WIST Quotations

Aaronovitch, Ben -- Amongst Our Weapons (2022)

Dave — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 16:32:11 +0000

The original single-bulb light fittings had been ripped out and their cables rerouted to power a single line of fluorescent tubes. In accordance with the iron law of creepy ambience, every third or fourth tube was either out or flickering fitfully.

Ben Aaronovitch (b. 1964) British author
Amongst Our Weapons (2022)

Aaronovitch, Ben -- Broken Homes (2013)

Dave — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 13:55:30 +0000

It’s a police mantra that all members of the public are guilty of something, but some members of the public are more guilty than others.

Ben Aaronovitch (b. 1964) British author
Broken Homes (2013)

See Orwell.

Aaronovitch, Ben -- Broken Homes (2013)

Dave — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 14:13:07 +0000

As my dad always says, while improvisation and spontaneity may be the hallmarks of great jazz, the hallmark of being a great player is ensuring the rest of the band is spontaneously improvising the way you want them to.

Ben Aaronovitch (b. 1964) British author
Broken Homes (2013)

Aaronovitch, Ben -- Broken Homes (2013)

Dave — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 14:32:16 +0000

Landscaping is the great cardinal sin of modern architecture. It’s not your garden, it’s not a park — it’s a formless patch of grass, shrubbery and the occasional tree that exists purely to stop the original developer’s plans from looking like a howling concrete wilderness.

Ben Aaronovitch (b. 1964) British author
Broken Homes (2013)

Aaronovitch, Ben -- Broken Homes (2013)

Dave — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 16:13:31 +0000

It’s a sad fact of modern life that sooner or later you will end up on YouTube doing something stupid. The trick, according to my dad, is to make a fool of yourself to the best of your ability.

Ben Aaronovitch (b. 1964) British author
Broken Homes (2013)

Aaronovitch, Ben -- False Value (2020)

Dave — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 15:03:56 +0000

It’s one of those weird truths you learn early on as police that quite a high percentage of the public have all the survival instinct of a moth in a candle factory. They run the wrong way, they refuse to move, some will run toward the danger, and others will instantly whip out their phones and take footage.

Ben Aaronovitch (b. 1964) British author
False Value (2020)

Aaronovitch, Ben -- False Value (2020)

Dave — Fri, 19 Mar 2021 14:31:25 +0000

But everyone assumes causation when they should be thinking coincidence, and correlation when they should be asking whether Twitter is really a reliable source of information.

Ben Aaronovitch (b. 1964) British author
False Value (2020)

Aaronovitch, Ben -- False Value, ch. 14 (2020)

Dave — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 13:56:18 +0000

“What have we got to lose?” I said.

Nightingale looked up and gave me a strange, sad smile. “Oh, everything, Peter,” he said. “But then, such is life.”

Ben Aaronovitch (b. 1964) British author
False Value, ch. 14 (2020)

Aaronovitch, Ben -- Foxglove Summer (2014)

Dave — Wed, 03 Feb 2016 14:48:06 +0000

“There’s weird shit,” I said. “And we deal with the weird shit, but normally it turns out that there’s a perfectly rational explanation.” Which is often that a wizard did it.

Ben Aaronovitch (b. 1964) British author
Foxglove Summer (2014)

Aaronovitch, Ben -- Foxglove Summer (2014)

Dave — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 15:06:40 +0000

“So the moon effects magic, why?”

“I’m working on several theories,” I said. “But I’m currently favoring the hypothesis that the moon has a seemingly arbitrary effect on magic because it likes to piss me off.”

“That’s a theory with a high degree of applicability to other spheres of life,” he said.

“Yes, it is,” I said, and we spontaneously fist bumped.

Ben Aaronovitch (b. 1964) British author
Foxglove Summer (2014)

Aaronovitch, Ben -- Lies Sleeping (2018)

Dave — Fri, 02 Apr 2021 14:39:46 +0000

Here’s a comforting thought for you, Peter. However long you may live, the world will never lose its ability to surprise you with its beauty.

Ben Aaronovitch (b. 1964) British author
Lies Sleeping (2018)

Aaronovitch, Ben -- Moon Over Soho (2011)

Dave — Wed, 04 Nov 2015 14:49:49 +0000

“Would you like me to arrest you?” I asked. That’s an old police trick: If you just warn people they often just ignore you, but if you ask them a question then they have to think about it. Once they start to think about the consequences they almost always calm down, unless they’re drunk of course, or stoned, or aged between fourteen and twenty-one, or Glaswegian.