.
Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 25, “Lyakhov’s Anodyne” (p. 353)

“She wanted to crawl into his arms and be soothed, and soothe him in return, and forget all the grand ideas she’d ever had about true love, and the necessity for it. Because true love was a load of baloney. Finding a good friend…a good friend who trusted you…was more than enough.”

M. K. Hobson book The Native Star

Source: The Native Star (2010), Chapter 22, “Cupid’s Bludgeon” (p. 315)

“In his idle hours, Heusler sometimes amused himself by trying to conceive of a crime a mortal man could commit that was more monstrous than making a goddess fall in love with him. He had never succeeded.”

M. K. Hobson

Prologue (p. 14)
The Hidden Goddess (2011)

M. K. Hobson Quotes

“The shortness of the woman’s replies indicated that Emily was asking questions Miss Jesczenka didn’t particularly want to answer, but those were usually the questions that most needed to be asked.”

M. K. Hobson

Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 6, “Treachery” (p. 89)

Question

“It was disappointing, as if a wish she didn’t know she’d made hadn’t come true.”

M. K. Hobson

Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 4, “Dmitri” (p. 46)

Disappointment

““What kind of idiot do you think I am?”
”I have no idea what kind of idiot you are,” Miss Jesczenka said. “That’s why I’m asking.””

M. K. Hobson

Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 8, “Chaos and Disorder” (p. 133)

Idea , Thinking

“Could one die from boredom, she wondered? From complete, oppressive, crushing, unmitigated boredom, the likes of which made all other boredom seem like ecstasy’s sweet thrilling embrace? And in such a case, if one happened to have a life insurance policy, would it pay?”

M. K. Hobson

Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 1, “The Message in the Steam” (p. 17)

Life

“Emily already knew there was going to be hell to pay, and she supposed there was no use allowing it to accrue interest.”

M. K. Hobson

Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 5, “Dreadnought” (p. 57)

Hell

“I don’t think that’s the answer he was looking for. It’s not the answer I was looking for. But maybe it’s the right one.”

M. K. Hobson

Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 19, “The Ruined Woman” (p. 291)

Thinking

““Was your mother furious?”
“She’ll get over it,” Stanton said. “Perhaps not in this lifetime, but I happen to believe in reincarnation, so there’s still hope.””

M. K. Hobson

Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 5, “Dreadnought” (p. 65)

Hope

“Senator Stanton? The man who’s sold his own soul so many times that no one can figure out who actually owns it?”

M. K. Hobson book The Native Star

Source: The Native Star (2010), Chapter 20, “The Otherwhere Marble” (p. 285)

Soul , Time

“Emily stared into the middle distance, trying to ignore the fact that the men were looking at her like a cupcake on a plate.”

M. K. Hobson book The Native Star

Source: The Native Star (2010), Chapter 23, “The Skycladdische and the Sangrimancer” (p. 325)

Men

“Don’t lie,” he said. “That’s my job.”

M. K. Hobson

Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 19, “The Ruined Woman” (p. 310)

Lie

“Zombies are soulless creatures, and being soulless has been empirically proven to result in an unpleasant disposition.”

M. K. Hobson book The Native Star

Source: The Native Star (2010), Chapter 3, “The Rule of Three” (p. 43)

““It is a great weakness of credomancers, Miss Edwards. They often believe their own press.”
”You’re a credomancer, too,” Emily said.
“I’m also a woman. Failure, struggle, and doubt are my constant companions. They are not always pleasant, but they inoculate me against overconfidence. As such, I would not trade them for all the arrogant bravado in the world.””

M. K. Hobson

Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 18, “The Talleyrand Maneuver” (pp. 282-283)

World , Failure

“Ever mind the Rule of Three…Three times what thou givest returns to thee.”

M. K. Hobson book The Native Star

Source: The Native Star (2010), Chapter 3, “The Rule of Three” (p. 42)

Time

“It was her own evil assumptions that had done her in. She hadn’t even considered the third possible explanation for his strange behavior—that he was a perfectly nice man, without an ounce of guile, just trying to be helpful. People helped people in California. Why hadn’t she thought of that? She’d only been in New York a few weeks, and already she was turning hard and suspicious.”

M. K. Hobson

Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 2, “An Unexpected Gift” (p. 33)

People , Behavior , Evil , Help

““Your frontier ethics are so rawboned, Miss Edwards, as rough-hewn and clumsy as the log cabin in which you must have been raised.” Mrs. Stanton’s face was like marble as she spoke; only her lips moved with ugly precision. “Decency is striving for perfection in a world in which every other hoglike creature satisfies himself with sloppiness and indulgence. Decency is not in failing to murder someone. It’s in murdering the right person, and sparing your family the indignity of getting caught.””

M. K. Hobson

Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 13, “Red Hand, Gold-Colored Eye” (pp. 221-222)

World , Family , Personality , Perfection

“Emily looked at him for a long time. There were so many things she wanted to know—but she wanted not to know them even more. She didn’t want any more answers. He had been the one thing she could trust, the one person she could rely on. She wanted to beg him to be that way again. But it wasn’t him who had changed. It was her. It was her own credulity she really wanted back. And credulity, like virtue, could be lost only once.”

M. K. Hobson book The Native Star

Source: The Native Star (2010), Chapter 17, “The Cockatrice” (p. 237)

Way , Change , Time , Personality

“The obsessive rules of etiquette struck Emily as mean-spirited, like the old trick of tying someone’s shoelaces under the table. It was only fun if you liked watching people fall down.”

M. K. Hobson

Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 6, “Treachery” (p. 84)

People

““They say that they’re a punishment on godly people for allowing sin to walk the earth unanswered—”
“Who is this ‘they’ you’re always referring to?” Stanton glared at Rose, his eyes gleaming with unhidden malice. “Your mongoloid Aunt Kindy? Your drunken Uncle Sal? Or are you talking about the slack-jawed hacks who bang out those dime novels for a bottle of whiskey and the price of a flophouse?”
Rose stared at him, her mouth open in astonishment. But Stanton pressed on, his voice flat and awful.
“Or maybe you’re just using the word ‘they’ as so many pea-brained idiots use it, as a cowardly rhetorical device, an excuse to say the things you really believe without giving anyone the chance to judge you for the narrow-minded, stupid creature you are.””

M. K. Hobson book The Native Star

Source: The Native Star (2010), Chapter 15, “Ososolyeh” (pp. 211-212)

People , Stupidity , Chance

“Dignity is like morality,” Mirabilis barked. “Too much is as bad as too little.”

M. K. Hobson book The Native Star

Source: The Native Star (2010), Chapter 20, “The Otherwhere Marble” (p. 274)

“Before the sun went down again, she realized, she would be in New York. The thought sent a nervous thrill through her entire body. Her throat was tight, her heart suddenly racing.”

M. K. Hobson book The Native Star

Source: The Native Star (2010), Chapter 15, “Ososolyeh” (pp. 220-221)

Sun , Heart

“He’s lying. I have no doubt he’s excellent at it.”

M. K. Hobson book The Native Star

Source: The Native Star (2010), Chapter 11, “The Wages of Sin” (p. 159)

Lying

“There is a difference between not understanding and being willfully obtuse.”

M. K. Hobson

Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 18, “The Talleyrand Maneuver” (p. 275)

Understanding

“Emily pounded on the door, assuming it would do no good, but finding the act of pounding very satisfying indeed.”

M. K. Hobson

Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 21, “The Dragon’s Eye” (p. 330)

“She was painfully aware that doing one’s best was never assurance that it wasn’t the wrong choice anyway.”

M. K. Hobson

Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 3, “Bottle of Memories” (p. 42)

““I’m sorry Mr. Stanton, really I am. I didn’t mean to miss it. Things… happened.”
“Oh, well. Things happened. How nice to have that cleared up.””

M. K. Hobson

Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 5, “Dreadnought” (p. 65)

“Spread out before the pyramid, as far as the eye could see, stretched a frozen ocean of blackness—stinking oily blackness that bubbled and churned. Voider than void, colder than cold, deader than dead.
It is your world.
It is the world we will make for you.”

M. K. Hobson

Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 8, “Chaos and Disorder” (p. 140)

World , Dead

“Having engaged in vigorous and passionate debate while on their honeymoon trip from New York, they had arrived at the startling—and rather liberating—conclusion that the marriage itself was not at all necessary. Stanton no longer had a name to give, and taking Emily’s would have involved all the tedium of authority and nonsense they’d hoped to avoid. So, in the end, he had returned to her the simple gold band she had worn for so long, sliding it onto the ring finger of her new right hand. And she had given him a soft slow kiss. They were the only vows required.”

M. K. Hobson

Epilogue (p. 373)
The Hidden Goddess (2011)

Marriage , Hope , Kiss , Passion

“Emily’s chestnut-colored hair was thick and shiny as silk floss—an extraordinary female endowment. But like most female endowments, it was generally more trouble than it was worth.”

M. K. Hobson book The Native Star

Source: The Native Star (2010), Chapter 1, “Ashes of Amour” (p. 8)

Color

““I’ll do everything I can to help, I promise.”
“You always have,” Emily murmured. Except tell me the truth about anything.”

M. K. Hobson book The Native Star

Source: The Native Star (2010), Chapter 23, “The Skycladdische and the Sangrimancer” (p. 329)

Truth , Help

“It is a great weakness of credomancers, Miss Edwards. They often believe their own press.”

M. K. Hobson

”You’re a credomancer, too,” Emily said.
“I’m also a woman. Failure, struggle, and doubt are my constant companions. They are not always pleasant, but they inoculate me against overconfidence. As such, I would not trade them for all the arrogant bravado in the world.”
Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 18, “The Talleyrand Maneuver” (pp. 282-283)

“Your frontier ethics are so rawboned, Miss Edwards, as rough-hewn and clumsy as the log cabin in which you must have been raised.”

M. K. Hobson

Mrs. Stanton’s face was like marble as she spoke; only her lips moved with ugly precision. “Decency is striving for perfection in a world in which every other hoglike creature satisfies himself with sloppiness and indulgence. Decency is not in failing to murder someone. It’s in murdering the right person, and sparing your family the indignity of getting caught.”
Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 13, “Red Hand, Gold-Colored Eye” (pp. 221-222)

“What kind of idiot do you think I am?”

M. K. Hobson

”I have no idea what kind of idiot you are,” Miss Jesczenka said. “That’s why I’m asking.”
Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 8, “Chaos and Disorder” (p. 133)

Thinking

“I’m sorry Mr. Stanton, really I am. I didn’t mean to miss it. Things…happened.”

M. K. Hobson

“Oh, well. Things happened. How nice to have that cleared up.”
Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 5, “Dreadnought” (p. 65)

“I’ll do everything I can to help, I promise.”

M. K. Hobson book The Native Star

“You always have,” Emily murmured. Except tell me the truth about anything.
Source: The Native Star (2010), Chapter 23, “The Skycladdische and the Sangrimancer” (p. 329)

Help

“In New Bethel, we take the word serious. We whip whores, we hang thieves, and we burn sorcerers.”

M. K. Hobson book The Native Star

Source: The Native Star (2010), Chapter 11, “The Wages of Sin” (p. 155)

Whore