Lydia Sherrer > Quotes

“He kept her company, listened patiently when she complained, and always made sure her clothes were thoroughly covered in cat hair. They were family. He was her cat; she was his human. It seemed crazy, but that was enough.”
― Lydia Sherrer, Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Revelations

“Experience told her it was dangerous to dismiss a thing simply because you didn’t understand it.”
― Lydia Sherrer, Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Revelations

“Fire tests gold as suffering tests brave men. What is done cannot be undone. Therefore, a wise man would persevere, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance, character, and character, hope.”
― Lydia Sherrer, Accidental Witch

“refocusing instead on all the good things in life. Books. Tea. Chocolate. Cats. More books.”
― Lydia Sherrer, Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Beginnings

“There is no shame in being who you are, where you are, right here and now. All that matters is your efforts each day to improve. We have a problem to solve, so lay your anxieties aside and focus on the reality you face in this present moment, not on the ideal scenario you had hoped for.”
― Lydia Sherrer, Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus Odyssey

“Ask any cat and they’ll tell you: art is not a thing you hang on a wall. It is an experience, it is life. Art is the perfectly timed leap in the air to catch a trespassing moth. Art is the stream of sunbeams filtering in through the trees that both warms your fur and provides a camouflaging pattern across your body. Art is the precisely chosen angle and pressure of your human’s fingers executing a flawless scratch beneath your chin. But, I suppose if you simply must have a physical piece of art in your possession to fulfill some sort of human need to own and hoard, then adopt a cat. Or two. Or three. Or ten. We are art embodied, poetry in motion, perfection distilled into physical form.”
― Lydia Sherrer, Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus Cat Mischief

“Her office was a spacious room on the first floor, with a high ceiling and expansive windows.”
― Lydia Sherrer, Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Beginnings

“As an introvert, she had few friends, and an observant, rather than interactive, presence online, and so rarely kept her phone nearby.”
― Lydia Sherrer, Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Revelations

“Taking a deep breath, she let the disappointment and frustration of an abysmal date fade away, refocusing instead on all the good things in life. Books. Tea. Chocolate. Cats. More books.”
― Lydia Sherrer, Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Beginnings

“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too…” he trailed off, brows drawing together in somber contemplation. Lily took up the recitation. Being an ardent admirer of all things Kipling—as evidenced by her choice in cat names—she knew many of his poems by heart. “If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, or being lied about, don’t deal in lies.” As if her words were a magnet, Richard’s eyes lifted from the page to her face. His normal look of quiet strength had fallen in a moment of thoughtful distraction, and behind it Lily could see doubt and the heavy weight of responsibility. Looking at her, yet seeming not to see her, he continued, heedless of the open book in his hand. “Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, and yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise.” He stopped, breath stilled, as though the words themselves had stolen it. With a pang of pity, she continued the verse for him. “If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; if you can think—and not make thoughts your aim.” Her words recalled him, and he looked at her in wonder as if he really saw her for the first time. Joining her, their voices mingled as they stared deep into each other’s eyes. “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same; if you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, and stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools.”
― Lydia Sherrer, Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Allies

“Ask any cat and they’ll tell you: art is not a thing you hang on a wall. It is an experience, it is life. Art is the perfectly timed leap in the air to catch a trespassing moth. Art is the stream of sunbeams filtering in through the trees that both warms your fur and provides a camouflaging pattern across your body. Art is the precisely chosen angle and pressure of your human’s fingers executing a flawless scratch beneath your chin.”
― Lydia Sherrer, Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus Cat Mischief

“Tragedy does not discriminate. It comes to the old and young, the happy and unhappy, the evil and the righteous just the same. It is, you might say, a symptom of our imperfect reality. Our saving grace, the reason humanity survives, is a curious phenomenon. While tragedy crushes some, others it strengthens, and through that strength, life goes on.”
― Lydia Sherrer, Accidental Witch

“As I said, a warrior. It might look different from whatever silly, preconceived notion you may have gotten from popular movies and books. They are but a shadow, a childish fantasy meant to entertain. Being a warrior is not what you look like or what others think of you. It is what you do, every moment of every day. It is the truth you stand for and the good you fight to protect. I have seen you conquer every challenge you have faced so far, and have no doubt you will conquer this one as well, one way or another.”
― Lydia Sherrer, Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Kindred

“HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU: PRIDE IS UNBECOMING TO HUMANS. ONLY CATS AND DRAGONS DO IT JUSTICE.”
― Lydia Sherrer, Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus Odyssey

“After all, what were cats for if not to rescue you from your own self-pity through the liberal application of snark?”
― Lydia Sherrer, Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Allies

“Pride is unbecoming to humans,” Sir Kipling pointed out, as if he could read her thoughts. “Only cats and dragons do it justice.”
― Lydia Sherrer, Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Allies

“With four years of undergraduate work-study in the stacks, not to mention two years as head librarian after graduation, her BA in history and minor in classics were just icing on the cake.”
― Lydia Sherrer, Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Beginnings

“clutter of cats.”
― Lydia Sherrer, Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus Cat Magic

“purer the blood,”
― Lydia Sherrer, Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Beginnings

“Though it was Saturday, Lily preferred to take refuge in the library and bury herself in paperwork”
― Lydia Sherrer, Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Beginnings

“Though it was embarrassing to admit, Lily had never been to an airport before, much less flown on a plane. She’d never needed to. While she’d dreamed of traveling the world, it was done from the comfort and safety of her living room sofa with a nice cup of tea close at hand. As tempting as all those exciting new experiences were, they had the misfortune of being exciting, new, and experiences. All the things Lily tried to avoid. She didn’t have anything against excitement or new things, just as long as they kept their distance. She was a creature of habit, and excitement was generally disruptive to her routine. There was a fiery adventurer buried down deep inside of her somewhere, she was sure, but as of yet she hadn’t found it.”
― Lydia Sherrer, Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Legends

“4 Danger Walks Among Us Mostly because of Sir Kipling’s scathing comments about frumpy old maids, Lily caved and wore a black cocktail dress instead of her normal pencil skirt suit. After all, she reasoned, she needed to blend in with the guests, and it was a black tie event. This little black dress was the kind every girl had languishing in the back of her closet, never worn yet prized for its potential.”
― Lydia Sherrer, Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Revelations

“Her hands were dry and leathery, but warm, and her grip strong, given character no doubt by the many hours spent tending her garden.”
― Lydia Sherrer, Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Legends

“Knowledge was the next best thing to life itself, and knowledge of the unknown and mysterious was something she’d craved ever since she could remember,”
― Lydia Sherrer, Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Beginnings