whaleinawell > whaleinawell's Quotes

“under the present brutal and primitive conditions on this planet, every person you meet should be regarded as one of the walking wounded. we have never seen a man or woman not slightly deranged by either anxiety or grief. we have never seen a totally sane human being.”
― Robert Anton Wilson

“It wasn’t like this in the stories. In the old tales, when a young man went forth to have adventures, he endured his trials and came forth triumphant. He became a leader, or acquired a magical skill, or at the very least wed a princess. Maybe all three. There was never any question, not even in the darkest moment, that the hero would conquer both his enemies and his self-doubt. Perhaps that was why I had been angry with Simon, because I wanted the ending of his story to be the good one he deserved.”
― Juliet Marillier, Daughter of the Forest

“For indeed you have a choice. You can flee and hide, and wait to be found. You can live out your days in terror, without meaning. Or you can take the harder choice, and you can save them.”
― Juliet Marillier, Daughter of the Forest

“Home is behind, the world ahead,
And there are many paths to tread
Through shadows to the edge of night,
Until the stars are all alight.
Then world behind and home ahead,
We'll wander back and home to bed.
Mist and twilight, cloud and shade,
Away shall fade! Away shall fade!”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

“This isn’t one of the fairy-tale stories you read in your childhood, where the hero always wins in the end. You’ll have many battles to fight, and you won’t win them all. And at the end of every single day, you’ll always face the same choice: keep fighting, or give up.”
― Amélie Wen Zhao, Blood Heir

“The end of the story is of your making, nobody else's. You can do with it as you choose. There are as many paths open to your hero as branches on a great tree. They are wonderful and terrible, and plain and twisted. They touch and part and intermingle, and you can follow them whatever way you will.”
― Juliet Marillier, Daughter of the Forest

“He has eyes like vast pools and a jaw made from shipwrecks and broken coral. Every movement he makes is as quick and fluid as a tidal wave. He belongs to the ocean. He is made from it, as much as I am.”
― Alexandra Christo, To Kill a Kingdom

“I was born in anger. I live with it. It's everywhere. It's in the way people look at us. It's in the way we exist. It's the way we burn. What do you know of how angry I am, Dorian Akayan?”
― Tanvi Berwah, Monsters Born and Made

“But it's not enough to know right from wrong. You need the strength to do what's right, even when what you want most in the world is the wrong thing.”
― Cinda Williams Chima, The Exiled Queen

“I never meant to hurt anyone.

Perhaps monsters never meant to hurt others, either. Perhaps monsters didn't even know they were monsters.”
― Amélie Wen Zhao, Blood Heir

“Some broken things you can't mend. Some you have to put together very slowly piece by fragile piece, waiting until the last bit of work is strong enough before you try the next. It takes a lot of patience.”
― Juliet Marillier, Daughter of the Forest

“There are two kinds of guilt. The kind that's a burden and the kind that gives you purpose. Let your guilt be your fuel. Let it remind you of who you want to be. Draw a line in your mind. Never cross it again. You have a soul. It's damaged but it's there. Don't let them take it from you.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods

“I’ve made a mistake. It started with a prince, as most stories do. Once I felt the thrum of his heart beneath my fingers, I couldn’t forget it.”
― Alexandra Christo, To Kill a Kingdom

“In the pits of our souls - if I amuse myself with the notion that I have a soul - Elian and I aren't so different. Two kingdoms that come with responsibilities we each have trouble bearing. Him, the shackles of being pinned to one land and one life. Me, trapped in the confines of my mother's murderous legacy. And the ocean, calling out to us both. A song of freedom and longing.”
― Alexandra Christo, To Kill a Kingdom

“I know better now, the rules of this game of power were always stacked against people like us. And while we fought one another, they ran things like they wanted. We're made to feel like we're part of them, but only as long as we keep our heads down.”
― Tanvi Berwah, Monsters Born and Made

“My soul is full of longing
for the secret of the sea,
and the heart of the great ocean
sends a thrilling pulse through me.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“He knew the law of such things: people in brightly lit places cannot see into the dark.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Curse

“All the beauty of the stars means nothing when life here on earth is so ugly.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“But I’m not strong. I’m weak, and I’m sick of pretending I’m not.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“As long as there is life, there is hope.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“Draw a line in your mind. Never cross it again. You have a soul. It's damaged, but it's there. Don't let them take it from you, Elias.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“But there is one thing you must remember, if you forget all else. There is no good or evil, save in the way you see the world. There is no dark or light save in your own vision. All changes in the blink of an eyelid; yet all remains the same.”
― Juliet Marillier, Daughter of the Forest

“Life is made of so many moments that mean nothing. Then one day, a single moment comes along to define every second that comes after. Such moments are tests of courage, of strength.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“You will find the way, daughter of the forest. Through grief and pain, through many trials, through betrayal and loss, your feet will walk a straight path.”
― Juliet Marillier, Daughter of the Forest

“Wake the sleeper must, and confront his fears, or risk being lost in the dark places of the mind forever.”
― Juliet Marillier, Daughter of the Forest

“Real life is not quite as it is in stories. In the old tales, bad things happen, and when the tale has unfolded and come to its triumphant conclusion, it is as if the bad things had never been. Life is not as simple as that, not quite.”
― Juliet Marillier, Daughter of the Forest

“I wept in self-pity, and because I knew you could never go back. You chose your path, and that was it.”
― Juliet Marillier, Daughter of the Forest

“Why should I be polished and improved like goods for sale? I might not even want to marry! And besides, I have many skills. I can read and write and play the flute and harp. Why should I change to please some man? If he doesn’t like me the way I am, then he can get some other girl for his wife.”
― Juliet Marillier, Daughter of the Forest

“I'm restless. Things are calling me away. My hair is being pulled by the stars again.”
― Anaïs Nin