gemmagia > gemmagia's Quotes

“If you don't want a man dead, don't bludgeon him over the head repeatedly.”
― Naomi Novik, Uprooted

“Flushed with starlight and moonlight drowned,
All the dreamers are castle-bound.
At midnight’s stroke, we will unwind,
Revealing fantasies soft or unkind.
Show me debauched nightmares or sunniest daydreams.
Come not as you are but as you wish to be seen.”
― Erin A. Craig, House of Salt and Sorrows

“Nights like this were meant to be shared, remembered, and talked about for years. Skies like this were meant to be kissed under.”
― Erin A. Craig, House of Salt and Sorrows

“The euphoria was tangible: I could taste it in the air, the sweetness coating my mouth and going straight to my head like champagne.”
― Erin A. Craig, House of Salt and Sorrows

“We are born of the Salt, we live by the Salt, and to the Salt we return.”
― Erin A. Craig, House of Salt and Sorrows

“Love is an enchantress—devious and wild. It sneaks up behind you, soft and gentle and quiet, just before it slits your throat.”
― Shea Ernshaw, The Wicked Deep

“I once read a poem about love being fragile, as thin as glass and easily broken.

But that is not the kind of love that survives in a place like this. It must be hardy and enduring. It must have grit.”
― Shea Ernshaw, The Wicked Deep

“I once read a poem about love being fragile, as thin as glass and easily broken.”
― Shea Ernshaw, The Wicked Deep

“I don’t love you,” she whispered, the lie bitter on her tongue. “I refuse to love you.” “I know,” he said and held her to him, stroking her hair. “I don’t love you either.”
― Claire Legrand, Kingsbane

“Like the sun and the moon. Like day and night. I am the shore and you are the sea, my darling. The wild, wild sea - ever-changing and mighty. I need your passion, and you need something steady to come home to. An anchor, warm and sunlit.”
― Claire Legrand, Kingsbane

“I’ve looked at you so many times that I see you when I close my eyes. I can’t shake you.”
― Claire Legrand, Kingsbane

“We are more than what's been done to us. We are more then our anger.”
― Claire Legrand, Kingsbane

“I fear no darkness
I fear no night
I ask the shadows
To aid my fight”
― Claire Legrand, Furyborn

“Dread,” he murmured, his breath caressing her cheek, “is only a feeling, easily squashed. But wolves, my dear, have teeth.”
― Claire Legrand, Furyborn

“Pulvis et umbra sumus. (We are but dust and shadow.)”
― Horace, The Odes of Horace

“Non nobis solum nati sumus.

(Not for ourselves alone are we born.)”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero

“Omnia mutantur, nihil interit (everything changes, nothing perishes).”
― Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses

“Fas est ab hoste doceri.
One should learn even from one's enemies.”
― Ovid, Metamorphoses

“Do the gods light this fire in our hearts or does each man's mad desire become his god?”
― Virgil, The Aeneid

“Tell me about a complicated man.
Muse, tell me how he wandered and was lost
when he had wrecked the holy town of Troy,
and where he went, and who he met, the pain
he suffered in the storms at sea, and how
he worked to save his life and bring his men
back home. He failed to keep them safe; poor fools,
they ate the Sun God’s cattle, and the god
kept them from home. Now goddess, child of Zeus,
tell the old story for our modern times.
Find the beginning.”
― Emily Wilson, The Odyssey

“This is absurd, that mortals blame the gods! They say we cause their suffering, but they themselves increase it by their folly.”
― Emily Wilson, The Odyssey

“Young men often behave oafishly, but they may mature in time--unless they get an arrow through the neck first.”
― Emily Wilson, The Odyssey

“The goddess did not shoot me in my home,
aiming with gentle arrows. Nor did sickness
suck all the strength out from my limbs, with long
and cruel wasting. No, it was missing you,
Odysseus, my sunshine; your sharp mind,
and your kind heart. That took sweet life from me.
— The Odyssey (11.198-203)”
― Emily Wilson, The Odyssey

“There are two gates of dreams: one pair is made
of horn and one of ivory. The dreams
from ivory are full of trickery;
Their stories turn out false. The ones that come
through polished horn come true.”
― Emily Wilson, The Odyssey

“It was always wise to be polite to books, whether or not they could hear you.”
― Margaret Rogerson, Sorcery of Thorns

“Why do we desire, above all other things, that which has the greatest power to destroy us?”
― Margaret Rogerson, An Enchantment of Ravens

“Knowledge always has the potential to be dangerous. It is a more powerful weapon than any sword or spell.”
― Margaret Rogerson, Sorcery of Thorns

“I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“Name one hero who was happy."
I considered. Heracles went mad and killed his family; Theseus lost his bride and father; Jason's children and new wife were murdered by his old; Bellerophon killed the Chimera but was crippled by the fall from Pegasus' back.
"You can't." He was sitting up now, leaning forward.
"I can't."
"I know. They never let you be famous AND happy." He lifted an eyebrow. "I'll tell you a secret."
"Tell me." I loved it when he was like this.
"I'm going to be the first." He took my palm and held it to his. "Swear it."
"Why me?"
"Because you're the reason. Swear it."
"I swear it," I said, lost in the high color of his cheeks, the flame in his eyes.
"I swear it," he echoed.
We sat like that a moment, hands touching. He grinned.
"I feel like I could eat the world raw.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“In the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands meet, and light spills in a flood like a hundred golden urns pouring out of the sun.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles