Genelle > Genelle's Quotes

“Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed. It is all part of the fairy tale.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“Real magic can never be made by offering someone else's liver. You must tear out your own, and not expect to get it back.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“The magician stood erect, menacing the attackers with demons, metamorphoses, paralyzing ailments, and secret judo holds. Molly picked up a rock.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“Marveling at his own boldness, he said softly, "I would enter your sleep if I could, and guard you there, and slay the thing that hounds you, as I would if it had the courage to face me in fair daylight. But I cannot come in unless you dream of me.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“Whatever can die is beautiful — more beautiful than a unicorn, who lives forever, and who is the most beautiful creature in the world. Do you understand me?”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“I love whom I love," Prince Lir repeated firmly. "You have no power over anything that matters.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“Take me with you. For laughs, for luck, for the unknown. Take me with you.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“Her voice left a flavor of honey and gunpowder on the air.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“Then what is magic for?" Prince Lír demanded wildly. "What use is wizardry if it cannot save a unicorn?" He gripped the magician's shoulder hard, to keep from falling.

Schmedrick did not turn his head. With a touch of sad mockery in his voice, he said, "That's what heroes are for.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“...no cat out of its first fur can ever be deceived by appearances. Unlike human beings, who enjoy them.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“Ah, love may be strong, but a habit is stronger,
And I knew when I loved by the way I behaved.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“A rhinoceros is as ugly as a human being, and it too is going to die, but at least it never thinks that it is beautiful.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“You pile of stones, you waste, you desolation, I'll stuff you with misery till it comes out of your eyes. I'll change your heart into green grass, and all you love into a sheep. I'll turn you into a bad poet with dreams.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“Heroes know that things must happen when it is time for them to happen. A quest may not simply be abandoned; unicorns may go unrescued for a long time, but not forever; a happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“I always say perseverance is nine-tenths of any art — not that it's much help to be nine-tenths an artist, of course.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“Men have to have heroes, but no man can ever be as big as the need, and so a legend grows around a grain of truth, like a pearl.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“Unicorns are not to be forgiven." The magician felt himself growing giddy with jealousy, not only of the touch but of something like a secret that was moving between Molly and the unicorn. "Unicorns are for beginnings," he said, "for innocence and purity, for newness. Unicorns are for young girls."

Molly was stroking the unicorn's throat as timidly as though she were blind. She dried her grimy tears on the white mane. "You don't know much about unicorns," she said.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“The magician was studying her face with his green eyes. "Your face is wet," he said worriedly. "I hope that's spray. If you've become human enough to cry, then no magic in the world — oh, it must be spray. Come with me. It had better be spray.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“Don't look back and don't run. You must never run from anything immortal. It attracts their attention.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“For a moment she turned in a circle, staring at her hands, which she held high and useless, close to her breast. She bobbed and shambled like an ape doing a trick, and her face was the silly, bewildered face of a joker's victim. And yet she could make no move that was not beautiful. Her trapped terror was more lovely than any joy that Molly had ever seen, and that was the most terrible thing about it.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“Farewell,' she said. 'I hope you hear many more songs' - which was the best way she could think of to say good-bye to a butterfly.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“The Lady Amalthea beckoned, and the cat wriggled all over, like a dog, but he would not come near... She was offering her open palm to the crook-eared cat, but he stayed where he was, shivering with the desire to go to her"...[later, Molly asked the cat] "Why were you afraid to let her touch you? I saw you. You were afraid of her."
"If she had touched me," he said very softly, "I would have been hers and not my own, not ever again. I wanted her to touch me but I could not let her. No cat will... The price is more than a cat can pay.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“No," he repeated, and this time the word tolled in another voice, a king's voice... whose grief was not for what he did not have, but for what he could not give.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“there never is a happy ending because nothing ever ends.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“I fear it, for her sake. It would mean that she too is a wanderer now, and that is a fate for human beings, not for unicorns. But I hope, of course I hope.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“My son, your ineptitude is so vast, your incompetence so profound, that I am certain you are inhabited by greater power than I have ever known.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“The moon was gone, but to the magician's eyes the unicorn was the moon, cold and white and very old, lighting his way to safety, or to madness.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“She said, "I will go no farther."
"There is no choice. We can only go on." The magician said again. "We can only go on.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“A Clock is not time; it's numbers and springs. Pay it no mind.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“Lir said, "It is my right. A hero is entitled to his happy ending, when it comes at last." But Schmendrick answered, "This is not the end, either for you or for her.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn