“Years ago, before this estate was generously and unwillingly turned over to the crown, the lord here was a genuine dimwit. He had a minister stashed behind his throne to whisper clever things to say.”

—  Shannon Hale , The Goose Girl

Source: The Goose Girl

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Years ago, before this estate was generously and unwillingly turned over to the crown, the lord here was a genuine dimw…" by Shannon Hale?
Shannon Hale photo
Shannon Hale 109
American fantasy novelist 1974

Related quotes

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham photo

“A long train of these practices has at length unwillingly convinced me that there is something behind the throne greater than the King himself.”

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham (1708–1778) British politician

Chatham Correspondence, Speech, March 2, 1770, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Quoted by Lord Mahon, "greater than the throne itself", in History of England, vol. v., p. 258.

Oscar Wilde photo

“Even the disciple has his uses. He stands behind one's throne, and at the moment of one's triumph whispers in one's ear that, after all, one is immortal.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated (1894)

“Why couldn't she have gotten another Edger or some dimwit from the Broken for a passenger? No, she got Lord Leather Pants here.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Bayou Moon

Agatha Christie photo

““You have been to the Riviera before, Georges?” said Poirot to his valet the following morning.
George was an intensely English, rather wooden-faced individual.
“Yes, sir. I was here two years ago when I was in the service of Lord Edward Frampton.”
“And to-day,” murmured his master, “you are here with Hercule Poirot. How one mounts in the world!””

Agatha Christie book The Mystery of the Blue Train

The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928)

Ken Livingstone photo

“As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted 14 years ago…”

Ken Livingstone (1945) Mayor of London between 2000 and 2008

Victory speech on being elected first Mayor of London, 14 years after the abolition of the Greater London Council, of which he was leader. Friday 5 May 2000
Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ken-reclaims-the-capital-279169.html

Diana Gabaldon photo

“He touched the rough crucifix that lay against his chest and whispered to the moving air, "Lord, that she might be safe, she and my children." Then turned his cheek to her reaching hand and touched her throught the veils of time.”

Diana Gabaldon book The Scottish Prisoner

Source: The Scottish Prisoner

Clarence Darrow photo

“To say that the universe was here last year, or millions of years ago, does not explain its origin. This is still a mystery. As to the question of the origin of things, man can only wonder and doubt and guess.”

Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union

Why I Am An Agnostic (1929)
Context: To say that God made the universe gives us no explanation of the beginnings of things. If we are told that God made the universe, the question immediately arises: Who made God? Did he always exist, or was there some power back of that? Did he create matter out of nothing, or is his existence coextensive with matter? The problem is still there. What is the origin of it all? If, on the other hand, one says that the universe was not made by God, that it always existed, he has the same difficulty to confront. To say that the universe was here last year, or millions of years ago, does not explain its origin. This is still a mystery. As to the question of the origin of things, man can only wonder and doubt and guess.

Billy Joel photo

“You know those lights were bright on Broadway
That was so many years ago
Before we all lived here in Florida
Before the Mafia took over Mexico.
There are not many who remember
They say a handful still survive
To tell the world about
The way the lights went out
And keep the memory alive.”

Billy Joel (1949) American singer-songwriter and pianist

Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway).
Song lyrics, Turnstiles (1976)

“He had that hungry mind, constantly turning things over, looking not for answers but for understanding.”

E. Lockhart book We Were Liars

Source: We Were Liars

Clifford D. Simak photo

“A million years ago there had been no river here and in a million years to come there might be no river — but in a million years from now there would be, if not Man, at least a caring thing. And that was the secret of the universe, Enoch told himself — a thing that went on caring.”

Clifford D. Simak book Way Station

Source: Way Station (1963), Ch. 35

Related topics