“That which yields is not always weak.”
“There is no fulfillment that is not made sweeter for the prolonging of desire”
“When Love cast me out, it was Cruelty who took pity upon me”
“It's funny, how one can look back on a sorrow one thought one might well die of at the time, and know that one had not yet reckoned the tenth part of true grief.”
“Oh love and hate are two sides of the same blade”
“Stand at the crossroads if you will, but if you'll not choose, I'll move on without you”
“If you will not die for us, you cannot ask us to die for you.”
“Yes my lord, but questions are dangerous, for they have answers”
“Surely if we knew what bitterness fate held in store, we would shrink back in fear and let the cup of life pass us by untasted.”
“If I had to fall from Cassiel's grace, at least I know it took a courtesan worthy of Kings to do it.”
“It is my observations, though, that happiness limits the amount of suffering one is willing to inflict upon others”
“To have a traitor for an ally is to have an enemy in waiting”
“Nothing spoils idle pleasure like too much awareness”
“A little truth seasons a lie like salt.”
“It's funny how despair can soon become an old companion”
“Garner knowledge, by any means possible”
“Wars come and go; politics endure.”
“For this too I learned, that a storyteller's tale may end, but history goes on always. These events, so distant in legend, play a part in shaping the very events we witness about us, each and every day.”
“There are those who do not hold that there is any innate goodness to mankind. To them I say, had you lived my life, you would not believe it. I have known the depths to which mortals are capable of descending, and I have seen the heights. I have seen how kindness and compassion may grow in the unlikeliest of places, as the mountain flower forces its way through the stern rock.”
“Some chains are forged for us - those are the hardest to bear.”
“There are those who are awkward in the face of sorrow, fearing to say the wrong thing; to them, I say, there is no wrong in comfort, ever. A kind word, a consoling arm ... these things are ever welcome.”
“I had begun to think my ripening body would wither untasted on the vine.”
“Pain obliterates everything else. In pain, there is only the eternal present.”
“For every victory there is a price.”
“Only insofar as you enjoy being sorry, my dear, which, while it is a considerable amount, occurs only after the fact, thus making it a singularly ineffective deterrent, yes?”
“And Kushiel sends no punishment that we are not fit to bear.”
“Beauty is at its most poignant when the cold hand of Death holds poised to wither it imminently.”
“Pain redeems all. It is the awareness of life, a reminder of death.”
“Will looked back at me, startled, and I kept my heart muscle strong, feeling something inside me shiver like a pale green flower shoot just waking up for spring. But whatever that thing was, it was still too new to feel ready to bloom; it wanted time to set down roots. Someday soon I was going to bloom like crazy and then I'd have what I needed to keep me standing tall.”
“dedication Sometimes I wish I were an architect, so that I could dedicate a building to a person; a superstructure that broke the clouds and continued up into the abyss. And if Bird Box were made of bricks instead of letters, I’d host a ceremony, invite every shadowy memory I have, and cut the ribbon with an axe, letting everyone see for the first time that building’s name. It’d be called the Debbie. Mom, Bird Box is for you.”
“Where is it?" I asked, willing him to tell me.
He laughed suddenly, and I could hear the full-throated, grating sound of the white bear's laughter in it.
"East of the sun and west of the moon," he said.”
“England looked strange to us returned soldiers. We could not understand the war-madness that ran wild everywhere, looking for a pseudo-military outlet. The civilians talked a foreign language. I found serious conversation with my parents all but impossible.”
“I chose love—I chose you over everything that was offered to me.”
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