Yvonne > Yvonne's Quotes

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).”
― Mark Twain

“If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 50 years ago, a liberal 25 years ago and a racist today.”
― Thomas Sowell

“I’m not sure what liberty is if you’re not permitted to decide what chances you’re willing to take.”
― James S.A. Corey, Leviathan Falls

“The moral high ground is a lovely place. It won’t stop a missile, though. It won’t alter the trajectory of a gauss round.”
― James S.A. Corey, Cibola Burn

“Once is never. Twice is always.”
― James S.A. Corey, Cibola Burn

“Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“On the back of the government scratching Wall Street’s back with its corrupt bailout, it was corporate America’s turn to return the favor. They did it by directly assuming the responsibilities of democratic government—especially the agendas of liberal politicians who might otherwise have harmfully regulated or penalized big business. Messy debates about racial inequality? Don’t worry: we’ve got it covered. New policies to fight climate change? We’ll take care of that too. Big business volunteered to take on the role of liberal government itself—crucially, on terms that were favorable to its own interests. That’s what woke capitalism is all about. It’s the hip new avatar of old-school crony capitalism.”
― Vivek Ramaswamy, Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam

“Everyone should laugh at least a hundred times a day for a healthy constitution.”
― Samantha Grace, Lady Vivian Defies a Duke

“Being just a little cynical will make you a much safer optimist.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Devil in Spring

“I expected the members of Earth’s leading society of villains to be smarter,” I said. “I don’t know why.” “They’re smarter in movies and books.” “They would have to be, wouldn’t they?” Morrison said. “In the real world, they can be what people like them usually are: a bunch of dudes born into money who used that money to take advantage of other people to make even more money. It works great until they start believing that being rich makes them smart, and then they get in trouble.”
― John Scalzi, Starter Villain

“How did you bring yourself to forgive?" he asked her.
..."My father?, she said. It was not terribly difficult, you know. We always longed to do so. At any point in our childhood we would have forgiven him if he had given us the smallest opening".
"He deserted you," he said.
"Yes," she agreed. "He did. He blamed himself for our mother's death....After her death he did not trust himself to raise us. Then Aunt Jane turned up, confirming his beliefs, taking over very ably and very forcefully."
"So he slunk off, he said, "and left you to her for... what 16, 17 years?"
"Sixteen," she said. "Yes, he did. He punished himself with a life of riotous.. debauchery. I make no excuses for him. He makes none for himself. Forgiveness does not consist of making excuses for the transgressor, Lord Brandon. It consists in acknowledging the facts, understanding the reasons for them-not the excuses--recognizing the pain it all caused both the one who did those wrongs, and admitting that forgiveness is not something given by the innocent to the guilty. No one is innocent. We all do stupid things, even when we know they are stupid, and even when we know we are causing unhappiness for someone else and for ourselves. Forgiveness is given despite all those things”
― Mary Balogh, Someone Perfect

“When you're in the military, you have a sense of purpose, of a larger fight so much bigger than yourself and whatever regiment or battle you've been placed in....Every day, you wake up knowing that you are fighting for morality and liberty, for a cause so good and right that it seems it can't be anything but divinely guided....You work hard all day to move just a tiny sliver closer to the end, and when your head hits your pillow at night, you can sleep well knowing that day to support your men and the cause you're fighting for.”
― Anna Harrington, An Inconvenient Duke

“Why did you fight as you did? Why did you risk death so often? Did you do it for the good of the country?
..The war wasn't for the good of the country. It was for the benefit of private mercantile interests, fueled by by the conceit of politicians.
You fought for the glory and medals then?
Hardly.
Then why?
...Everything I did was for my men. For the noncommissioned ones who had joined the army to avoid starvation or the workhouse. And for the junior officers who were experienced and long-serving but hadn't the means to buy a commission. I had the command only because I had money to purchase it, not for reason of merit. Absurd. And the men in my company, the poor bastards, were supposed to follow me , whether I proved to be incompetent, an imbecile or a coward. They had no choice but to depend on me. And therefore I had no choice but to try and be the leader they needed. I needed to keep them alive... I failed far too often. And now I would love for someone to tell me how to live with their deaths on my conscience.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Love in the Afternoon

“What do you think it was like to come from a life involving years of hardship and turmoil and boredom and danger and responsibility, and battlefields that stank of blood and mud and worse, with the screams of and groans of the injured and dying-some of them your men and your friends-ringing in your ears? And then the war is over and you come back and try to fit into a society where people are dressed in satin, silk and lace, smelling of perfumes and their most serious problem is deciding who to dance with. Or what to order for dinner. Or how to dress their hair. Or what juicy snippets of gossip they can pass on.”
― Anne Gracie, The Scoundrel's Daughter

“What was it like, she asked...being in the army? What was it truly like?
Truly?...Freezing cold when it wasn't boiling hot or pouring rain. Loud when it wasn't unbearably silent. Usually uncomfortable. Always filthy. Long stretches of boredom broken by by moments of sheer terror.”
― Anna Harrington, An Inconvenient Duke

“What did you tell Cornichet?" he asked suddenly.
.."Nothing."
"I assume they only just started on you."
She didn't reply.
"What did they want to know?"
"What right do you have to take me prisoner?" she countered. "I'm no enemy of the English. I help the partisans, not the French."
"As long as there's some profit in it for you, as I understand it," he said, his voice a whip crack in the dim hovel. "Don't pretend to patriotic loyalty..."
"And just what business is it of yours?" she demanded furiously..."I've done you no harm. I don't interfere with the English army. You trample all over< i> my country, behaving like God-given conquering heroes. All complacence and pomposity-"
..."The blood of Englishmen has watered this damnable peninsula for four interminable years, doing the work of your countrymen, trying to save you and your country from Napoleon's heel. I have lost more friends than I can count in the interests of your miserable land, and you speak against those men at your peril. Do you understand that?"
..."The English have their own reasons for being here," she retorted...England couldn't survive if Napoleon held Spain and Portugal. He'd close their ports to English trading, and you'd all starve to death."
They both knew she spoke the unvarnished truth....”
― Jane Feather, Violet

“You like to read?" Reading was one of David's favorite things to do. So much more enjoyable than talking or exchanging pleasantries with strangers.
"Yes, do you?" she asked, a hopeful look on her face.
"Indeed, I do....I regretted that I could only fit one book in my rucksack on the Continent."
.."Oh, do tell me, what was it?"
"In English you would call it The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of Lamancha, but I had the Spanish version."
"..Don Quixote. A comedy is it not?'
..."Marianne gave it to me. She said I would need something silly to cheer me on the battlefield. But I read it so many times, I must say my opinion of the book changed, more than once."
"How so?", she asked...
"At first I thought it was a comedy, then I came to regard it as a tragic novel, because Quixote was considered mad and treated like a lunatic. But in the end I found it life-changing."
.."How so?"
"The book save my life, in more ways than one. Reading it kept me sane all those long, sleepless nights in the cold...."
"How else did it save your life?" Lady Annabelle asked...
.."It quite literally saved me from death. When the French captured me and a small group of my men, they began executing the officers. Only when they got to me, they rifled through my rucksack and when they saw the book, they realized I could speak Spanish. That was of use to them so they kept me alive as an interpreter.”
― Valerie Bowman, Earl Lessons

“As far as Kiva could tell, whenever selfish humans encountered a wrenching, life-altering crisis, they embarked on a journey of five distinct stages: Denial. Denial. Denial. Fucking Denial. Oh shit everything is terrible grab what you can and run.”
― John Scalzi, The Last Emperox

“We knew that, though.
“We suspected it.”
“Do we know it now?”
“We suspect it harder,” Elvi said. “We’re scientists. We only know things until someone shows us we’re wrong.”
― James S.A. Corey, Leviathan Falls

“It was astounding, Bobbie thought, how quickly humanity could go from 'What unimaginable intelligence fashioned these soul-wrenching wonders?' to 'Well, since they’re not here, can I have their stuff?”
― James S.A. Corey

“..Why, if I didn't know myself, I wouldn't speak to me either. As a matter of fact, even though I DO know me, I probably shouldn't talk to myself, but I just can't help it. I have so much to say.”
― Samantha Grace, Lady Vivian Defies a Duke

“A man is not entitled to be called a father merely because he once had a well-timed spasm of the loins.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Marrying Winterborne

“Because isn’t that what the holidays are all about— letting your family make you wish you were an orphan?”
― Shelly Laurenston, The Mane Event

“You got pulled over on the Autobahn?”
― Shelly Laurenston, The Mane Event

“The word "mistress" sounds like a cross between mistake and mattress.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Devil in Spring

“Ghost?” St. Vincent shot him an incredulous glance. “Christ. You’re not serious, are you?”

"I’m a Gypsy,” Cam replied matter-of-factly. “Of course I believe in ghosts.”

“Only half Gypsy. Which led me to assume that the rest of you was at least marginally sane and rational.”

“The other half is Irish,” Cam said a touch apologetically.

“Christ,” St. Vincent said again, shaking his head as he strode away.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Devil in Winter

“You put this together this morning?
Pua lifted her head and glared at Raul. Look. I was effectively trapped inside my own office with a bomb outside my door. Presentations and spread sheets give me Zen. Back off.”
― Piper J. Drake, Forever Strong

“To begin, you will recognize that I am to be queen soon and you are not a liberty to tell me what to do, under any circumstance.
His eyes widened with surprise. Now, there's a winning scheme if ever I heard one --befriend others by beating them on the head with your scepter.”
― Julia London, Last Duke Standing

“You have no' answered my question. Do you want a husband who requires praise at every turn? And once he's grown accustomed to extracting that from you, what will be next? To sit on your throne? To take your meetings with ministers?”
― Julia London, Last Duke Standing

“...It must be maddening for you.
What must be?
...All of it I reckon.
How strange--it was almost as if William was in her head.
...Meaning, the responsibility of your birth and what will come when you assume the throne. The pressing need for a husband that will be followed by a more urgent need for an heir.
She could not think of another time someone had commiserated or understood her position in life. Everyone seemed to believe she was incredibly lucky to have been born into it. Do you really believe that? Or are you saying it only to appease me?
He laughed. Have I yet said anything to appease you?
No”
― Julia London, Last Duke Standing