Michael Kurland Quotes

Michael Joseph Kurland is an American author, best known for his works of science fiction and detective fiction. Kurland lives in San Luis Obispo, California. Wikipedia

✵ 1. March 1938

Works

Ten Little Wizards

Ten Little Wizards

Michael Kurland

The Unicorn Girl

The Unicorn Girl

Michael Kurland

Michael Kurland: 35 quotes 2 likes

Famous Michael Kurland Quotes

““A lot of things seem to be happening, all at once,” I told Chester.
“Enemy action,” he replied.
“Huh?”
“That’s what you told me once. An old Army motto you found when you were doing those war books. Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action. This is the third time.””

Michael Kurland book The Unicorn Girl

Source: The Unicorn Girl (1969), Chapter 2 (p. 22)
Kurland is actually quoting here from Ian Fleming’s novel Goldfinger

“It had been a long time ago, when life had been less complex. Or, perhaps, it had only seemed less complex.”

Michael Kurland book Ten Little Wizards

Source: Ten Little Wizards (1988), Chapter 4 (p. 24)

““So, his Slavonic Majesty hires thieves to spy for him. Spying is such a foul business that I am surprised that even a good Angevin thief would stoop to it.” He turned to Lord Peter with a sudden realization. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to imply—”
”That’s all right, Your Highness,” Lord Peter said. “It’s a common reaction. Their spies are dirty, filthy scum, not fit to wipe your boots on, while our spies are noble gentlemen doing dangerous work for the love of King and Country. Would that it were so, Your Highness, but I’m afraid that sometimes the desired image is at fault—in both directions.””

Michael Kurland book Ten Little Wizards

Source: Ten Little Wizards (1988), Chapter 4 (p. 33)

“A dead man, Sir Moses,” Lord Darcy told him.
“Remember, young man, he isn’t dead until I say he’s dead,” Sir Moses said. He pushed Lord Darcy aside and stepped over to the throne. He stared down at Master Sorcerer Dandro Bittman.
“This man is dead,” Sir Moses said.
“Indeed he is, Sir Moses,” Master Sean said, coming up behind him. “And that’s something that neither you with your bone cutting nor I with my spells, nor the finest healer with the most sensitive hands in the kingdom, can do aught about.”

Michael Kurland book Ten Little Wizards

Source: Ten Little Wizards (1988), Chapter 15 (p. 151)

“You’re from Liverpool, of course,” He was very proud of his ability to place different accents.
“No,” Sylvia told him. “Boston.”

Michael Kurland book The Unicorn Girl

Source: The Unicorn Girl (1969), Chapter 1 (pp. 9-10)

“Yours is a minority opinion, Major, as I suppose you know,” Lord Darcy told him. “But it is one which should be heard more often. It is a question that deserves to be debated and discussed, and not simply have the answers assumed by those in authority.”

Michael Kurland book Ten Little Wizards

Source: Ten Little Wizards (1988), Chapter 14 (p. 141)

Michael Kurland Quotes about thinking

“I don’t like eating in the dark. Dimly lit restaurants always make me think they’re trying to hide the food.”

Michael Kurland book The Unicorn Girl

Source: The Unicorn Girl (1969), Chapter 9 (p. 130)

“Good thinking,” the tall man agreed. “In this case it’s not true, but it is good thinking.”

Michael Kurland

Source: Tomorrow Knight (1976), Chapter 6 (p. 57)

“Well, what that means is that it doesn’t happen very often. Now it’s happened to one small group of people—us—twice in a short time. That would seem to indicate that,” he ticked a finger, “something’s seriously out of whack in general, or,” he ticked the next finger, “someone’s out to get us in particular; which I feel is quite unlikely. At times in my paranoid past I would have assumed that the Universe is teaming up to get me, but now I’m more objective and I don’t believe that. I think it, but I don’t believe it.”

Michael Kurland book The Unicorn Girl

Source: The Unicorn Girl (1969), Chapter 4 (p. 40)

“It’s what a man thinks is true which controls his actions, not what is really true.”

Michael Kurland

Source: Tomorrow Knight (1976), Chapter 13 (p. 138)

“We are greatly complimented, my lord,” Marquis Sherrinford said dryly. “You don’t think we’re gibbering madmen.”

Michael Kurland book Ten Little Wizards

Source: Ten Little Wizards (1988), Chapter 15 (p. 153)

Michael Kurland Quotes

“That man is a fool,” Lady Marta said, her dark eyes staring at Baron Hepplethong’s retreating back. “Most men are fools, but he carries it to unnatural extremes. I have the misfortune to be distantly related to him. He believes in the natural superiority of the white race, the noble class, and the male sex. He also feels that people who wear green are morally superior to those who wear red or brown. I do not jest.”

Michael Kurland book Ten Little Wizards

Source: Ten Little Wizards (1988), Chapter 14 (p. 141)

Men , People , Fools , Sex

“I am not in the habit of letting someone else decide what I can and cannot do.”

Michael Kurland book The Unicorn Girl

Source: The Unicorn Girl (1969), Chapter 4 (pp. 37-38)

“It was obvious that insufficient education was a serious handicap.”

Michael Kurland

Source: Tomorrow Knight (1976), Chapter 10 (p. 101)

Education

““A curious mixture, you,” I said, pulling her firmly toward me over the bowl of cement and commencing a lengthy kiss of agreement, exploration, adoration and lust.”

Michael Kurland book The Unicorn Girl

Source: The Unicorn Girl (1969), Chapter 7 (p. 96)

Kiss

“Everyone leaned over the map and examined it with interest. Here was a tangible thing to look at, to make them feel that something was being accomplished. Everything’s under control, Lord Darcy said wryly to himself, we have a map.”

Michael Kurland book Ten Little Wizards

Source: Ten Little Wizards (1988), Chapter 6 (p. 51)

Feeling

“I don’t want to color my facts with my suppositions,” he said. “My facts are the results of good, reliable magic. My suppositions are just that—suppositions—and may be totally wrong.”

Michael Kurland book Ten Little Wizards

Source: Ten Little Wizards (1988), Chapter 6 (p. 55)

Color

“I mistrust these artificial things,” O’Malley said. “Food doesn’t grow surrounded by tinfoil.”

Michael Kurland

Source: Tomorrow Knight (1976), Chapter 6 (p. 59)

Food

“Any truth,” Chester said, “no matter how obscure, or seemingly unimportant, is a piece of the mosaic and a step toward completion.”

Michael Kurland

Source: Tomorrow Knight (1976), Chapter 8 (p. 83)

Truth

“They were a well-behaved group, too; getting in trouble often enough so there could be no doubt about their masculinity, but not enough so that the discipline officer would remember any of their names.”

Michael Kurland

Source: Tomorrow Knight (1976), Chapter 3 (p. 25)

“He could have assigned this part of the job to another, but it was not in his conception of his duties to do so. The shorter the chain, the less chance for a broken link.”

Michael Kurland book Ten Little Wizards

Source: Ten Little Wizards (1988), Chapter 3 (p. 13)

Chance , Parting

““God is just,” he said.
“Just what?” I asked.
“Just watching.””

Michael Kurland book The Unicorn Girl

Source: The Unicorn Girl (1969), Chapter 4 (p. 61)

God

“Be not the first by whom the new is tried,’ as that poet fellow said, ‘Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.”

Michael Kurland book Ten Little Wizards

Source: Ten Little Wizards (1988), Chapter 10 (p. 110; quoting Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism Part II, Lines 134-135)

“An amphibophile is the sort of girl who goes around kissing princes in the hope that one of them will turn into a frog.”

Michael Kurland book The Unicorn Girl

Source: The Unicorn Girl (1969), Chapter 10 (p. 137)

Hope , Girl , Kiss

““The rules that society chooses to live by have always struck me as especially fascinating,” she said. “There are things one can do but not talk about, and there are things one can talk about but not do. There are things—not apparently gender-related—that men can do, but not women, and there are things women can do, but not men. We live in an invisible maze, and we have all learned where to turn and when, so as to find our way through.”
“Some of the rules are good, Mary, and many are necessary,” Lord Darcy said mildly.
“You misunderstood me, my dear,” Mary of Cumberland told him. “As in magic, where there are absolutely essential words to say and gestures to make or the spell won’t work; so in society there are absolutely essential words to say and gestures to make or we won’t understand each other or trust each other, and it will all come tumbling down around us. The problem is that the rules of society, unlike magic, have never been formalized mathematically, and we don’t know which words are essential to the spell and which are just silly words.””

Michael Kurland book Ten Little Wizards

Source: Ten Little Wizards (1988), Chapter 14 (p. 132)

Women , Men , Way , Mathematics

“There’s more leg room in first class, to be sure, but there’s more poetry in second class—and more honesty in third.”

Michael Kurland book Ten Little Wizards

Source: Ten Little Wizards (1988), Chapter 7 (p. 62)

“The Duchess of Cumberland smiled at the little sorcerer. “Really, Master Dandro,” she said. “That’s certainly an orthodox view.”
Master Dandro turned to her and smiled a rabbity smile. “Orthodoxy is my only doxy,” he said.”

Michael Kurland book Ten Little Wizards

Source: Ten Little Wizards (1988), Chapter 14 (p. 139)

Smile

“I won’t say it’s impossible, my lord, but I will say that it’s so close to impossible as to be inconceivable.”

Michael Kurland book Ten Little Wizards

Source: Ten Little Wizards (1988), Chapter 16 (p. 159)

“The trains take us anywhere we want on earth. They’re very fast and dependable. If I remember from history we tried personal mechanical vehicles for a short time, but gave them up as a bad idea. They smell up the road, take up too much room, caused many accidents and just proved a general nuisance.”

Michael Kurland book The Unicorn Girl

Source: The Unicorn Girl (1969), Chapter 7 (p. 95)

History , Idea , Time , Dependency

“My Lord, I am not a superstitious man,” Master Sean said. “Being a sorcerer leaves little room for superstition. A superstitious magician is unable to manipulate symbols properly, and symbolism is a large part of magic.”

Michael Kurland book Ten Little Wizards

Source: Ten Little Wizards (1988), Chapter 6 (p. 55)

Parting

“By their works we shall know them. Always assuming that they exist.”

Michael Kurland book Ten Little Wizards

Source: Ten Little Wizards (1988), Chapter 6 (p. 59)

“Lord Darcy nodded. “It is difficult to look for something that you hope doesn’t exist,” he said. “I suppose we can all use the practice.””

Michael Kurland book Ten Little Wizards

Source: Ten Little Wizards (1988), Chapter 6 (p. 59)

Hope

““How are you on the high wire?”
“Wire walking? It’s simple. Any child of ten can do it—with about fourteen years practice.”

Michael Kurland book The Unicorn Girl

Source: The Unicorn Girl (1969), Chapter 8 (p. 117)

““I’ve been taught certain things all my life,” she said. “Just as you have. I’m just as much a prisoner of my training and my environment as you are of yours.”
“I never thought that I was,” Carl said.
Alyssaunde took his hand. “Neither did I,” she said.”

Michael Kurland

Source: Tomorrow Knight (1976), Chapter 6 (p. 65)

Life , Training

“So, his Slavonic Majesty hires thieves to spy for him. Spying is such a foul business that I am surprised that even a good Angevin thief would stoop to it.”

Michael Kurland book Ten Little Wizards

He turned to Lord Peter with a sudden realization. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to imply—”
”That’s all right, Your Highness,” Lord Peter said. “It’s a common reaction. Their spies are dirty, filthy scum, not fit to wipe your boots on, while our spies are noble gentlemen doing dangerous work for the love of King and Country. Would that it were so, Your Highness, but I’m afraid that sometimes the desired image is at fault—in both directions.”
Source: Ten Little Wizards (1988), Chapter 4 (p. 33)

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