Painful Truths Quotes

“Speaking a painful truth should be done only in love - like wielding a sword with no hilt - it should pain oneself in direct proportion to the amount of force exerted.”
― Criss Jami, Healology

“Once this is over,' he says, 'there are some things I want to tell you. Some explanation I have to give.'

'Like what?' I ask, keeping my voice low.

He looks away, toward the edge of the pine forest. 'I let you believe- well, something that's untrue.'

I think about the feeling of Oak's breath against my neck, the way his fox eyes looked with the pupils gone wide and black, the way it felt to bite his shoulder almost hard enough to break skin. 'Tell me, then.'

He shakes his head, looking pained, but so many of his expressions are masks that I can no longer tell what is real. 'If I did, it would serve nothing but to clear my conscience and would put you in danger.'

'Tell me anyway,' I say.

But Oak only shakes his head again.

'Then let me tell you something,' I say. 'I know why you smile and jest and flatter, even when you don't need to. At first I thought it was to make people like you, then I thought it was to keep them off-balance. But it's more than that. You're worried they're scared of you.'

Wariness comes into his face. 'Why ever would they be?'

'Because you terrify yourself,' I say. 'Once you start killing, you don't want to stop. You like it. Your sister may have inherited your father's gift for strategy, but you're the one who got his bloodlust.'

A muscle moves in his jaw. 'Are you afraid of me?'

'Not because of that.'

The intensity of his gaze is blistering.

It doesn't matter. It feels good to pierce his armour, but it doesn't change anything.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“I know the ingredients that will conjure luck and I can brew a potion to talk to the dead, but no one ever taught me how to speak a truth that is uncomfortable.”
― Zoraida Córdova, Wayward Witch

“One day, you will face the painful truth, and these comforting lies you tell yourself will crumble around you.”
― C.J. Sparrow, Tolerant

“The lesson here us that people have scales in their heads and they measure other people for their value and ugly refugee boys are near the bottom and pretty blond girls are at the top. This is not a happy lesson. But you either get the truth, or you get good news--you don't often get both.”
― Daniel Nayeri, Everything Sad Is Untrue