“To my surprise, Joscelin rose. ‘Phedre-’ He began, then halted. Sitting below him, I watched him smile to himself, quiet and private. ‘Phedre yields with a willow’s grace,’ he said softly. ‘And endures with the strength of mountains. Without her, life would be calm; and yet lack all meaning.”
― Jacqueline Carey, quote from Kushiel's Justice
“Joscelin, is love supposed to make you feel like you’re sick and dying, and mad enough to hit someone and drunk with joy, and your heart’s a boulder n your chest trying to burst into a thousand pieces all at once?”
“Mm-hmm.” He finished his ale. “That would be love.”
― Jacqueline Carey, quote from Kushiel's Justice
“That was the problem ... with trusting to the written word ... We were human, mortal and fallible. We forgot, we made errors, argued ambiguities, and twisted meanings to suit our own ends.
And in doing so, mayhap we reshaped the gods themselves.”
― Jacqueline Carey, quote from Kushiel's Justice
“Again and again, I pushed my memories away. There were days when it was easy and days when it was hard. My love ... was a boulder in my heart. I sought to let go of it and let it sink. Let it sink below the surface, carrying my heart with it. Let it come to rest on the stream's bottom, a vast hidden bulwark, dividing the current. Let it stay there, hidden and unseen. Forgotten. Betimes it worked. Betimes it didn't. It was the best I could do.”
― Jacqueline Carey, quote from Kushiel's Justice
“By morning, Joscelin was resigned. "You know, betimes I think you are a little mad, Imriel no Montreve," he said to me in the courtyard outside the stable, holding the Bastard's reins.
"You never said that to Phedre," I reminded him.
"Ah, well." He grinned despite himself. "In her case, there is no question.”
― Jacqueline Carey, quote from Kushiel's Justice
“I discovered that we liked each other. But I was fearful of giving free rein to my emotions. Fearful that all those emotions and longings I suppressed would spill forth, rendering me bitter and cruel.”
― Jacqueline Carey, quote from Kushiel's Justice
“I thought about what a priest of Elua had told me about love many years ago, the first time I kept his vigil on the Longest Night. You will find it and lose it, again and again. And with each finding and each loss, you will become more than before. What you make of it is yours to choose. It was true.”
― Jacqueline Carey, quote from Kushiel's Justice
“We might embody those qualities we desire to possess by embracing them, over and over, until the line between seeming and being is no more.”
― Jacqueline Carey, quote from Kushiel's Justice
“I wanted it, I wanted it all. All the ardent beginnings and the confused between-times and the bittersweet dregs.
All of the aches and sorrows, all of the soaring joys.
All of it.”
― Jacqueline Carey, quote from Kushiel's Justice
“And in so doing, mayhap we reshaped the gods themselves. Now that was a thought made me shudder to the bone. I wondered if it were true, and if it were, what would happen when some deity bent out of true by mortal ambition returned to set the record straight.”
― Jacqueline Carey, quote from Kushiel's Justice
“Joscelin, is love supposed to make you feel like you’re sick and dying, and mad enough to hit someone, and drunk with joy, and your heart’s a boulder in your chest trying to burst into a thousand pieces, all at once?” “Mm-hmm.” He finished his ale. “That would be love.”
― Jacqueline Carey, quote from Kushiel's Justice
“I wondered if, by the time we'd been together as long as Phèdre and Joscelin, I'd be able to predict her reactions.
I wasn't sure I would.
I wasn't sure I wanted to, either.”
― Jacqueline Carey, quote from Kushiel's Justice
“It is a dangerous thing to bring a dream to life....I have watched my deepest, dearest hopes take shape, and I am not entirely sure I like the shape they have taken.”
― Jacqueline Carey, quote from Kushiel's Justice
“«Salvezza. Già, ma cosa significa? A quel tempo pensavo di saperlo, pensavo di averne bisogno, e che gli yeshuiti la offrissero. E che il solo prezzo da pagare fosse avere fede.»
«Ma non l'hai accettato.»
Joscelin scosse il capo. «No. Alla resa dei conti il prezzo era troppo alto. Non volevo lasciare l'amore sull'altare della fede. Ho imparato ad avere fede nell'amore.»”
― Jacqueline Carey, quote from Kushiel's Justice
“So you were good enough for the Cullach Gorrym, good enough to marry Dorelei mab Breidaia, good enough to beget Alba a successor, but not good enough for the Queen’s daughter?” Urist’s lips curled with scorn. The tip of his knife flicked upward. “Well, that’s what I think of that, lad.” The red yarn parted and fell.”
― Jacqueline Carey, quote from Kushiel's Justice
“Gli eroi mi davano la nausea. Una volta, avevo voluto essere uno di loro. Avevo covato sogni gloriosi di diventare un eroe dello stesso stampo di cui credevo Joscelin fosse fatto. Avevo perso quelle illusioni molto tempo fa, ma non avevo capito fino ad ora che eroismo significa vivere nel terrore di non essere in grado di proteggere coloro che ami.”
― Jacqueline Carey, quote from Kushiel's Justice
“We forgot, we made errors, argued ambiguities, and twisted meanings to suit our own ends. And in so doing, mayhap we reshaped the gods themselves. Now”
― Jacqueline Carey, quote from Kushiel's Justice
“mayhap if I played at being the kind and gentle husband long enough, it would become true. Master Piero once told us that we might embody those qualities we desire to possess by embracing them, over and over, until the line between seeming and being is no more.”
― Jacqueline Carey, quote from Kushiel's Justice
“It wouldn’t last, of course. I had no illusions on that score. But while it did, I meant to relish every moment of the respite.”
― Jacqueline Carey, quote from Kushiel's Justice
“In every way there is, murder is chaos. Our job is simple, when you get down to it: we stand against that, for order. I remember this country back when I was growing up. We went to church, we ate family suppers around the table, and it would never even have crossed a kid’s mind to tell an adult to fuck off. There was plenty of bad there, I don’t forget that, but we all knew exactly where we stood and we didn’t break the rules lightly. If that sounds like small stuff to you, if it sounds boring or old-fashioned or uncool, think about this: people smiled at strangers, people said hello to neighbors, people left their doors unlocked and helped old women with their shopping bags, and the murder rate was scraping zero. Sometime since then, we started turning feral. Wild got into the air like a virus, and it’s spreading. Watch the packs of kids roaming inner-city estates, mindless and brakeless as baboons, looking for something or someone to wreck. Watch the businessmen shoving past pregnant women for a seat on the train, using their 4x4s to force smaller cars out of their way, purple-faced and outraged when the world dares to contradict them. Watch the teenagers throw screaming stamping tantrums when, for once, they can’t have it the second they want it. Everything that stops us being animals is eroding, washing away like sand, going and gone. The final step into feral is murder.”
― Tana French, quote from Broken Harbor
“It`s remarkable the truly stupid things people can do because it`s expected of them, or they think it`s expected of them.”
― K.J. Parker, quote from Devices and Desires
“I don’t mean to imply that I value the life of a fish or a bird the same way I value a human life, but their presence in the world has as much validity as does our presence. Perhaps more: they were here first; they are foundational to us. They take only what they need. They are compatible with the life around them.”
― Carl Safina, quote from Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel
“will not tell you one single solitary fact about my work, my friends, or the woman I was arrested with. But I will tell you this, René Bordelon. You’re a gullible fool. You’re a terrible lover. And I hate Baudelaire.”
― Kate Quinn, quote from The Alice Network
“That’s not the whole of it. As with many other faiths—including our own Christian one—a small group of zealots have distorted Islam to further their own agenda. When many women took to imitating the fashions of the Prophet’s wives, some Moslem men saw an opportunity to put all women under their thumb. They espoused foul laws like those allowing a man to beat his wife or force her into his bed.”
― Matthew Reilly, quote from The Tournament
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