Lara > Lara's Quotes

“People who claim that they're evil are usually no worse than the rest of us... It's people who claim that they're good, or any way better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“One never learns how the witch became wicked, or whether that was the right choice for her~is it ever the right choice? Does the devil ever struggle to be good again, or if so is he not a devil?”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“And girls need cold anger. They need the cold simmer, the ceaseless grudge, the talent to avoid forgiveness, the side stepping of compromise. They need to know when they say something that they will never back down, ever, ever.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“There was much to hate in this world and too much to love.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“The body apologizes to the soul for its errors, and the soul asks forgiveness for squatting in the body without invitation.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“The wickedness of men is that their power breeds stupidity and blindness.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“There are two kinds of anger: hot and cold. Boys and girls experience both, but as they grow up the anger separates according to the sex. Boys need hot anger to survive. They need inclination to fight, the drive to sink the knife into the flesh, the energy and initiative of fury. It's a requirement of hunting, of defense, of pride. Maybe of sex too. And girls need cold anger. They need the cold simmer, the ceaseless grudge, the talent to avoid forgiveness, the sidestepping of compromise. They need to know when they say something that they will never back down, ever, ever. It's the compensation for a more limited scope in the world. Cross a man and you struggle, one of you wins, you would adjust and go on -- or you lie there dead. Cross a woman and the universe is changed, once again, for cold anger requires an eternal vigilance in all matters of slight and offense.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“I never use the words HUMANIST or HUMANITARIAN, as it seems to me that to be human is to be capable of the most heinous crimes in nature.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“The real thing about evil," said the Witch at the doorway, "isn't any of what you said. You figure out one side of it - the human side, say - and the eternal side goes into shadow. Or vice versa. It's like the old saw: What does a dragon in its shell look like? Well no one can ever tell, for as soon as you break the shell to see, the dragon is no longer in its shell. The real disaster of this inquiry is that it is the nature of evil to be secret.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“Evil is an act, not an appetite. How many haven't wanted to slash the throat of some boor across the dining room table? Present company excepted of course. Everyone has the appetite. If you give in to it, it, that act is evil. The appetite is normal.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“Okay let's get this over with, no I'm not seasick, yes I've always been green, No I didn't eat grass as a child.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“How poetic you are," she said. "I've a notion that poetry is the highest form of self-deception.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“The more civilized we become, the more horrendous our entertainments.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“Wrong takes an awful long time to be proven, in my experience.
”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“Science, my dears, is the systematic dissection of nature, to reduce it to working parts that more or less obey universal laws. Sorcery moves in the opposite direction. It doesn't rend, it repairs. It is synthesis rather than analysis. It builds anew rather than revealing the old. In the hands of someone truly skilled,...it is Art.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“Love makes hunters of us all.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“And in the cave there lived a wicked old witch. Did she ever some out? Not yet.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“We only have babies when we're young enough not to know how grim life turns out. Once we really get the full measure of it--we're slow learners, we women--we dry up in disgust and sensibly halt production.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“...I dabble in causes and effects.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“The nature of the world is to be calm, and enhance and support life, and evil is an absence of the inclination of matter to be at peace.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“The storm dropped a house on her head.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“I take all the credit in the world for my own foolishness.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“I've told you before, I don't comprehend religion, although conviction is a concept I'm beginning to get. In any case, someone with a real religious conviction is, I propose, a religious convict, and deserves locking up.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“Perhaps the greatest faculty our minds possess is the ability to cope with pain. Classic thinking teaches us of the four doors of the mind, which everyone moves through according to their need.

First is the door of sleep. Sleep offers us a retreat from the world and all its pain. Sleep marks passing time, giving us distance from the things that have hurt us. When a person is wounded they will often fall unconscious. Similarly, someone who hears traumatic news will often swoon or faint. This is the mind's way of protecting itself from pain by stepping through the first door.

Second is the door of forgetting. Some wounds are too deep to heal, or too deep to heal quickly. In addition, many memories are simply painful, and there is no healing to be done. The saying 'time heals all wounds' is false. Time heals most wounds. The rest are hidden behind this door.

Third is the door of madness. There are times when the mind is dealt such a blow it hides itself in insanity. While this may not seem beneficial, it is. There are times when reality is nothing but pain, and to escape that pain the mind must leave reality behind.

Last is the door of death. The final resort. Nothing can hurt us after we are dead, or so we have been told.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“It had flaws, but what does that matter when it comes to matters of the heart? We love what we love. Reason does not enter into it. In many ways, unwise love is the truest love. Anyone can love a thing because. That's as easy as putting a penny in your pocket. But to love something despite. To know the flaws and love them too. That is rare and pure and perfect.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

“We understand how dangerous a mask can be. We all become what we pretend to be.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“Anyone can love a thing because. That's as easy as putting a penny in your pocket.
But to love something despite. To know the flaws and love them too. That is rare and pure and perfect.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

“You see, women are like fires, like flames. Some women are like candles, bright and friendly. Some are like single sparks, or embers, like fireflies for chasing on summer nights. Some are like campfires, all light and heat for a night and willing to be left after. Some women are like hearthfires, not much to look at but underneath they are all warm red coal that burns a long, long while.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“I've waited a long time to show these flowers how pretty you are.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

“I have an apple that thinks its a pear. And a bun that thinks it’s a cat. And a lettuce that thinks its a lettuce."
"It’s a clever lettuce, then."
"Hardly," she said with a delicate snort. "Why would anything clever think it’s a lettuce?"
"Even if it is a lettuce?" I asked.
"Especially then," she said. "Bad enough to be a lettuce. How awful to think you are a lettuce too.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear