Quotes from Alanna: The First Adventure

“Alan, you seem to think we won't like you unless you do things just like everyone else. Have you ever thought we might like you because you're different?”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“Alanna: All I know is that I'm to jump when I'm told and I have no free time.”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“I truly love our Code of Chivalry. We are taught that noblemen must take everything and say nothing. Noblemen must stand alone. Well, we're men, and men aren't born to stand alone.
-Myles of Olau”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“I wish you would thrash him. He deserves it."
She looked back at him. "I will one day, sir. I'm getting tired of falling down.”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“I believe in deeds, not words.”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“I'm sorry," she said humbly. "I haven't wanted to lie to you."
"I should hope so. You're the worst liar I've ever met." He thought about it for a moment, then added, "--or the best. Now I'm all confused.”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“If I say you're a goatherd's son, you say, 'Yes, Lord Ralon.'"
Alanna gasped with fury. "I'd as soon kiss a pig! Is that what you've been doing-kissing pigs? Or being kissed?”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“I said I fell down.
Ah. The ground bloodied your nose, split yer lip, and punched ye in th' eye, all at once.
I said I don't want to talk about it.”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“Why does this mean so much to you, Jon?"
The Prince turned. "Because he's my friend. Because I always know where he stands, and where I stand with him. Because I think he'd die for me and--and I think I'd die for him. Is that enough?”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“Ah," Gary said dreamily. " 'Free time.' I've heard about that. Don't fool yourself, Fire-Top. What with extra hours of lessons for punishments, and the extra work you get every day, free time is an illusion. It's what you get when you die and the gods reward you for a life spent working from dawn until midnight. We all face up to it sooner or later--the only real free time you get here is what my honored sire chooses to give you, when he thinks you have earned it."
"And he doesn't give it to you at night," Alex put in. "He gives it to you when you've been here awhile, on Market Day and sometimes a morning or afternoon all to yourself. But never at night. At night you study. During the day you study. In your sleep--”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“George looked at her for a long moment. Finally he replied, "And why do you find it so hard to think someone might like you and want to do things for you?”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“A bully fights people littler and weaker than he is because he thinks it's fun.”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“I--buy, and I sell."
"You're a thief.”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“Moral issues rarely have yes or no answers.
-Myles to Alanna when she asks about the Gift”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“Stefan spat. "Oh, aye, he fell. O' course, Master Ralon helped him fall, several times. Poor li'l tyke didn't have a chance.”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“It's always better to attack than to defend," Coram had told her when they talked about fencing late at night. "Always. Ye don't win with defense--ye only hold the other feller off, or wear him down. Attack and have done with it!”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“Girl, boy or dancing bear, you're the finest page-the finest squire-to-be-at court." (Jon to Alanna)”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“Well, laddie, if you've let an old buzzard like me hurt you confidence, you couldn't have had much in the first place.”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“Alanna didn't approve of lying, but in a pinch a lie was sometimes better than the truth.”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“He's got courage," Alex said.
"Courage!" Raoul bellowed. "That coward almost kills him and--”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“Stefan shook his head. Th' lad's got guts , he thought. Not much sense, but guts. ”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“Ralon didn't make anyone else put his tack away?" Alex wanted to know. "You didn't see anything strange?"
Alanna didn't look up. "No." It wasn't strange , she excused her lie mentally. Ralon does things like that all the time. ”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“Your place in life you can always change, whether you have the gift or not. But you cannot change what the gods have made you. The sooner you accept that, the happier you'll be.”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“All these things Alanna knew from her father's books and maps, but the reality took her breath away as a paragraph written in a book never could.”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“The only thing I know is that I jump when I'm told to and I have no free time.”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“Our gods are much too busy in our lives for us to ignore them. (Myles)”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“We're men, and men aren't born to stand alone.”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

“A knight must develop all his abilities, to the fullest.”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Alanna: The First Adventure

About the author

Popular quotes

“Any AI smart enough to pass a Turing test is smart enough to know to fail it.”
― Ian McDonald, quote from River of Gods

“His air of failure had nothing desperate about it; rather, it seemed to stem from an unresented realisation that he was not cut out for success, and his duty was therefore to ensure only that he failed in the correct and acceptable fashion.”
― Julian Barnes, quote from Flaubert's Parrot

“But you see, "libertarian" has a special meaning in the United States. The United States
is off the spectrum of the main tradition in this respect: what's called "libertarianism" here is unbridled capitalism. Now, that's always been opposed in the European libertarian tradition, where every anarchist has been a socialist-because the point is, if you have unbridled capitalism, you have all kinds of authority: you have extreme authority. If capital is privately controlled, then people are going to have to rent themselves in order to survive. Now, you can say, "they rent themselves freely, it's a free contract"-but that's a joke. If your choice is, "do what I tell you or starve," that's not a choice-it's in fact what was commonly referred to as wage slavery in more civilized times, like the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, for example.
The American version of "libertarianism" is an aberration, though-nobody really takes it seriously. I mean, everybody knows that a society that worked by American libertarian principles would self-destruct in three seconds. The only reason people pretend to take it seriously is because you can use it as a weapon. Like, when somebody comes out in favor of a tax, you can say: "No, I'm a libertarian, I'm against that tax"-but of course, I'm still in favor of the government building roads, and having schools, and killing Libyans, and all that sort of stuff.
Now, there are consistent libertarians, people like Murray Rothbard [American academic]-and if you just read the world that they describe, it's a world so full of hate that no human being would want to live in it. This is a world where you don't have roads because you don't see any reason why you should cooperate in building a road that you're not going to use: if you want a road, you get together with a bunch of other people who are going to use that road and you build it, then you charge people to ride on it. If you don't like the pollution from somebody's automobile, you take them to court and you litigate it. Who would want to live in a world like that? It's a world built on hatred.
The whole thing's not even worth talking about, though. First of all, it couldn't function for a second-and if it could, all you'd want to do is get ~ out, or commit suicide or something. But this is a special American aberration, it's not really serious.”
― Noam Chomsky, quote from Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky

“Sometimes I wonder if you should be on medication," Charlie said. "It can't be healthy to have you thinking all by yourself without some kind of pharmaceutical intervention.”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Tell Me It's Real

“Despite Bria’s icy attitude, Finn didn’t give up. He focused all of his attention on her, as if he were a general and she was just another battle to be won no matter what casualties he might suffer along the way—including the complete and utter loss of his self-respect, pride, and dignity. Bria coolly rebuffed all of his advances, but she wasn’t completely immune to his charms. Interest sparked in her gaze whenever she looked at him out of the corner of her eye. Bria enjoyed being chased just as much as Finn liked running after her.”
― Jennifer Estep, quote from Spider’s Revenge

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.