Dayna > Dayna's Quotes

“I suppose it's like the ticking crocodile, isn't it? Time is chasing after all of us.”
― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

“The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one does.”
― James Matthew Barrie

“The world inside myself is vaster and richer than this paltry plane, peopled with mere galaxies and gods.”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“I cannot perch among those who think that I am broken.”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“Who will kiss you? Who will rock you to sleep?" His voice was slow, drowsy.

"You never did," I said, trying to tease him. "You were more father to me than my father, but you never did that."

"Someone should. Someone should love you. I will bite him if he will not.”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“I’m attracting small children,” Orma muttered, twisting his hat in his hands. “Shoo it away, will you?”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.”
― Albert Camus

“It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
― William Shakespear, Hamlet

“That’s the secret to performance: conviction. The right note played tentatively still misses its mark, but play boldly and no one will question you. If one believes there is truth in art – and I do – then it’s troubling how similar the skill of performing is to lying. Maybe lying is itself a kind of art. I think about that more than I should.”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“For future reference: do not underestimate the seductive power of math.”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“I mistook you for a metaphor.”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“Your lies didn't stop me loving you; your truth hasn't stopped me either.”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“I was drawn to his aloofness, the way cats gravitate toward people who’d rather avoid them.”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“Love is not a disease...I cannot let them cut you out of me, nor her either. I will cling to my sickness, if it is a sickness. I will hold it close to me like the sun.”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“How dare the world be beautiful when I was so horrifying?”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“I barely noticed loneliness anymore; it was my normal condition, by necessity if not by nature.”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“He looked up at the reddening sky and said with a self-deprecating laugh, "You put me to shame, Seraphina. Your bravery always has."

"It's not bravery; it's bullheaded bumbling."

He shook his head, staring off into the middle distance. "I know courage when I see it, and when I lack it.”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“Music is only work when someone else makes you do it.”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“Peaches and Cheese”:

The vagabond sun winks down through the trees,
While lilacs, like memories, waft on the breeze,
My friend, I was born for days such as these,
To inhale perfume,
And cut through the gloom,
And feast like a king upon peaches and cheese!
I’ll travel this wide world and go where I please,
Can’t stop my wand’ring, it’s like a disease.
My only regret as I cross the high seas:
What I leave behind,
Though I hope to find,
My own golden city of peaches and cheese!”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“The truth may not be told. Here is an acceptable lie.”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“Please, Orma, I’ve already gotten you in so much trouble—”

“That I can’t possibly get into more. Take it.” He wouldn’t stop glaring at me until I’d put the earring back on its cord. “You are all that’s left of Linn. Her own people won’t even say her name. I—I value your continued existence.”

I could not speak; he had pierced me to my very heart.”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“Always I hev my fists and my war pipes!”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“He’s got the place to himself. Once the other invalids learned there was a dragon coming, they miraculously got well! The lame could walk and the blind decided they didn’t really need to see. He’s a panacea.”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“Have you read Belondweg?"
"I coudn't call myself much of a scholar if I hadn't," he said.
He was adorable and he made me smile, but I couldn't let him see.”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“Sir James waved a gnarled hand. "They're nothing but feral file clerks, dragons. They used to alphabetize the coins in their hoards.”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“The resolve written in his eyes said no, but I could see exactly where I would have to push, and how hard, to break that resolve. It would be shockingly easy, but I found I did not wish it. ... Some part of him would break, along with his resolve, and I did not see a way to make it whole again. The jagged edge of it would stab at him all his life.”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“I'm awestruck that you had warm cabbages sitting around.”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“He didn’t wear his heart on his sleeve, exactly, but he did keep it in a place where I could see it.”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

“There are two sacred causes in this world,” he said, holding up his pinkie and ring ringer. “Chance and necessity. By chance I was there to help when you had need.”
― Rachel Hartman, Seraphina