Esther > Esther's Quotes

“Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.”
― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

“The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth.”
― Kate Chopin, The Awakening

“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.”
― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

“She was becoming herself and daily casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world.”
― Kate Chopin, The Awakening

“I'll hold on to the world tight some day. I've got one finger on it now; that's a beginning.”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

“And then, as if written by the hand of a bad novelist, an incredible thing happened.”
― Jonathan Stroud, The Amulet of Samarkand

“To be an artist includes much; one must possess many gifts—absolute gifts—which have not been acquired by one's own effort. And, moreover, to succeed, the artist must possess the courageous soul."
"What do you mean by the courageous soul?"
"Courageous, ma foi! The brave soul. The soul that dares and defies.”
― Kate Chopin

“Wishes are false. Hope is true. Hope makes its own magic.”
― Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke & Bone

“I don't know many rules to live by,' he'd said. 'But here's one. It's simple. Don't put anything unnecessary into yourself. No poisons or chemicals, no fumes or smoke or alcohol, no sharp objects, no inessential needles--drug or tattoo--and...no inessential penises either.'

'Inessential penises?' Karou had repeated, delighted with the phrase in spite of her grief. 'Is there any such thing as an essential one?'

'When an essential one comes along, you'll know,' he'd replied.”
― Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke & Bone

“It's not like there's a law against flying."

"Yes there is. The law of gravity.”
― Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke & Bone

“Is it true that you shouted at Professor Umbridge?"
"Yes."
"You called her a liar?"
"Yes."
"You told her He Who Must Not Be Named is back?"
"Yes."
"Have a biscuit, Potter.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

“She wasn't interested in telling other people's futures. She was interested in going out and finding her own.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven Boys

“Vivimos en un mundo civilizado al que le sigue pareciendo el más embriagador deporte la viejísima práctica de las matanzas. Te degüellan por combatir la injusticia establecida, por pertenecer a una raza detestada; acaban contigo por hambre si eres prisionero de guerra, o te fusilan por supuestos intentos de sublevación; te condenan tribunales secretos por el delito de resistir en tu propia nación invadida... Te ahorcan porque no sonríes a quien ordena sonrisas, o porque to Dios no es el suyo, o porque tu ateísmo no es el suyo... A lo largo del tiempo, ríos de sangre.”
― Antonio Buero Vallejo, La fundación

“I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.”
― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

“Watching Jamila sometimes made me think the world was divided into three sorts of people: those who knew what they wanted to do; those (the unhappiest) who never knew what their purpose in life was; and those who found out later on. I was in the last category, I reckoned, which didn't stop me wishing I'd been born into the first.”
― Hanif Kureishi , The Buddha of Suburbia

“There was a hunger in her, and girls were not supposed to be hungry. They were supposed to nibble sparingly when at table, and their minds were supposed to be satisfied with a slim diet too.”
― Frances Hardinge, The Lie Tree

“Who had they been, all these mothers and sisters and wives? What were they now? Moons, blank and faceless, gleaming with borrowed light, each spinning loyally around a bigger sphere.
‘Invisible,’ said Faith under her breath. Women and girls were so often unseen, forgotten, afterthoughts. Faith herself had used it to good effect, hiding in plain sight and living a double life. But she had been blinded by exactly the same invisibility-of-the-mind, and was only just realizing it.”
― Frances Hardinge, The Lie Tree

“Faith had always told herself that she was not like other ladies. But neither, it seemed, were other ladies.”
― Frances Hardinge, The Lie Tree

“It has made me what I am. When every door is closed, one learns to climb through windows. Human nature, I suppose.”
― Frances Hardinge, The Lie Tree

“He'd been wrong, there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and it was a flamethrower.”
― Terry Pratchett, Mort

“Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
and I eat men like air.”
― Sylvia Plath, Ariel: The Restored Edition

“I’d send Eleanor a dignified note. Then I’d have to fall out of love with her. That was the rough part. Everything in life is organized around people falling in love with each other. Falling is easy; but no one tells you how to fall out of love. I didn’t know where to begin.”
― Hanif Kureishi , The Buddha of Suburbia

“A thinking woman sleeps with monsters
that beak which grips her, she becomes.”
― Adrienne Rich

“Better never means better for everyone... It always means worse, for some.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

“We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom.
We lived in the gaps between the stories.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

“I am angry. We should all be angry. Anger has a long history of bringing about positive change.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists

“Both men and women will say: “I did it for peace in my marriage.”
When men say it, it is usually about something they should not be doing anyway. Something they say to their friends in a fondly exasperated way, something that ultimately proves to them their masculinity—“Oh, my wife said I can’t go to clubs every night, so now, for peace in my marriage, I go only on weekends.”
When women say “I did it for peace in my marriage,” it is usually because they have given up a job, a career goal, a dream.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists

“In life you'll meet a lot of jerks. If they hurt you, tell yourself that it's because they're stupid. That will help keep you from reacting to their cruelty. Because there is nothing worse than bitterness and vengeance... Always keep your dignity and be true to yourself.”
― Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

“Once again, I arrived at my usual conclusion: one must educate oneself.”
― Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

“In retrospect, I now see this period in the immediate aftermath of recovery as a time of grief. I see that I was grieving a huge part of me that I had not fully reconciled myself with letting go of. But it is tricky to name it as such, because you’re not meant to feel sad over something that was so destructive to you and everyone in your life.”
― Evanna Lynch, The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting: The Tragedy and The Glory of Growing Up