Tamora Pierce · 274 pages
Rating: (97.1K votes)
“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
“that goes well, we will follow with discussions of Raving Fans, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Gung Ho!; and The Road Less Traveled. All of these books can help us understand”
― quote from Fish!: A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results
“specimens, wait until they’ve been examined, then put them back.” “Bone librarian—a most apt description. How many visiting scientists”
― Douglas Preston, quote from Blue Labyrinth
“Which makes you grip this rail even tighter. And holding it so tightly reminds you of its purpose, and the fact that you're not supposed to go over the rail – because life is meant to be protected, not discarded.”
― Zack Love, quote from The Syrian Virgin
“DREAMLAND BY a route obscure and lonely, Haunted by ill angels only, Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT, On a black throne reigns upright, I have reached these lands but newly From an ultimate dim Thule— From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime Out of SPACE—out of TIME. Bottomless vales and boundless floods, And chasms, and caves, and Titan woods With forms that no man can discover For the dews that drip all over; WHERE AN EIDOLON NAMED NIGHT ON A BLACK THRONE REIGNS UPRIGHT Mountains toppling evermore Into seas without a shore; Seas that restlessly aspire, Surging, unto skies of fire; Lakes that endlessly outspread Their lone waters—lone and dead, Their still waters—still and chilly With the snows of the lolling lily. By the lakes that thus outspread Their lone waters, lone and dead,— Their sad waters, sad and chilly With the snows of the lolling lily,— By the mountains—near the river Murmuring lowly, murmuring ever,— By the grey woods,—by the swamp Where the toad and the newt encamp,— By the dismal tarns and pools Where dwell the Ghouls,— By each spot the most unholy— In each nook most melancholy,— There the traveller meets aghast Sheeted Memories of the Past— Shrouded forms that start and sigh As they pass the wanderer by— White-robed forms of friends long given, In agony, to the Earth—and Heaven. For the heart whose woes are legion ’Tis a peaceful, soothing region— For the spirit that walks in shadow ’Tis—oh, ’tis an Eldorado! But the traveller, travelling through it, May not—dare not openly view it; Never its mysteries are exposed To the weak human eye unclosed; So wills its King, who hath forbid The uplifting of the fringèd lid; And thus the sad Soul that here passes Beholds it but through darkened glasses. By a route obscure and lonely, Haunted by ill angels only, Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT, On a black throne reigns upright, I have wandered home but newly From this ultimate dim Thule.”
― Edgar Allan Poe, quote from Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
“the tougher you are on yourself, the easier life will be on you.”
― Robin S. Sharma, quote from Who Will Cry When You Die? Life Lessons from the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
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