Mystery Quotes

“Ketal is not hell! It’s the K’tul homeworld. What is the difference?”
― Andri E. Elia, Borealis: A Worldmaker of Yand Novel

“He shredded my wings with his words.”
― Andri E. Elia, Borealis: A Worldmaker of Yand Novel

“What you choose also chooses you.”
― Kamand Kojouri

“Amanda, still thinking more about Harry Mize than the issues before the committee, lunged forward and snatched the note from Kershing’s hand. After reading it, she stood up and walked out of the hearing, leaving the receipt on her chair. Rick glanced up as she walked out. Then, he picked up his receipt and read Kershing’s words. Get the trucks in position. It’s time to go.”
― Chad Boudreaux, Scavenger Hunt

“    The weapon gave a rusty croak. ‘I don’t normally do weather reports anymore,’ the gun informed him politely.
     ‘Why is that?’
     ‘Ever since the demise of the old metropolis, there has been no control of the weather systems. Anyone who would have appreciated a weather forecast perished an awful long time ago. Besides, every time I started to inform my potential victims of the current cloud formations, or wind velocity, or barometric pressure, or potential precipitation, they simply ran away.”
― A.R. Merrydew, Our Blue Orange

“This land, although not my native land,
Will be remembered forever.
And the sea's lightly iced,
Unsalty water.

The sand on the bottom is whiter than chalk,
The air is heady, like wine,
And the rosy body of the pines
Is naked in the sunset hour.

And the sunset itself on such waves of ether
That I just can't comprehend
Whether it is the end of the day, the end of the world,
Or the mystery of mysteries in me again.”
― Anna Akhmatova, The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova

“     ‘That has to be Mr Davis,’ Semilla said with an air of complete confidence as she stared at the inferno rising above the roof tops.
     ‘How can you be so certain?’ Burt questioned looking slightly pensive.
     Semilla gave a shrug. ‘Let’s face it he’s been in the vicinity of one or two little disasters lately.”
― A.R. Merrydew, Our Blue Orange

“The man might have died in a fit; but then the jewels are missing," mused the Inspector, "Ha! I have a theory. These flashes come upon me at times... What do you think of this, Holmes? Sholto was, on his own confession, with his brother last night. The brother died in a fit, on which Sholto walked off the treasure! How's that?"
"On which the dead man very considerately got up and locked the door on the inside," said Holmes.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four

“To worship a sacred mystery was just to worship your own ignorance.”
― Eliezer Yudkowsky, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

“He was still a mystery to me. And God, did I want to play Nancy Drew.”
― Cora Carmack, Losing It

“In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director.”
― Alfred Hitchcock

“Saskia.” A hand covered hers.
Saskia frowned. It was irritating enough that she only had one hand to work with. She didn’t need to have the movement of that one impeded as well. “I’m in the middle of – Oh! Tania! What – I thought you were in Canberra.”
“I was yesterday. I returned this morning.”
“Yesterday?” Saskia turned from staring at Tania to staring at her computer and the table. A half-empty mug of something sat next to a partly eaten sandwich and a mostly empty glass of water. “Oh,” she sat back in her chair. “I do this sometimes. I get caught up in things.”
Her gaze fell on the lines and boxes on the monitor’s screen. She sat forward, her surroundings disappearing from her awareness again. “Tania, I think I’m close to figuring it out.”
Tania’s hand, still on Saskia’s, squeezed gently. “Good. But now you need to take a rest.”
“No. I can finish this. I’m on a roll.”
“Yes. You can roll again later.”
“Look! I think I’ve almost worked it out.” She tugged her hand from under Tania’s and pointed to her computer screen, which showed a bank statement. “Look at these transactions. I can match them to –”
Tania peered at the screen. “Whose statement is that?”
― Miriam Verbeek, The Forest: A new Saskia van Essen crime mystery thriller

“Paul’s last grain of hope falling to the ground below him.”
― Molly Arbuthnott, Peanut the Hamster

“A pleasant morning. Saw my classmates Gardner, and Wheeler. Wheeler dined, spent the afternoon, and drank Tea with me. Supped at Major Gardiners, and engag'd to keep School at Bristol, provided Worcester People, at their ensuing March meeting, should change this into a moving School, not otherwise. Major Greene this Evening fell into some conversation with me about the Divinity and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ. All the Argument he advanced was, 'that a mere creature, or finite Being, could not make Satisfaction to infinite justice, for any Crimes,' and that 'these things are very mysterious.'
(Thus mystery is made a convenient Cover for absurdity.)

[Diary entry, February 13 1756]”
― John Adams, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, Volumes 1-4: Diary (1755-1804) and Autobiography

“Abdul and Mohamed sat down, chilling the conversation at the table. They spoke in Urdu, unaware Lily understood them. When her expression changed subtly, Abdul noticed and switched to speaking English with a mundane comment.”
― Dennis K. Hausker, Secrets: in a corrupted society

“We were about to give up and call it a night when somebody threw the girl off the bridge.”
― John D. MacDonald, Darker Than Amber

“Haven’t you ever done something you regretted when you woke up the next morning?” Steven asked.
I didn’t want to tell him how many times.”
― M S M Barkawitz, Feeling Lucky

“Saskia lay back again, closing her eyes and continued eating mandarin wedges. After a pause, she added, “I think that the biggest danger for people like you and me is that we start blaming people for things that happen to us. Bullies smell that kind of thing from miles away. People like you and me have to stop thinking about our limitations and start thinking about our talents and not let other people define us.”
― Miriam Verbeek, The Forest: A new Saskia van Essen crime mystery thriller

“I wish to confound all these people, to create a work of art of a supernatural realism and of a spiritualist naturalism. I wish to prove... that nothing is explained in the mysteries which surround us.”
― Joris-Karl Huysmans

“For now, I had escaped. I was free. And I wanted to know what freedom really felt like, at least for a while.”
― Steven Decker, Child of Another Kind

“When the sea goes down, there will come from the mainland boats and men. And they will find ten dead bodies and an unsolved problem on Indian Island.”
― Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None

“And believe it or not, we did end up going to the bottom of the ocean, just not for the reasons I had wanted to go there in the first place.”
― Steven Decker, Addicted to Time

“We are aware of your association with the Russian mafia, Mr. Linkov. Of course, you do not want this publicized. It would mean the end of your diplomatic career, perhaps imprisonment.”
― Karl Braungart, Lost Identity

“…I’ve come to realize that the only truths that matter to me are the ones I don’t, and can’t, understand. What’s mysterious, ambiguous, inexplicable. What doesn’t fit into a story, what doesn’t have a story. Glint of brightness on a barely-there chain. Patch of sunlight on a yellow wall. The loneliness that separates every living creature from every other living creature. Sorrow inseparable from joy.”
― Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch

“I'm killing time and it's dying hard.”
― Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye

“All roads lead to Trantor, and that is where all stars end.”
― Isaac Asimov, Second Foundation

“I realized he was on the island when I found this matchbook.”
― Karl Braungart, Counter Identity

“The door slid towards them like a freight train. One huge leap and they were clear with inches to spare. Icy water filled her white, leather sneakers and seeped into her denim jeans like kerosene rising in a wick.”
― Marilyn Dalla Valle, Westwind Secrets

“Hearts are healed by the sea.”
― Marilyn Dalla Valle, Westwind Secrets

“I couldn’t make sense out of what I was seeing. There was a shiny metal arm about an inch thick with a joint in the middle and a knob on the end. The arm was knocking the knob against the window. The oddest thing was that the arm wasn’t connected to anything. It appeared to be floating by itself in midair!”
― C.A. Knutsen, Tom and G.E.R.I.