Katherine J. Chen > Quotes

“You must make your own map of the world. Search out your own piece of sky and patch of earth, your own awning to sleep under when it is raining and it feels the sun may never shine again, for there will certainly be such days. No one can walk this path for you. You cannot simply follow in another's footsteps, as though life were a complicated dance, every turn and twist memorized and prepared for ahead of time. There are many things in the world you can inherit: money, land, power, a crown. But an adventure is not one of them; you must make your own journey.”
― Katherine J. Chen, Joan

“I believe God crafted the sound of a woman’s scream,” she says, “to pierce the heart and to test our humanity, whether we still have it or whether we have left it behind. “But there are men for whom a woman’s scream is as a fist that bounces off armor. I have thought to myself, What choices does a woman have for vengeance, for justice? For we cannot simply pray. I can’t stomach my mother’s prayers. We cannot afford to wait and be still. I won’t live this way—not anymore. So when I spoke to God that morning, I decided, if I am to scream, let it be in battle. There is no chance for peace except at the point of a sword.”
― Katherine J. Chen, Joan

“But there is pleasure, is there not, unrivaled by any other feeling in the world, to reach the last page of a book and know that you have lived in it, that you have stood witness to the performance of momentous deeds at the hands of extraordinary personalities? Do you not sometimes marvel at how the construction of a beautiful line can leave you either shaking with laughter or bawling like an untended infant? Is that not a miracle which deserves as much scrutiny as the wonders of science and nature?”
― Katherine J. Chen, Mary B: An Untold Story of Pride and Prejudice

“What would I gain by being a man?" she says. "A cock, a deeper voice, hair across my chest. I would not become stronger. I am already strong." And, she thinks, I would inherit several weaknesses of man's nature: his lust, his boundless aggression, his desire to tame all that he touches--the beasts of the field, the earth, women. For a man cannot see anything in the world without wishing to wear it like a trophy on his back, to call himself master over it. To her, this is what it means to be a man.”
― Katherine J. Chen, Joan

“Because to hold a book, even to open it, is an experience in itself.”
― Katherine J. Chen, Joan

“The dark is for imagining. And you can see horrors. You can scare yourself with tricks of the mind and dancing devils. Or you can plan out your whole future in the pitch of night. You can dream with your eyes open. The key is to stay alive. If you still have breath in you, there is every chance tomorrow will be better.”
― Katherine J. Chen, Joan

“Charity is a game of convenience, after all; if our purses do not feel significantly lighter and our meals continue to fill our stomachs to brimming, then we are glad to appear benevolent in the eyes of God. But we refuse to suffer even the faintest pinprick at its hands. If it gives us pain, then it is no longer Charity that begs at our door but Exploitation, and, in her”
― Katherine J. Chen, Mary B: An Untold Story of Pride and Prejudice

“Muitas coisas no mundo podem ser herdadas: dinheiro, terras, poder, uma coroa. Mas uma aventura não é uma delas; você precisa fazer sua própria jornada.”
― Katherine J. Chen, Joan

“Consider what people will think when they hear this: A woman on a battlefield. A woman fighting in an army. A woman sent to free a city from siege. It is laughable, no? And there are many at court laughing already. At you, at me, at poor le Maçon, despite all the arguments he has made in your favor. They laugh, too, at the Dauphin for even meeting with you. But I will tell you something I have learned in my forty-eight years. Either a woman must be raised high, higher than the heads of men, or she will be crushed beneath their feet. So, we must raise you high. We must raise you to the height of the heavens themselves. We must dress you in the very mantle of God. Do you understand, Joan? Or must I summon le Maçon to explain?”
― Katherine J. Chen, Joan

“Nem sempre são exércitos que vencem uma batalha. Às vezes é o medo. O medo é capaz de conter um inimigo antes que uma única espada seja desembainhada.”
― Katherine J. Chen, Joan

“De kunst is dat je in leven blijft. Zolang je ademt, is er een kans dat het morgen beter zal zijn. [P.71]”
― Katherine J. Chen, Joan

“You have started on this road, Joan, and you should know it is a path without an end. War is like a box. Once you open it, there is no way to close it again, to unsee what you have seen. Other people will sometimes show you what they have done while you have been on campaign. ‘Look, I have carved a statue; it is the best statue in the world,’ they might say, or ‘I have painted the finest portrait of the king, and he has awarded me with a chest of coins.’ And you smile at them as if they are children who have made a circle of pebbles or a chain of daisies. You answer, ‘But I have been to war. I have fought at such-and-such a place in this part of the kingdom or in a kingdom far away. I saw a thousand men die. And I killed some, too.’ And then they blink at you. They are speechless, for they know you have lived through something they have never experienced in their little rooms and comfortable hovels and probably never will. You have skirted death, run circles around that king of kings. You have taken a man’s life, felt it trembling at the tip of your blade or perhaps in your own hands. What is this to a statue, a painting, or a book? You have teetered on the edge of graves—your own and those of other men—and you are never the same again after you have returned from that place.”
― Katherine J. Chen, Joan

“Deve ser isso que acontece quando alguém deixa sua casa, viaja e conhece o mundo. Pouco a pouco, começa a mudar, mesmo que não esteja ciente disso. O que antes era estranho torna-se familiar: línguas estrangeiras, o som de instrumentos diferentes, os caprichos do mar. Devagar, você se transforma até que as estrelas que giram no céu ficam tão familiares quanto as linhas em suas próprias mãos, mas primeiro você precisa passar pela porta. Precisa deixar para trás o que sabe e, possivelmente, o que ama. É preciso que esteja disposto a perder todos os centímetros de seu ser, para que, da próxima vez que vir seu reflexo em um riacho ou em um espelho, o que pode demorar semanas, anos ou metade de uma vida, você não se reconheça. É preciso arriscar tudo isso para ganhar o que o mundo está pronto para oferecer.”
― Katherine J. Chen, Joan