Christina Baehr > Quotes

“Doing everything yourself isn’t strength. It’s a kind of weakness, really. When you trust other people enough to ask them to help you—to admit your own weakness—there’s strength in that. A three-strand cord is not easily broken. But one strand on its own is sure to break.”
― Christina Baehr, City of Serpents

“I began to wonder why I had ever thought I lived in a world without dragons.”
― Christina Baehr

“Courage is love defying fear.”
― Christina Baehr, Drake Hall

“All this time I’ve been wanting to learn how to cure diseases, and I’ve been completely ignoring the people who suffer from them.”
― Christina Baehr, Drake Hall

“One doesn’t beat about the bush when one is standing on a tower at moonrise watching for a wyvern.”
― Christina Baehr, Wormwood Abbey

“Kindness leads to repentance, and repentance leads to change.”
― Christina Baehr, Valley of Dragons

“It won’t do for me to write there; he’ll talk to me. He’ll read out bits of books to me every time I have a thought, and my thoughts will run screaming away.”
― Christina Baehr, Wormwood Abbey

“I wanted those who stayed to stay out of love, because there was beauty here, too, and beautiful things that were worthy of protection. Surely, that would be true strength.”
― Christina Baehr, Drake Hall

“Yesterday I had fancied myself becoming a character from a fairy tale. Now I discovered I already was one.”
― Christina Baehr, Drake Hall

“How thin was the gilding of civilisation that lay over the cruelties of a selfish man.”
― Christina Baehr, Castle of the Winds

“You simply can’t cry and sing loudly at the same time, and if you try, you’ll only end up laughing and then half of your problem is solved.”
― Christina Baehr, Wormwood Abbey

“Shall I get the brandy?” she asked. “I think I need something stronger.” “Tea, then,” she said grimly, “and cake, I think.” “Such recklessness in one so young! But yes. Most definitely.”
― Christina Baehr, Drake Hall

“It takes practise,” Mother admitted. “But it helps if you want to play two parts of the same duet.”
― Christina Baehr, Drake Hall

“How strange to grow up like that, a different person than what one thought.”
― Christina Baehr, Drake Hall

“But wait, could the someone be whistling ‘God Save the Queen’? This reassured me somehow.”
― Christina Baehr, Drake Hall

“I raised my eyes to his, and for once, I didn’t try to dispel the tension between us. My heart beat strangely. I felt like I was standing on the edge of the river that ran through the Dale, the water surging past my feet. Ought I to cross it? Ought I to cross to his side? If I didn’t yet love him, might I allow myself to try? Might I step at least onto the first stepping stone, and see what happened then?”
― Christina Baehr, Drake Hall

“The flower of manhood was now wearing a slightly quizzical expression. I suppose he wasn’t used to young ladies looking at him as if they’d found a nest of rats in their hatbox.”
― Christina Baehr, Castle of the Winds

“What made you choose to write about detectives, Edith?"

"I'm not entirely sure I did choose it. Not exactly," I admitted. "I just knew that I wanted Inspector Green to exist, and if I didn't write him down, he wouldn't. And since that was unbearable, I had to do it.”
― Christina Baehr, City of Serpents

“Which meant that firstly, Drake was an absolute beast. And secondly, he knew his Austen. And that was a paradox I could not fathom.”
― Christina Baehr, Wormwood Abbey

“I looked at the maimed dragon on her lap. Simon had taken it as a metaphor for his mother and her crushed hopes. But it could just as well be him. I wanted to cry. These families! Why did they go on doing this?”
― Christina Baehr, Drake Hall

“I decided to cheer myself up by singing the Doxology at the top of my lungs. You simply can’t cry and sing loudly at the same time, and if you try, you’ll only end up by laughing and then half of your problem is solved.”
― Christina Baehr, Wormwood Abbey

“It was the kind of beauty that hurts and heals at once.”
― Christina Baehr, Valley of Dragons

“I expect it might take a little time, Gwen,” I said softly. “To stop being afraid, after all those years.” Our eyes met and I felt her face relax a little, as if I’d given her my approval to allow the wounds time to mend.”
― Christina Baehr, Drake Hall

“Could we be in some kind of danger?”
― Christina Baehr, Castle of the Winds

“Most men seem to want one to…well…” “Tend their stall at the charity bazaar?” Mother suggested, her voice a little wry. “Yes, exactly! And I’ve just told you how that makes me feel.” “What about Simon? Does he have a charity bazaar stall that wants tending?”
― Christina Baehr, Drake Hall

“Unlike her, I had the great blessing of a place to go where I would not be judged by the state of my gloves, nor what missteps I had taken.”
― Christina Baehr, Castle of the Winds

“Does your son also share your interest in social reform?” I asked. “My son is of my mind in all things, Miss Worms,” he said. At this, I balked inwardly. Had Arthur such a compliant temperament? And what reasonable parent would expect such conformity?”
― Christina Baehr, Castle of the Winds

“joy had left no room for fear.”
― Christina Baehr, Valley of Dragons

“I was slightly taken aback by the way he said my name. Very carefully, as if he was speaking the name of a saint at her shrine.”
― Christina Baehr, Drake Hall

“You were afraid of your father, weren’t you?” I asked. It suddenly all made so much more sense: Una’s fear, Gwendolyn’s fear, Violet’s cheerful conviction that violence and death lurked around every corner. “Yes. I was. I never thought about it that way. But now you say it, I think I was always at least a little afraid.” She said this almost wonderingly. “When it’s there all the time, one doesn’t realise it—quite. Like a bird who's never known anything but a cage, I suppose”
― Christina Baehr, Drake Hall