Top 140 Stuart Turton Quotes (2026 Update)
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101. “It hadn’t made any difference. The dowry was too large. Unbeknown to her, she’d been bred for sale and fattened like a calf with manners and education. She’d felt betrayed, but she’d been young. She understood the world better now. Meat didn’t get a say on whose hook it hung from.”

— Stuart Turton

102. “Men were dangerous. They were fickle of mood, liable to lash out when disappointed, and they were frequently disappointed – most often by their own shortcomings, though only a fool would tell them as much.”

— Stuart Turton

103. “Humanity does not easily abandon its pleasures, even the vile ones.”

— Stuart Turton

104. “His next words are offerings, carefully chosen and even more carefully placed before me.”

— Stuart Turton

105. “I find the room smothered in sleepy conversation. Most of the guests are only halfway out of their beds, and they reek of the prior evening, sweat and cigar smoke baked into their skin, spirits curled around every breath. They’re talking quietly and moving slowly, porcelain people riddled with cracks.”

— Stuart Turton

106. “Fear was too brittle a material to make good decisions from.”

— Stuart Turton

107. “Daniel?” I ask, just about holding onto the back of the conversation as it streaks away from me.”

— Stuart Turton

108. “Call it a healthy skepticism of any wisdom delivered through a mask.”

— Stuart Turton

109. “His proposal had been thorough, listing the benefits of their union to her father. In short, she’d have a beautiful cage and all the time in the world to admire herself in the bars.”

— Stuart Turton

110. “Then it would be foolish for you to go alone, besides I brought some help.’ From her handbag, she pulls out a black revolver.”

— Stuart Turton

111. “The children I knew have shed their skins and slithered into society.”

— Stuart Turton

112. “Are you keeping Sara out of trouble?” “I’m trying, but she seems terribly fond of it.”

— Stuart Turton

113. “God no, terrible things, hospitals,” he says, aghast. “Sickness and death swept into corners, diseases curled up in the beds with the patients.”

— Stuart Turton

114. “Age is coiling around me, its fangs in my neck, drawing my strength when I need it most.”

— Stuart Turton

115. “Her grief will be waiting in the dark and quiet. It will hide behind a dozen ordinary things, ambushing her when her thoughts drift.”

— Stuart Turton

116. “He’s as stooping and sly as I remember, his gaze running its hands through my pockets before taking in my face.”

— Stuart Turton

117. “I suddenly have the sense of taking part in a play in which everybody knows their lines but me.”

— Stuart Turton

118. “I’m not the man I’d hoped to be.”

— Stuart Turton

119. “It almost bought Lia and I an entirely new life.”

— Stuart Turton

120. “That’s the beauty of corrupt men, you can always rely on them to be corrupt.”

— Stuart Turton

121. “You know what men are when there’s nobody ordering them to be better.”

— Stuart Turton

122. “Her husband’s damnable horse snorted, kicking the ground angrily as she approached. She’d never got along with this beast. Unlike her, it enjoyed being underneath him.”

— Stuart Turton

123. “I was promised eight hosts to solve this mystery, and I’ve been given them, except that Bell was a coward, the butler was beaten half to death, Donald Davies fled, Ravencourt could barely move, and Derby can’t hold a thought. It’s like I’ve been asked to dig a hole with a shovel made of sparrows.”

— Stuart Turton

124. “Thirty seconds,” I mutter. That’s how long I hesitated when I first spotted her, and that’s how far away I was when she was murdered.”

— Stuart Turton

125. “Streaking away from this moment are dozens of possible futures, each waiting to be conjured into existence by a random event, an idle phrase, a miscommunication or an overheard conversation.”

— Stuart Turton

126. “Thankfully, the leaves and twigs are so demoralized by the earlier rain they don’t have the heart to cry out beneath my feet.”

— Stuart Turton

127. “His hatred is viscous, it has texture. I could wring it out of the air and bottle it.”

— Stuart Turton

128. “On a normal day, these people would be buying from the bakers, tailors, cordwainers, binders and candlemakers lining the boulevard. They’d be smiling and laughing, grumbling about the infernal heat, but manacle a man and offer him up to torment, and even the meekest soul surrendered itself to the devil.”

— Stuart Turton

129. “Hardcastle’s on his feet, warming his hands by the heat of the fire. Lit by the flames, it’s clear the years have taken more from him than they’ve given. Uncertainty is a crack through the center of him, undermining any suggestion of solidity or strength. This man’s been broken in two and put back together crooked, and if I had to guess, I’d say there was a child-shaped hole right in the middle.”

— Stuart Turton

130. “It’s the curse of powerful men to heed only their own voices.”

— Stuart Turton

131. “I tell you, Cecil, it was worth coming for the scandal alone.”

— Stuart Turton

132. “Good mysteries so rarely come along, but if you’ve got a little imagination, you can invent as many as you want.”

— Stuart Turton

133. “One by one I knit these new memories together until I’ve got five minutes of past to wrap myself in.”

— Stuart Turton

134. “Pity’s a fog to become lost within.”

— Stuart Turton

135. “She doesn’t take kindly to young men who think too much. She believes it’s a sign of idleness.”

— Stuart Turton

136. “Niema didn’t think in straight lines,′ she says eventually. ‘She solved problems by coming at them from right angles, seeing things we’d never have thought about. Your question shouldn’t be why she did it. It should be what problem was she trying to solve?”

— Stuart Turton

137. “The nobility was like that. They gorged on scandal, but quickly forgot what they’d eaten. After all, there was always more coming.”

— Stuart Turton

138. “Mementos of his victories, no different to Vos and I.”

— Stuart Turton

139. “My mind is a stuffed trunk that needs unpacking.”

— Stuart Turton

140. “I don’t, and there’s a further cause for concern.” “Of course there is,” she sighed. “Why would concern want to travel alone?”

— Stuart Turton

141. “Sammy was what Arent hoped the entire world could be. If an old woman was wronged, she should have her recompense, whether she was rich or poor, strong or weak. The weak shouldn’t have to fear the powerful, and the powerful shouldn’t simply be allowed to take what they wanted without consequence. Power should be a burden, not a shield. It should be used to everybody’s betterment, not merely for the person who wielded it.”

— Stuart Turton