maï-ly > maï-ly's Quotes

“Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it.”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“It's a very Greek idea, and a very profound one. Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it. And what could be more terrifying and beautiful, to souls like the Greeks or our own, than to lose control completely? To throw off the chains of being for an instant, to shatter the accident of our mortal selves? Euripides speaks of the Maenads: head thrown I back, throat to the stars, "more like deer than human being." To be absolutely free! One is quite capable, of course, of working out these destructive passions in more vulgar and less efficient ways. But how glorious to release them in a single burst! To sing, to scream, to dance barefoot in the woods in the dead of night, with no more awareness of mortality than an animal! These are powerful mysteries. The bellowing of bulls. Springs of honey bubbling from the ground. If we are strong enough in our souls we can rip away the veil and look that naked, terrible beauty right in the face; let God consume us, devour us, unstring our bones. Then spit us out reborn.”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“Beauty is rarely soft or consolatory. Quite the contrary. Genuine beauty is always quite alarming.”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“When people say impossible, they usually mean improbable.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Siege and Storm

“I would have come for you. And if I couldn't walk, I'd crawl to you, and no matter how broken we were, we'd fight our way out together-knives drawn, pistols blazing. Because that's what we do. We never stop fighting.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Crooked Kingdom

“No mourners. No funerals. Among them, it passed for 'good luck.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Six of Crows

“She'd laughed, and if he could have bottled the sound and gotten drunk on it every night, he would have. It terrified him.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Six of Crows

“It kills me sometimes, how people die.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“Even death has a heart.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“Loki'd!”
― Tom Hiddleston

“Forgive me, for all the things I did but mostly for the ones that I did not.”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“Does such a thing as 'the fatal flaw,' that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn't. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“The problem with knowledge, is its inexhaustible craving. the more of it you have, the less you feel you know”
― Olivie Blake, The Atlas Six

“they were binary stars, trapped in each other’s gravitational field and easily diminished without the other’s opposing force”
― Olivie Blake, The Atlas Six

“We are the gods of our own universes, aren't we? Destructive ones.”
― Olivie Blake, The Atlas Six

“Knowledge is carnage. You can’t have it without sacrifice.”
― Olivie Blake, The Atlas Six

“Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“Actors are by nature volatile—alchemic creatures composed of incendiary elements, emotion and ego and envy. Heat them up, stir them together, and sometimes you get gold. Sometimes disaster.”
― M.L. Rio, If We Were Villains

“You're my sister," he said finally. "My sister, my blood, my family. I should want to protect you"—he laughed soundlessly without any humor—"to protect you from the sort of boys who want to do with you exactly what I want to do."

Clary's breath caught. "You said you just wanted to be my brother from now on."

"I lied," he said. "Demons lie, Clary. You know, there are some kinds of wounds you can get when you're a Shadowhunter—internal injuries from demon poison. You don't even know what's wrong with you, but you're bleeding to death slowly inside. That's what it's like, just being your brother."

"But Aline—"

"I had to try. And I did." His voice was lifeless. "But God knows, I don't want anyone but you. I don't even want to want anyone but you." He reached out, trailed his fingers lightly through her hair, fingertips brushing her cheek. "Now at least I know why."

Clary's voice had sunk to a whisper. "I don't want anyone but you, either.”
― Cassandra Clare, City of Glass

“I wish you could see yourself the way I see you"
- Adam”
― Ali Hazelwood, The Love Hypothesis

“I'm starting to wonder if this is what being in love is. Being okay with ripping yourself to shreds, so the other person can stay whole.”
― Ali Hazelwood, The Love Hypothesis

“carry yourself with the confidence of a mediocre white man”
― Ali Hazelwood, The Love Hypothesis

“War doesn't determine who's right. War determines who remains.”
― R.F. Kuang, The Poppy War

“For someone who loved words as much as I did, it was amazing how often they failed me.”
― M.L. Rio, If We Were Villains

“You can justify anything if you do it poetically enough.”
― M.L. Rio, If We Were Villains

“Ruin me, ruin us, and I’ll let you.”
― R.F. Kuang, The Burning God

“Take what you want. I’ll hate you for it. But I’ll love you forever. I can’t help but love you.”
― R.F. Kuang, The Burning God