Jess > Jess's Quotes

“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
― Oscar Wilde

“Madge: I don't know why I keep shouting at them.
The Doctor: Because every time you see them happy you remember how sad they're going to be. And it breaks your heart. Because what's the point in them being happy now if they're going to be sad later. The answer is, of course, because they are going to be sad later.
~ The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe”
― Steven Moffat

“They say a man who desires revenge should dig two graves, and this is surely right.”
― Richard Osman, The Man Who Died Twice

“And then I cry. Mostly for Rebecca and the tiny, unwanted beating heart deep within her womb. But also for myself. And our daughters. And for every other woman who lives, suffers, and dies by the mercurial whims of men.”
― Ariel Lawhon, The Frozen River

“It’s an unimaginative accusation and one that I am frankly tired of hearing. Witchcraft. As though there is no other explanation for a woman who excels at her work.”
― Ariel Lawhon, The Frozen River

“This is what it means to age, I think. The days are long, but the years are short.”
― Ariel Lawhon, The Frozen River

“Like all mothers, I have long since mastered the art of nursing joy at one breast and grief at the other.”
― Ariel Lawhon, The Frozen River

“Though you never think it possible, you can celebrate and grieve in the same breath. It is a holy abomination.”
― Ariel Lawhon, The Frozen River

“Memory is a wicked thing that warps and twists. But paper and ink receive the truth without emotion, and they read it back without partiality. That, I believe, is why so few women are taught to read and write.”
― Ariel Lawhon, The Frozen River

“I want the world to remember that small acts, done in love, matter every bit as much as the ones that make the newspaper and the history books.”
― Ariel Lawhon, The Frozen River

“The jury acquitted every man tried of rape that day,” I say after a moment. “But they fined a woman into poverty for spreading lies about a judge’s daughter.”
― Ariel Lawhon, The Frozen River

“I cannot say why it is so important that I make this daily record. Perhaps because I have been doing so for years on end? Or maybe-if I am being honest- it is because these markings of ink and paper will one day be the only proof that I have existed in this world. That I lived and breathed. That I loved a man and the many children he gave me. It is not that I want to be remembered, per se. I have done nothing remarkable. Not by the standards of history, at least. But I am here. And these words are the mark I will leave behind. So yes, it matters that I continue this ritual.”
― Ariel Lawhon, The Frozen River

“It rains upon the just and the unjust, love. And we no more deserve this than our friends or neighbors do.”
― Ariel Lawhon, The Frozen River

“How can the court be certain that you and Mistress Foster have not conspired to wrongly accuse Colonel North?” I swallow a sigh. I will never understand why men think that women work so hard to destroy them. In my experience it is usually the opposite.”
― Ariel Lawhon, The Frozen River

“You’re not a problem, Misery. You’re a privilege.”
― Ali Hazelwood, Bride

“Maybe you're not meant for me the way I'm meant for you, but I'm going to choose you anyway, over and over and over again.”
― Ali Hazelwood, Bride

“What I am is an adult woman with agency and the tools to make choices. Feel free to, you know, treat me accordingly.”
― Ali Hazelwood, Bride

“We all want to think that we’re important to the people who are important to us. But sometimes, our best friend is someone else’s best friend.”
― Ali Hazelwood, Bride

“Other people’s approval is a powerful drug. Lucky me, I never got the chance to develop an addiction”
― Ali Hazelwood, Bride

“It isn't the dark you should be afraid of, the girl thought, it's the monsters who step out into the light that you need to fear.”
― Heather Gudenkauf, The Overnight Guest

“But I had not known that I was strong enough to do any of those things until they were over and I had done them. I had to do the work first, not knowing.”
― Naomi Novik, Spinning Silver

“A robber who steals a knife and cuts himself cannot cry out against the woman who kept it sharp.”
― Naomi Novik, Spinning Silver

“But it was all the same choice, every time. The choice between the one death and all the little ones.”
― Naomi Novik, Spinning Silver

“You were challenged beyond the bounds of what could be done, and found a path to make it true.”
― Naomi Novik, Spinning Silver

“There are men who are wolves inside, and want to eat up other people to fill their bellies. That is what was in your house with you, all your life. But here you are with your brothers, and you are not eaten up, and there is not a wolf inside you. You have fed each other, and you kept the wolf away.”
― Naomi Novik, Spinning Silver

“She was safe for another moment, one more moment, and all of life was only moments, after all.”
― Naomi Novik, Spinning Silver

“It's not seemly for a girl," my grandmother tried, but my grandfather snorted.

"Gold doesn't know the hand that holds it," he said, and frowned at me, but in a pleased way.”
― Naomi Novik, Spinning Silver

“That is all we can do for each other in the world, to keep the wolf away.”
― Naomi Novik, Spinning Silver

“Because that's what the story's really about: getting out of paying your debts. That's not how they tell it, but I knew. My father was a moneylender, you see.”
― Naomi Novik, Spinning Silver