Top 120 Stuart Turton Quotes (2026 Update)
Page 3 of 3

101. “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

102. “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

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

— Stuart Turton

104. “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

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

— Stuart Turton

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

— Stuart Turton

107. “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

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

— Stuart Turton

109. “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

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

— Stuart Turton

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

— Stuart Turton

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

— Stuart Turton

113. “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

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

— Stuart Turton

115. “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

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

— Stuart Turton

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

— Stuart Turton

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

— Stuart Turton

119. “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

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

— Stuart Turton

121. “And yet, simply winning isn’t enough. He needs me to know it. He needs me to be afraid. For some reason, he needs me to suffer.”

— Stuart Turton

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

— Stuart Turton

123. “The entries were written in English – a clumsy language stitched together fro too many disparate parts to be elegant.”

— Stuart Turton

124. “All that was of value has been taken.”

— Stuart Turton

125. “Until now, the horrors in my future had always been vague, insubstantial things, dark shapes lurking in a fog. But this is me, my fate.”

— Stuart Turton

126. “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

127. “You strike me as a man who’d much rather be somewhere else, a feeling I can wholeheartedly sympathize with.”

— Stuart Turton

128. “How long have you been with Pipps?” “Five years,” said Arent, taking another gulp of the terrible wine. “He heard the songs about me and decided he needed somebody like that standing in front of him when he accused people of murder.” Drecht laughed. “You never put that in your stories.” “Good sense sometimes sounds like cowardice when you write it down.” He shrugged his massive shoulders.”

— Stuart Turton

129. “Deference was something she was supposed to put on every morning, along with her cap and bodice.”

— Stuart Turton

130. “My attempts to paddle away from the disaster may only hurry us toward it.”

— Stuart Turton

131. “For the beautifully attired Crauwels, there could be no greater act of self-harm than dressing like a peasant.”

— Stuart Turton