Stakes Quotes

“Something was very wrong, somewhere, and if I didn’t get away soon, I feared it would be too late: I’d have no choice but to join them.”
― Gary Clemenceau, Banker's Holiday: A Novel of Fiscal Irregularity

“You’re in the middle of it—like it or not”
― D.L. Maddox, The Dog Walker: Killer

“A good decision cannot guarantee a good outcome. All real decisions are made under uncertainty. A decision is therefore a bet, and evaluating it as good or not must depend on the stakes and the odds, not on the outcome.”
― Ward Edwards

“She reached down and picked up one of the stakes she'd dropped, running the tip along her thigh as she straightened. "Want to play hunter and vampire?"

Reynard quirked his eyebrow. "Madam, I came equipped with my own stake."

"Whoa! Points to the old guy.”
― Sharon Ashwood, Unchained

“You like games,' I tell him. 'How about we play one?'

'What's the wager?'

'If I win,' I say, 'You answer my question. Without evasion.'

Nothing about the way he looks at me suggests that he does not consider these to be large stakes. Still, he nods. 'And what is the game?'

'You have the piece. Just as when we were children, let's see which of us throws better.'

He nods again, taking it from his pocket. The peridot eyes glimmer. 'And if I win?'

'What do you want?' I ask.

He studies me and I study him in return. No smile now can disguise the steel underneath. 'You promise to dance with me so that our practice back in the Court of Moths won't be for nothing.'

'Those are absurd stakes,' I tell him, my cheeks hot.

'And yet they are mine,' he says.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“What about stakes in the heart?" I asked now.

He frowned, the center of his mouth pursed while its corners curled downward. "Anyone will die from a stake in the heart," he said. "And anyone will die if they're severely burned, including vampires.”
― Susan Hubbard, The Society of S

“She felt how young her world still was, how pure, how fresh, how empty, despite the civilisations that had risen and fallen while she was away, despite the stories that the people of this land had already woven into the warp and weft of this world, the stories that came to her as dreams. She felt how precious it all was to her, how terrible it would be to lose this world, this universe, to the dark force encroaching upon it.”
― Judith Huang, Sofia and the Utopia Machine

“What are the stakes?"
I looked at Aahz. I had been so busy trying to learn how Dragon poker was played that I had never gotten around to asking about the stakes. For some reason, my partner looked incomfortable.
"Table stakes" he said.
"Table stakes? " I frowned "What is that?" I halfexpected him to tell me he'd explain lter, but instead he addressed the subject with supriting euthusiasm.
"In table stakes each of you starts with a certain amout of money. Then you play until one of you is out of chips or..."
"I know what table stakes are." Don Bruce interuppted. "What I want to know is how much you're playing for?"
Aahz hesitedted, then shugger. "A quater of a milion eatch".
"A QUATER OF A MILION???"
My voice had not hit that note since my voice changed.
"We had not told him", my partner sighed. "I was afraid that if he knew what the stakes are he would clutch."
"A quater of a milion" I repeated, a bit hoaser this time.
"See?" Ahzz Grinned. "You are cluching.”
― Robert Lynn Asprin, Little Myth Marker

“We cannot see all that is at stake, because all is at stake.”
― Steve Rasnic Tem, Deadfall Hotel

“We can change. People say we can't, but we do when the the stakes or the pain is high enough.”
― Anne Lamott, Almost Everything: Notes on Hope

“Love was the same way. The higher the stakes, the more impossible the odds, the more eager she was to up the ante. It was the one thing the two sisters had in common.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book

“Limiting the say of outsiders, no matter that they were also Indigenous, these First Nations were protecting the integrity of their community. That is why it is important that the invasive plants are not given a voice in places they don’t belong and in decisions they ultimately have no stake in.”
― Michelle Good, Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada

“Rossi pulled the carving tools out. “This was gonna be a surprise. For a while now, I’ve wanted to make you a new cane. And this morning, it was like, well, I have to do it now, so you’ll have time to enjoy it, to wear it out even. ... Part of the development of the piece of art is it being lived on, y’know…before you leave us.” She took a deep breath, looking over her shoulder toward the now shadowy amphitheater. “But then at the moot, with Bianca and…” she trailed off.
“The world got bigger,” he said.”
― Rachel H. White, The Tainted Girl: Episodes 7-14: a new adult post-apocalyptic dark fantasy serial novel, col. 2