Imp Quotes

“Never forget what you are the rest of the world will not. Wear it like armour and it can never be used to hurt you.”
― George R.R. Martin

“Humph,' he said, with a disagreeable air, 'the universe does its work very quietly.' (“The Bogey Man”)”
― A.E. Coppard, Dusky Ruth and Other Stories

“I like you in green,’ he said. ‘You look as if you’re a very beautiful imp.’
”
― Sara Sheridan, British Bulldog

“Time is an imp—a pesky, little, hellish troll that hastens the clock when I smile but then delays the passing of minutes when I frown.”
― Richelle E. Goodrich, Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, and Grumblings for Every Day of the Year

“O, sir,' murmured Sheila, still on her knees, 'please forgive me.'

'Forgive you! 0, la, la, la!' cunningly cried the droll, and strutting like an actor. 'Forgiveness is easy, is it not? O, yes, it is nothing. You are a young woman full of pride. O. yes! - but that is nothing. And full of penitence, and that is nothing, too. Pride is nothing, penitence nothing, forgiveness nothing, but even a bargain in farthings must be paid to be made, and I am a plain business man. What costs nothing brings no balm, and you would not like that, you would not like that, now would you?' (“The Bogey Man”)”
― A.E. Coppard, Dusky Ruth and Other Stories

“I am Shiloh, whose box you stole. Your godmother's sickness lies in your own keeping, you can heal her in a moment. Make me your slave, and I must do your will.'

'You can do this,' Sheila said, 'without my taking a gift from you; you are wise and skilled. O do it, sir, and I will bless your name for ever.'

'Pooh! what is the good of that?' said he. 'No, I serve a master, the King of Kings, but we are emptiness itself without your mortal alloy. Do as I bid and I will serve you like a queen. And if you fear me you have only to put me to sleep and I shall sleep for seven hundred years.'

'No,' said the tempted girl slowly, 'not even for godmother can I do this; you are full of evil. Lies, lies! Why do you lie so?'

'O,' Shiloh said, 'because I am weary, and dissimulation is stimulation.'

'I don't understand that.'

'Well, it is so.' He yawned and yawned. 'Besides, I am the Other Side of things. All you think good may be bad, all you think bad may be good.'

'And I don't understand that.'

Shiloh replied: 'Strong meat for men and lily buds for maids; did Ajax feed on apples?'

'I beg your pardon, sir,' said Sheila.”
― A.E. Coppard, Dusky Ruth and Other Stories

“... no matter how eager you are for it, you cannot make the moon set nor rise any faster.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“The two other members of Dain's spy troupe also have code names. There's the lean, handsome faerie that looks at least part human, who winks and tells me to call him the Ghost. He has sandy-coloured hair, which is normal for a mortal, but is unusual for a faerie, and ears that come to very subtle points.

The other is a tiny, delicate girl, her skin the dappled brown of a doe, her hair a cloud of white around her head, and a miniature pair of blue-grey butterfly wings on her back. She's got at least some pixie in her, if not some imp.
...
'I'm the Bomb,' she says. 'I like blowing things up.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Not now, imp. We have many dull adult things to do.”
― Holly Black, The Prisoner’s Throne

“I think you underestimate the appeal of blowing things up.”
― Debra Dunbar, Devil's Paw

“So this is how you've been living,' the little imp grumbles. 'A worm in a butterfly's cocoon.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“Pent-up, resentful young girls are not known for conjuring an imp to hold sometimes-polite conversations with the guardians stifling them.”
― Thomm Quackenbush, The Curious Case of the Talking Mongoose