Leah scott > Leah's Quotes

“I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss. I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy. I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence. It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

“Everyone gets scared at times. It's only the fools who won't admit it.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, The Runaway King

“Nobody gives you respect in this life. You must take it, you must earn it, and then you must hold it sacred, because no matter how hard respect is to attain, it can be lost in an instant.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, The Shadow Throne

“...a strong heart will always overcome a strong body”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, The False Prince

“Villains and plots and enemies are simple things to me. But friendships are complicated, and love is harder still. It has wounded me deeper than a sword ever could.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, The Shadow Throne

“If I had to do it over again, I would not have chosen this life. Then again, I'm not sure I ever had a choice.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen

“Courage isn't knowing you can do something; it's only being willing to try . . .”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, A Night Divided

“I realized that I couldn't expect them to think better of me that I thought of myself. So if I believed I was too young or stupid or inexperienced to be a captain, then that's all I would ever be.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, The Shadow Throne

“How do you destroy a people? You take away their culture. And how is that done? You must take their language, their history, their very identity. How would you do that?” I pressed my lips together, then looked up at her. "You ban their books”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, Words on Fire

“I loved everyone who's been taken from me. So don't tell me when I'm allowed to break.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, The Shadow Throne

“There was something you failed to understand about me. I never run!”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, The Runaway King

“We're all at risk of becoming the snake one day. The moment we start to choose what's easy or safe, instead of choosing what's right, we start to become like the snake.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, Words on Fire

“Nobody gives you respect in this life. You must take it, you must earn it, and then you must hold it sacred, because no matter how hard respect is to attain, it can be lost in an instant." I nodded my head toward the garrison. "Go get it, Roden. People won't follow a leader who doesn't know where he's going. Show them what you do.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, The Shadow Throne

“hatred runs deeper and wider than a single race or nationality, and if love was not stronger, hatred would run through the generations. I intended to be stronger.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, Resistance

“It’s not just wishing, Audra. This is a book of ideas. Someone thought the idea and put it into words on paper. That became a seed, and every time someone reads those words, the seed is planted in their mind, too, and it grows and spreads and soon that tiny seed of an idea becomes belief, and belief becomes a plan, and those plans begin to change the world. Control the books and you will control the people.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, Words on Fire

“But this new king is also my older brother. He was always the one to pick me up when I fell, to warn me of dangers I had not yet discovered, to teach me the wisdom I had yet to learn for myself. All my life, I thought if I could only be more like him, then I would somehow find the best in myself. All my life I have fallen short of that goal, and yet he believed in me anyway, and gave me hope of being a better person tomorrow.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, The Captive Kingdom

“For who are we all, if not the product of who we love, what we know, and every wonderful word that we have read?”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, Words on Fire

“What is life but a series of jokes? We either laugh with them or become the object of them.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, The Deceiver's Heart

“It takes great courage to relive one's past," Loelle said. "But you are the sum of all your memories. To withhold the bad would be to deprive yourself of all that those difficult times taught you. You can do this, Kestra.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, The Warrior's Curse

“And if doing what’s right makes someone angry with me, then may I cause rage and fury wherever I go.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, The Captive Kingdom

“I made jokes because the alternative was to scream as loudly on the outside as I was on the inside. Because I needed to laugh so that I wouldn't burn with anger at the injustices around me.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, The Captive Kingdom

“Thoughts entered my mind, telling me that this was not a fight I could win, and I pushed them away. What I had said before was the absolute truth. Every risk I ever took, every leap of faith, every step into the darkness was to prove to myself that I could overcome any challenge that came my way. No matter how small I often felt, I needed to know that I could face the hard thing ahead because I'd already done harder things before.”
― Jennifer Nielsen

“What if the plan fails?"
"What if it does? Failure isn't the end of a plan. Just keep pushing back until all that's left is to win."
For some reason, that made him chuckle.
"I've always envied you."
"Me?" Certain I had heard wrong, I turned to look at him. "I'm the embarrassment, remember?"
"That's because you try. You stand at the base of a mountain that cannot be climbed, or should not be, and you start to climb anyway. No, it doesn't work every time, that's why it can be seen as an embarrassment. But when it works, it's a victory." He lowered his eyes as if in shame. "I don't even try the climb, because I know that I might fall. That is a far greater embarrassment.”
― Jennifer Nielsen

“Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen. The stubborn retention of it, even in the face of extreme physical hardship, can hold a man's soul in his body long past the point at which the body should have surrendered it.”
― Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption

“A lifetime of glory is worth a moment of pain. Louie thought: Let go.”
― Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption

“In a single, silent moment, his rage, his fear, his humiliation and helplessness, had fallen away. That morning, he believed, he was a new creation. Softly, he wept.”
― Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

“Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.'

'Does it hurt?' asked the Rabbit.

'Sometimes,' said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. 'When you are Real you don't mind being hurt.'

'Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,' he asked, 'or bit by bit?'

'It doesn't happen all at once,' said the Skin Horse. 'You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.”
― Margery Williams Bianco, The Velveteen Rabbit

“Maybe confidence in oneself had nothing to do with what other folks thought or did. Maybe it was deep down inside you, just waiting to be let loose like a spring of water gushing to the surface.”
― Michelle Shocklee, Under the Tulip Tree

“Memories were like sunshine. They warmed you up and left a pleasant glow, but you couldn't hold them.”
― Clare Vanderpool, Moon Over Manifest

“Maybe the world wasn’t made of universals that could be summed up in neat little packages. Maybe there were just people. People who were tired and hurt and lonely and kind in their own way and their own time.”
― Clare Vanderpool, Moon Over Manifest: