Alex > Alex's Quotes

“What are men to rocks and mountains?”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“How often it is that the angry man rages denial of what his inner self is telling him.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way.”
― Carl Sandburg

“The first mistake of art is to assume that it's serious.”
― Lester Bangs

“It was war, and in war the truth was almost always the first casualty.”
― Vince Flynn, Executive Power

“If your feet are firmly planted on the ground you'll never be able to dance.”
― Iris Johansen, Countdown

“It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

“I took a wrong turn on the way to the bathroom and found myself in a beautifully proportioned room I had never seen before, containing a really rather magnificent collection of chamberpots. When I went back to investigate more closely, I discovered that the room had vanished. But I must keep an eye out for it. Possibly it is only accessible at five thirty in the morning. Or it may only appear at the quarter moon - or when the seeker has an exceptionally full bladder.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

“I have gone temporarily deaf and haven't any idea what you said, Harry.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

“Of course we still want to know you!" Harry said, staring at Hagrid.
"You don't think anything that Skeeter cow - sorry, Professor," he added quickly, looking at Dumbledore.
"I have gone temporarily deaf and haven't any idea what you said, Harry," said Dumbledore, twiddling his thumbs and staring at the ceiling.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

“Hagrid, look what I’ve got for relatives!” Harry said furiously. “Look at the Dursleys!”
“An excellent point,” said Professor Dumbledore. “My own brother, Aberforth, was prosecuted for practicing inappropriate charms on a goat. It was all over the papers, but did Aberforth hide? No, he did not! He held his head high and went about his business as usual! Of course, I’m not entirely sure he can read, so that may not have been bravery. . . .”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

“When Adam kissed him, it was every mile per hour Ronan had ever gone over the speed limit. It was every window-down, goose-bumps-on-skin, teeth-chattering-cold night drive. It was Adam’s ribs under Ronan’s hands and Adam’s mouth on his mouth, again and again and again. It was stubble on his lips and Ronan having to stop, to get his breath, to restart his heart. They were both hungry animals, but Adam had been starving for far longer.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven King

“Inside, they pretended they would dream, but they did not. They sprawled on the living room sofa and Adam studied the tattoo that covered Ronan's back: all the sharp edges that hooked wondrously and fearfully into each other.
'Unguibus et rostro,' Adam said.
Ronan put Adam's fingers to his mouth.
He was never sleeping again.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven King

“Could you do a glamour and turn into something smaller?" I asked it. "Preferably not a chain, since it's no longer the 1990s?"

The sword didn't reply (duh), but I imagined it was humming at a more interrogative pitch, like, Such as what?

"I dunno. Something pocket-size and innocuous. A pen, maybe?"

The sword pulsed, almost like it was laughing. I imagined it saying, A pen sword. That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.”
― Rick Riordan, The Sword of Summer

“Hearthstone Passes Out Even More than Jason Grace (Though I Have No Idea Who That Is)”
― Rick Riordan, The Sword of Summer

“I call it Andskoti, the Adversary. It is woven with the most powerful paradoxes in the Nine Worlds—Wi-Fi with no lag, a politician’s sincerity, a printer that prints, healthy deep-fried food, and an interesting grammar lecture!”
― Rick Riordan, The Sword of Summer

“But we know that people are complicated and have a mixture of flaws and talents and sins. So why do we pretend that we don’t?”
― Jon Ronson, So You've Been Publicly Shamed

“There is nothing I dislike more in the world than people who care more about ideology than they do about people.”
― Jon Ronson, So You've Been Publicly Shamed

“We’re creating a culture where people feel constantly surveilled, where people are afraid to be themselves.”
― Jon Ronson, So You've Been Publicly Shamed

“In truth, Kipling's politics are not mine. But then, it would be a poor sort of world if one were only able to read authors who expressed points of view that one agreed with entirely. It would be a bland sort of world if we could not spend time with people who thought differently, and who saw the world from a different place.”
― Neil Gaiman, The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction

“Genius is neither learned nor acquired. It is knowing without experience. It is risking without fear of failure…”
― Patricia Polacco

“You're a thief, Echo.' The Ala Squeezed her hand, her grip strong despite her frailty. 'Steal him back.”
― Melissa Grey, The Shadow Hour

“Give me a room whose every nook is dedicated to a book.”
― Robert Southey

“So long as you fight the darkness, you stand in the light.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A Torch Against the Night

“Failure doesn't define you. It's what you do after you fail that determines whether you are a leader or a waste of perfectly good air.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A Torch Against the Night

“Family is worth dying for, killing for. Fighting for them is all that keeps us going when everything else is gone.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A Torch Against the Night

“Adam described the circumstances surrounding his eye and his hand with the same level tone he would use to answer a question in class. He allowed Ronan to lean in to compare his eyes – close enough that Ronan felt his breath on his cheek – and he allowed Ronan to study the palm of his hand. The latter was not strictly necessary, and they both knew it, but Adam watched Ronan closely as he lightly traced the lines there.
This was like walking the line between dream and sleep. The night-sharp balance of being asleep enough to dream and awake enough to remember what he wanted.
He knew Adam had figured out how he felt. But he didn’t know if he could step off this knife-slender path without destroying what he had.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven King

“As they scuffled in the grass, Adam closed his eyes and leaned his head back. He could nearly scry just like this. The quiet and the cold breeze on his throat would take him away and the dampness of his toes in his shoes and the scent of living creatures would keep him here. Within and without. He couldn’t tell if he was letting himself idolize this place or Ronan, and he wasn’t sure there was a difference.
When he opened his eyes, he saw that Ronan was looking at him, as he had been looking at him for months. Adam looked back, as he had been looking back for months.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven King

“Kaz leaned back. "What's the easiest way to steal a man's wallet?"
"Knife to the throat?" asked Inej.
"Gun to the back?" said Jesper.
"Poison in his cup?" suggested Nina.
"You're all horrible," said Matthias.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Six of Crows