Allison Pataki > Quotes

“Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.”
― Allison Pataki, The Accidental Empress

“I suppose the true test of character comes when facing life’s harshest blows and disappointments. When things don’t turn out how you had hoped they would, do you grow bitter? Spiteful? Blame others and spread your misery? Or do you keep your head high and walk with grace, meeting the struggles which God has placed in your path?”
― Allison Pataki, The Traitor's Wife: The Woman Behind Benedict Arnold and the Plan to Betray America

“A deity does not quake simply because the crowd yells. An empress stands fixed, immutable: the calm that continues on, even as the world rages.”
― Allison Pataki, The Accidental Empress

“My wealth would have been a burden on my soul if I did not find ways to share it with others.” That”
― Allison Pataki, The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post

“Mediocrity is never a desirable destination....At least, not when practice might transform mediocrity to competence, or even skill.' ~ Napoleon Bonapart”
― Allison Pataki, The Queen's Fortune

“channel the power of the mind. If you want to change your circumstances, then you have to change your attitude.”
― Allison Pataki, The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post

“A lady need never apologize. ~ Joseph de Bonaparte (Brother of Napoleon)”
― Allison Pataki, The Queen's Fortune

“I would never again make myself small in order to allow a man to feel big. I would never again root my home in another’s name, or put my own name aside to take up a man’s.”
― Allison Pataki, The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post

“Don't you see, my darling?" He lifted her hand, resting it on his chest so that he could feel his heartbeat, its pace rapid like horse hooves against his breastbone. "Don't you see? Oh, but you know this well enough already. That there is nothing that requires more strength than to allow yourself to be weak for another.”
― Allison Pataki, The Accidental Empress

“It’s not the wolves, Empress,” Marie Festetics said, her voice hushed. “I’m more frightened of what awaits us at the top of this mountain.”
― Allison Pataki, Sisi: Empress on Her Own

“The sea is forever, it existed long before I did. It shall outlast me. In a world where absolutely nothing is certain, at least that much is true.”
― Allison Pataki, The Queen's Fortune: A Novel of Desiree, Napoleon, and the Dynasty That Outlasted the Empire

“This waltz was the music of the softly falling snow on the regal new buildings of the Ringstrasse. It was the spring tulips covering the lawns and arcades in front of the Schönbrunn Palace. It was the indomitable, majestic peaks of the Alps, the red-cheeked goatherds plucking wild edelweiss from the summits. It was the spirited laughter of Viennese students, wooing and debating in the beer gardens and cafés. It was the stately blue Danube, it was the cathedrals, it was the mountain chalets, and it was the ancient villages sprung up around church bell towers and brooks and streams. It was all of it, and it was all Franz Josef.”
― Allison Pataki

“And Sisi was struck by the Heine quote she had circled that morning, on her trip back to Vienna: Before death I shall, moved in my heart, forgive them all the wrong they did me in their lifetime. One must, it is true, forgive one’s enemies—but not before they have been hanged.”
― Allison Pataki, Sisi: Empress on Her Own

“How strange, she thought, to be a part of what would surely become history, and yet still worry that she might trip on her heavy skirt.”
― Allison Pataki, The Accidental Empress

“I know this,” Sisi said, ignoring the noblewoman’s censorious stare. “It is: Franz Joseph the First, by the Grace of God, Emperor of Austria; King of Hungary and Bohemia; King of Lombardy and Venice; Grand Duke of Tuscany and Kraków; Duke of Lorraine; Grand Duke of Transylvania; Margrave of Moravia; Duke of Upper and Lower Silesia, of Modena, and Parma, and Piacenza—”
― Allison Pataki, The Accidental Empress

“In those busy but meaningful days, I began to understand, truly, the fierce and formidable power of women. Though we could not enlist and take up arms, I felt that I, and the many women around me, could have a direct hand in supporting this war abroad and keeping this country free at home. Though I could not vote for the president, though I could not even sit on the board of the company that bore my family’s name, I began to hope that, by the time my girls were older, these facts might change.”
― Allison Pataki, The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post

“As women, we should feel comfortable expressing ourselves, even disagreeing with others. We are entitled, each one of us, to our own thoughts and opinions. We need not fear that it is unseemly to disagree or hold to a conviction of our own. We must learn to be comfortable in debate and discourse. We must shake off these shackles that are placed upon us by those who say a woman’s only job is to make a man feel respected and affirmed. What of our own self-respect? What of the affirmation of our own thoughts and characters?”
― Allison Pataki, Finding Margaret Fuller

“Fortune favors the bold. One doesn't win glory by hiding behind the lines.”
― Allison Pataki, The Queen's Fortune: A Novel of Desiree, Napoleon, and the Dynasty That Outlasted the Empire

“May we always remember to begin the day being grateful for life, however difficult that life may appear. To show up for our loved ones. To listen, to allow them to weep when they need to weep. To cook them dinners when they need us.”
― Allison Pataki, Beauty in the Broken Places: A Memoir of Love, Faith, and Resilience

“My dear Mrs. Post, had you not been able to move the glass doors to get the view you wanted, you would have just relocated the Monument itself, isn’t that right?”
― Allison Pataki, The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post

“ ‘Therefore am I still / A lover of the meadows and the woods / And mountains; and of all that we behold / From this green earth; of all the mighty world.’ ”
― Allison Pataki, Finding Margaret Fuller

“Friendship outstays the hurrying flight of years and aye abides through laughter and through tears.”
― Allison Pataki, The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post

“I am Her Majesty Duchess Ludovika of Bavaria, from the House of Wittelsbach and sister of the Archduchess of Austria, Sophie of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. My two daughters, Their Majesties the Duchesses of Bavaria, accompany me on the special invitation from His Imperial Highness, Emperor Franz Joseph, and his mother, the Archduchess Sophie.”
― Allison Pataki, The Accidental Empress

“Frivolity is destructive, and complacency is corrosive”
― Allison Pataki, The Queen's Fortune

“I will always love you,” he said, whispering the words. Was it a good thing for her to know all of this, or would it have been better had he never said it?”
― Allison Pataki, Sisi: Empress on Her Own

“don’t believe you have brought down the king’s disapproval upon”
― Allison Pataki, Ribbons of Scarlet

“She cared nothing for Robert Balmor, and in fact had felt relief each time she’d remembered that both he and André were gone. Letting that man kiss her had been foolish and naïve, but it was none of Cal’s business.”
― Allison Pataki, The Traitor's Wife: The Woman Behind Benedict Arnold and the Plan to Betray America

“I have neither a dead wife’s fortune, like Waldo, nor Bronson’s utter disregard for the practicalities of life.”
― Allison Pataki, Finding Margaret Fuller

“Those of us who believe in freedom, who believe in opportunity, who believe in the innate goodness of the human race, we will not allow the conditions that would crush our rights, that would bring an end to self-respect and liberty for all, and especially for women.”
― Allison Pataki, The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post

“skipped Mass,” Maman said,”
― Allison Pataki, Ribbons of Scarlet