Appearances Quotes in Mortal Engines

This is a good point, although we're not sure if Tom realizes it himself yet. He's in love with the image of Katherine, and that image is flawless, like a retouched Vogue magazine cover. Can an image like that ever reflect the true person?

This is Peavey's blatant attempt to set Tom up with his daughter, but he does it by playing on Tom's tendency to prefer superficial beauty. By this point, however, Tom is beginning to see Hester's other strengths.

Tom extends his shallow view that beauty equals value to the town of Shan Gau. We guess this means that if the town were gross-looking, Tom would let it get destroyed. We hope Tom's never in charge of saving Baltimore.