Quotes from The Nevers

Only a blind man measures the length of a blade by how much is in his belly.

Penance Adair: "I'm not confident in my curtsying."
Amalia True: "I'm not confident in my breathing."
Penance Adair: "Oh, I wasn't planning to breathe. I think it's considered rude."

Lucy Best: "My mum used to say, if you can look a man in the eye, you can stab him in it."
Amalia True: "Smart woman."

Penance Adair: "Mrs. True."
Amalia True: "Miss Adair."
Penance Adair: "You look very fine."
Amalia True: "I think so too."

Prince Albrecht: "It's just a woman."
Lord Broughton: "Five men murdered. I'd say she's more than that."

We have enemies we don't know about yet.

She does speak English. But not with her mouth.

Flirt with the ugly one! It creates an unexpected balance.

Neither right nor wrong. Being Touched is not a defect of character.

Amalia: "We don't consider ourselves afflicted."
Lord Massen: "Perhaps some women are more fortunate in the nature of their ailment than others."
Amalia: "That's true, but more suffer from society's perception than their own debilitation."

Penance Adair: "Does it hurt?"
Amalia True: "Itches."
Penance Adair: "That's much worse."

We are the first generation accustomed to the impossible. What women are appalled by today, they will accept tomorrow, and demand the day after that. And the immigrant. And the deviant. That is the power being wielded, and not by us. The blade is in, gentlemen. We need to know whose hand is on the hilt.