Mystery Quotes

“We’re so very sorry about this latest murder. Ignore Simon’s levity.”
― Susan Rowland, Murder On Family Grounds: A Mary Wandwalker Mystery

“We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. And this has been based on the even flimsier assumption that we could know with any certainty what was good even for us. We have fulfilled the danger of this by making our personal pride and greed the standard of our behavior toward the world - to the incalculable disadvantage of the world and every living thing in it. And now, perhaps very close to too late, our great error has become clear. It is not only our own creativity - our own capacity for life - that is stifled by our arrogant assumption; the creation itself is stifled.
We have been wrong. We must change our lives, so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and to learn what is good for it. We must learn to cooperate in its processes, and to yield to its limits. But even more important, we must learn to acknowledge that the creation is full of mystery; we will never entirely understand it. We must abandon arrogance and stand in awe. We must recover the sense of the majesty of creation, and the ability to be worshipful in its presence. For I do not doubt that it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it.”
― Wendell Berry, The Long-Legged House

“But it so happens that everything on this planet is, ultimately, irrational; there is not, and cannot be, any reason for the causal connexion of things, if only because our use of the word "reason" already implies the idea of causal connexion. But, even if we avoid this fundamental difficulty, Hume said that causal connexion was not merely unprovable, but unthinkable; and, in shallower waters still, one cannot assign a true reason why water should flow down hill, or sugar taste sweet in the mouth. Attempts to explain these simple matters always progress into a learned lucidity, and on further analysis retire to a remote stronghold where every thing is irrational and unthinkable.

If you cut off a man's head, he dies. Why? Because it kills him. That is really the whole answer. Learned excursions into anatomy and physiology only beg the question; it does not explain why the heart is necessary to life to say that it is a vital organ. Yet that is exactly what is done, the trick that is played on every inquiring mind. Why cannot I see in the dark? Because light is necessary to sight. No confusion of that issue by talk of rods and cones, and optical centres, and foci, and lenses, and vibrations is very different to Edwin Arthwait's treatment of the long-suffering English language.

Knowledge is really confined to experience. The laws of Nature are, as Kant said, the laws of our minds, and, as Huxley said, the generalization of observed facts.

It is, therefore, no argument against ceremonial magic to say that it is "absurd" to try to raise a thunderstorm by beating a drum; it is not even fair to say that you have tried the experiment, found it would not work, and so perceived it to be "impossible." You might as well claim that, as you had taken paint and canvas, and not produced a Rembrandt, it was evident that the pictures attributed to his painting were really produced in quite a different way.

You do not see why the skull of a parricide should help you to raise a dead man, as you do not see why the mercury in a thermometer should rise and fall, though you elaborately pretend that you do; and you could not raise a dead man by the aid of the skull of a parricide, just as you could not play the violin like Kreisler; though in the latter case you might modestly add that you thought you could learn.

This is not the special pleading of a professed magician; it boils down to the advice not to judge subjects of which you are perfectly ignorant, and is to be found, stated in clearer and lovelier language, in the Essays of Thomas Henry Huxley. ”
― Aleister Crowley

“In a world of diminishing mystery, the unknown persists.”
― Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland

“Nancy, every place you go, it seems as if mysteries just pile up one after another.”
― Carolyn Keene, The Message in the Hollow Oak

“Fate is by far the greatest mystery of all.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“Hannah is a vegetarian; Trace is a cattle rancher. Definitely, not a match made in heaven.
“A horse with a sense of humor. Was that possible?”
― Cricket Rohman, Colorado Takedown

“He can guess, but he won't ever know, not really. What it was like, what she was thinking, everything she'd never told him.”
― Celeste Ng, Everything I Never Told You

“Every mystery ever solved had been a puzzle from the dawn of the human species right up until someone solved it.”
― Eliezer Yudkowsky, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

“Rule # 1: keep the crowd’s interest.”
― Brian Van Norman, Against the Machine: Evolution

“So why not a woman, too—if I was dating her?”
― M S M Barkawitz, Feeling Lucky

“With complete calmness, the murderer turned and walked out of the dining room; out of the heavy double doors.”
― Behcet Kaya

“Without realizing what she was doing and more on an impulse than anything else, she leaned forward and kissed him. It was a simple, yet firm kiss and she pulled back after only a moment. But it sent a thrill through her.
He leaned down for another. But she put her finger on his lips to stop him.
"That was my reward to you," she said as they danced. "Don't squander it."
"Reward? he asked still seeming both surprised and delighted at this unexpected attention. "What for?"
"Why for living, Vaelros. And for doing so much else to help me. I will have you rewarded in state as well. But that was just from me."
She saw Vaelros flush and she gave him a brilliant smile. "You don't like my reward?" she asked.
"I do!" he replied. "I want only to learn how to earn more."
The music was fading. The song was ending. Luthiel stepped back and let her hands drop.
"A mysterious thing, my heart," she said. ”
― Robert Fanney

“Jesus, I wonder if that sound was our listening receiver falling to the floor.”
― Karl Braungart, Fatal Identity

“I was dreadfully concerned that this creature meant to harm me, but then a thought entered my mind. I am the one who moved Annette, Charles. And now, I will take you on a journey of your own.   ”
― Steven Decker, Addicted to Time

“Authors were shy, unsociable creatures, atoning for their lack of social aptitude by inventing their own companions and conversations.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“Here is a story that’s stranger than strange.
Before we begin you may want to arrange:
a blanket, a cushion, a comfortable seat,
and maybe some cocoa and something to eat.

I’ll warn you, of course, before we commence,
my story is eerie and full of suspense,
brimming with danger and narrow escapes,
and creatures of many remarkable shapes.

Dragons and ogres and gorgons and more,
and creatures you’ve not even heard of before.
And faraway places? There’s plenty of those!
(And menacing villains to tingle your toes.)

So ready your mettle and steady your heart.
It’s time for my story’s mysterious start...”
― Robert Paul Weston, Zorgamazoo

“Whoo-eeee!”
From the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of Peter. He was on the road to the side, probably waiting to ensure she’d managed to negotiate the first part of the track. She didn’t stop, her adrenaline pumping. He’d catch up. “Come get me!” she yelled, making a slight counter-direction turn in the air to help her blow into the berm on the other side of the road. The trail crossed a short flat, a marked rock garden, a beam over a bog, another rock drop and berm, a zigzag around massive trees, roots and rocks that kicked the bike’s tyres this way and that and tested her balance, more air over another drop – this one caused by a massive log – enough air for her to do a back flip from a kicker over another part of the forestry trail, steep to the left. The first wall appeared. She took it fast, skidded around to slam into the side of a berm and round off on to another gully crossing.
“Whoo-eeee!”
― Miriam Verbeek, The Forest: A new Saskia van Essen crime mystery thriller

“This is what the Problem means,” he went on. “This is the effect it has. Lives lost, loved ones taken before their time. And then we hide our dead behind iron walls and leave them to the thorns and ivy. We lose them twice over, Lucy. Death’s not the worst of it. We turn our faces away.”
― Jonathan Stroud, The Empty Grave

“Around two or three times a year, we would notice the wind blowing harder than usual, which meant a giant wave was coming.”
― Steven Decker, Addicted to Time

“The trick to being smart is knowing when to play dumb.”
― V. Alexander

“Journalism…is an unreliable aggregation of belief spaces.”
― Amy L. Bernstein, The Potrero Complex

“And Tarquin,’ Semilla said quietly. ‘He has been in league with them all along?’
‘Yes, I am afraid so,’ Rupert confirmed.”
― A.R. Merrydew, The Girl with the Porcelain Lips

“We are stood on the spot where a vast army of legionnaires were sent through a time portal with this very device,’ Jack said holding out his arm and displaying the XXL strapped safely to his wrist.”
― A.R. Merrydew, The Girl with the Porcelain Lips

“I should have been bolder and kissed her at the end. I should have been more cautious. I had talked too much. I had said too little.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“Even though you can't finally grasp me, guess what? I still want to be known.”
― William P. Young

“Ultima came to stay with us the summer I was almost seven. When she came the beauty of the llano unfolded before my eyes, and the gurgling waters of the river sang to the hum of the turning earth. The magical time of childhood stood still, and the pulse of the living earth pressed its mystery into my living blood.”
― Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima

“I was worried about my own vagina. It needed a context of other vaginas-- a community, a culture of vaginas. There's so much darkness and secrecy surrounding them-- like the Bermunda Triangle.”
― Eve Ensler, The Vagina Monologues

“Moments from their life together flickered: their first time making love. Eating pizza on the floor of their city apartment. The way he gently laid his thumb to still her wildly twitching eye. Who was he now? Who was she? What was happening? … Yes, my partner is a thief. A thief in the night.”
― Amy L. Bernstein, The Potrero Complex

“Xanax can be addictive. Opioids can be fatal. There are medications intended for only eight weeks of use, yet people take them for years. And what is all this about?…. Money.”
― Jeffrey S. Stephens, Enemies Among Us