Boris Drew > Boris's Quotes

“Demons run when a good man goes to war
Night will fall and drown the sun
When a good man goes to war

Friendship dies and true love lies
Night will fall and the dark will rise
When a good man goes to war

Demons run, but count the cost
The battle's won, but the child is lost”
― Steven Moffat

“Compromise is a stalling between two fools.”
― Stephen Fry

“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”
― Frederick Douglass

“I regret many things I’ve done,” he said, “but most of all I regret those moments when I said to Fear, ‘You are my master.”
― S.D. Smith, The Green Ember

“The point I would make is that the novelist and the historian are seeking the same thing: the truth – not a different truth: the same truth – only they reach it, or try to reach it, by different routes. Whether the event took place in a world now gone to dust, preserved by documents and evaluated by scholarship, or in the imagination, preserved by memory and distilled by the creative process, they both want to tell us how it was: to re-create it, by their separate methods, and make it live again in the world around them.”
― Shelby Foote, The Civil War, Vol. 1: Fort Sumter to Perryville

“I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of the land... I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels. Never was there a clearer case of 'stealing the livery of the court of heaven to serve the devil in.' I am filled with unutterable loathing when I contemplate the religious pomp and show, together with the horrible inconsistencies, which every where surround me. We have men-stealers for ministers, women-whippers for missionaries, and cradle-plunderers for church members. The man who wields the blood-clotted cowskin during the week fills the pulpit on Sunday, and claims to be a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus. . . . The slave auctioneer’s bell and the church-going bell chime in with each other, and the bitter cries of the heart-broken slave are drowned in the religious shouts of his pious master. Revivals of religion and revivals in the slave-trade go hand in hand together. The slave prison and the church stand near each other. The clanking of fetters and the rattling of chains in the prison, and the pious psalm and solemn prayer in the church, may be heard at the same time. The dealers in the bodies of men erect their stand in the presence of the pulpit, and they mutually help each other. The dealer gives his blood-stained gold to support the pulpit, and the pulpit, in return, covers his infernal business with the garb of Christianity. Here we have religion and robbery the allies of each other—devils dressed in angels’ robes, and hell presenting the semblance of paradise.”
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

“To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.”
― Frederick Douglass

“People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get.”
― Frederick Douglass

“You can choose what you believe, Shuffler, but you can’t change what’s true.”
― S.D. Smith, The Green Ember

“All of life is a battle against fear. We fight it on one front, and it sneaks around to our flank.” He paused, looked kindly at her. “Yes, Father. I understand.” “I regret many things I’ve done,” he said, “but most of all I regret those moments when I said to Fear, ‘You are my master.”
― S.D. Smith, The Green Ember

“The Green Ember burns; the seed of the New World smolders. Healing is on the horizon, but a fire comes first. Bear the flame.”
― S.D. Smith, The Green Ember

“What do I always tell you? ‘ Not enough salt is an in-salt,’ and ‘Too much salt is an as-salt!”
― S.D. Smith, The Green Ember

“Growing up is terribly wonderful. But often it’s also wonderfully terrible.”
― S.D. Smith, The Green Ember

“It's better to live as you will want to have lived, rather than spend your time worrying about the end. You are right here in your story. Don't skip ahead”
― S.D. Smith, Ember Falls

“we have to keep loving what’s on the other side of this fight—the other side of this rescue— and that will have to make us brave.”
― S.D. Smith, Ember Rising

“What is it, Father?” Picket asked as Mother tenderly took Jacks from him. “It’s only that, when you’re older, you hand out wisdom to your children like you know everything, but it is sometimes hard to follow your own advice.”
― S.D. Smith, The Green Ember

“If you aren’t angry about the wicked things happening in the world all around, then you don’t have a soul.” There”
― S.D. Smith, The Green Ember

“I love a happy ending... because I need hope.”
― S.D. Smith, Ember Falls

“My place beside you. My blood for yours. Till the Green Ember rises, or the end of the world!”
― S.D. Smith, The Black Star of Kingston

“Thank you for loving us, Mother and Father. Thank you for preparing us for the unnumbered dangers we’ve faced. We had no idea that when you gave us all the light you did, you were guiding us to one day strike out at the darkness so fiercely.”
― S.D. Smith, Ember Rising

“This is a place where people make and are made. You are what you do. Choose wisely, young Picket. Choose wisely, brave Heather. Understand?”
― S.D. Smith, The Green Ember

“We don’t have to win the war today, sir,” Heather said. She hoped she looked braver than she felt. “We only have to win the next battle.”
― S.D. Smith, Ember Falls

“She was seeing the other side of the tragedy, the world that lived, for now, only in the hopeful hearts of those who, though not seeing, saw.”
― S.D. Smith, The Green Ember

“A story to make us brave.”
― S.D. Smith, Ember Rising

“Growing up is terribly wonderful. But often it’s also wonderfully terrible. Ha, a riddle of words amounting to nothing. A stuttering cleverism that falls as short as my feeble steps. But this is true. A teacher could become rich if he ever perfected the art of helping mature students unlearn many awful things. Enjoy your innocence, my dear. Even if it only lasts the day.”
― S.D. Smith, The Green Ember

“My place beside you, my blood for yours, 'till the Green Ember rises, or the end of the world!”
― S.D. Smith, The Green Ember

“It’s called Starseek,” she said, “and this is the star.” “Is it a real star?” Picket asked, his head cocked sideways and his whiskers twitching. “No, little one,” Heather said, “a real star hangs in the sky at night, along with a million others. This is just a game.” “A game?” Picket said. “Maybe they’re all for games.”
― S.D. Smith, The Green Ember

“Shuffler, you're going to have to stop doing that....[....]...It's 'my place beside you,' not 'my place blocking your view.”
― S.D. Smith, Ember's End

“Dear Kyle, you are the great nitwit of the world. Love, Jo Shanks.”
― S.D. Smith, Ember's End

“We may find pleasure in our duty, but our duty is not our own pleasure.”
― S.D. Smith, The Black Star of Kingston