“My ma says a rock lasts forever, but people don’t, and that’s what makes them more precious.”
“No small thing, a bee's sting
When it enters the heart
Not so benign, the growing vine
When it tears stone apart”
“The snow was too light to stay, the ground too warm to keep it. And the strange spring snow fell only in that golden moment of dawn, the turning of the page between night and day.”
“You forgot to cough!” he said.
“Sorry.” She coughed.
“Your sneakiness is dangerous. Next time that chisel will lodge itself in my head.”
“Now, Peder, there’s plenty of stone around here for carving. No need to practice on your own face.”
He stroked his chin. “You’re right, my jaw is already chiseled to perfection.”
She agreed, but she felt too silly to say so aloud.”
“No matter that we could be beheaded for this,” said Esa. “Heads are overrated.”
“Yes, they are so unfashionable,” said Miri, imitating an Aslandian accent. “This spring, ladies of style are wearing their feathers in their necks.”
“Listen to your second thought, or the third might be too late.”
“Words can fall hard like a boulder loosed from a cliff.
Words can drift unnoticed like a weed seed on a breeze. Words can sing.”
“My ma says You can't unspill a stew."
"She also says Undoing a wrong is greater than doing a right."
"You know, Ma is very good at saying two things at once.”
“For one thing, everyone there is so clever. Do they think me dull?
Perhaps I should assure them that our goats enjoyed listening to me for hours on end. I am certain their bleats meant "Do go on, Miri, darling. You are immensely entertaining."
Your immensely entertaining sister,
Miri”
“There was a burst of laughter so sudden Miri jumped to her feet in alarm. Bena and Liana had pushed Peder out of the bed and onto the floor. He in turn leaped on Liana's bed, clinging to it and laughing as the girls tugged at his ankles.
"So, are you two betrothed?" Katar asked.
"No," Miri said shortly
"Ohh." Karter smirked, one eyebrow raised, and she looked altogether more like her old self. "It appears I stumbled upon a topic of conversation even more dangerous than revolution.”
“The army slew a thousand and showed little pity
The king ordered fealty from the conquered city
The prince charmed its people with words wise and witty
And the queen sat on a couch, looking very pretty”
“You can be who you will,” he repeated. His voice softened. “And if you will have me, I will be the one beside you.”
“Katar," said Britta, "I thought you would want to stay with your friends from home while they were here, so I had your things moved from your room in the delegates' wing."
"You can have my things brought in too," said Peder, throwing himself onto the nearest bed. He sighed as he sank into the soft mattress and rolled onto his side.
"Um... I don't think boys are-" Britta began.
"Don't you mind me!" Peder pulled a blanket over his head.
Miri didn't know how he could even pretend to fall asleep. She could barely keep from pacing.
"Don't worry, Britta," said Esa. "We'll kick him out before night. Off to your fancy apprenticeship, big brother."
She nudged Peder's shape under the blanket. Peder made an exaggerated snoring noise.”
“Once she'd thought all the knowledge in the world was contained in the princess academy's thirteen books. Now she faced thousands. She wondered if she should curtsy as if she were entering a chapel.”
“So...did she just agree to sponsor the charter?" asked Katar.
"I think so," Miri whispered.
"You think so?"Katar grabbed the paper from Miri. "If I present this in session and the queen doesn't offer her sponsorship, 'I think so' isn't going to save my head."
"Your head will be fine," said Miri. "It's your neck you should worry about.”
“She's as fetching as brown hair done up with ribbons blue
The mountain, my lady
She's as sweet as pink flowers made bright with morning dew,
Mount Eskel, my lady”
“Do you know the feeling you get when you are awakened in the middle of a dream? The dream story is still real and full of color, but the waking world is rushing back into your mind. And for a moment both worlds are true, and you cannot quite tell them apart.”
“I am not sure I am ready to know what I think about that, so I dare not write it out.”
“When the mountain quaked
Like an elbow's nudge
Like a shout that something is wrong
The people awoke and
Knew, yes, knew, that bandits had come”
“Miri took genuine comfort in studying Mathematics that day. She could sort numbers into two simple ideas: true and not true. Unlike numbers, words were rarely just one thing. They moved and changed, camouflaging and leaping out unexpectedly. Words were slippery and alive; words wrestled out of her grip and became something new. Words were dangerous.”
“Goodness knows she is too fierce for you
Goodness knows she has eyes for a lord
Goodness knows she yet will prove untrue
Her cheek's blush is as false as her word”
“Your head will be fine,” said Miri. “It’s your neck you should worry about.”
“We stand up for the farmers
Who can't keep enough to eat
We walk out for the workers
Who don't know the taste of meat
We run forward for the children
With no shoes upon their feet
We will march this kingdom down
We will break the golden crown”
“Oh land of farms and green hills mild
Once formed by giants rough and wild
With massive paws they gripped and tore
With one great rip they formed the shore
Where heavy boots left prints so deep
Blue lakes remain 'tween summits steep
The giants fought beneath our skies
And from their bones our mountains rise”
“A need, a need, a need have I
A wish, a wish, a wish, I sigh”
“She wore white heirloom lace about her throat
And in her hair a bright golden feather
A pearl like a plum hung ripe from her neck
But her smile fetched ten gold together”
“Once there was a queen in a palace of bread.
Sing blue, sing white, stay up all night.
She nibbled on the walls and gobbled up her bed.
Sing white, sing blue, sing ballyhoo.
The people begged a crumb from their robust queen.
Sing blue, sing white, she ate all night.
She would not share a thing until it turned green.
So white, so blue, the mold it grew.”
“Tis I, my sweet, your rough-and-ready man
Well hid by night to beg your fine white hand
Though king of bandits, draped in chains of gold
I'm poor in love and suffer grief untold”
“King Dan sat on his stallion fierce
Swords did slice and spears did pierce
But in a tree upon the field
Perched a small, keen-eyed blackbird
And the blackbird did not sing
No, the blackbird did not sing”
“He is ever inglorious
His laugh is laborious
His smell is notorious
Impale the herring king!”
“Two classics stuck with them. Ender’s Game delighted them all; here were soldiers who were just like them, except smaller. The main character was even bred to fight alien species like they were. The next day the members of the 8th greeted each other with the salutation ::Ho, Ender,:: until Brahe told them to knock it off and pay attention.”
“- الحيا ة منفى بحد ذاتها. العودة الى البيت ليس هو طريق الرجعة.”
“...the City is what they want it to be: thriftless, warm, scary and full of amiable strangers. No wonder they forget pebbly creeks and when they do not forget the sky completely think of it as a tiny piece of information about the time of day or night.”
“I see you.
The real you.
The you who fillips a coin,
hoping to understand
how fate works:
this choice or that choice,
ultimately leaving you
no choice at all.
The you who smiles
and tries to be happy
because that’s what
people want
you to be.”
“Augustus actually had his poets and scribes rewrite his mythic biography to fit his own agenda that included changing calendar years in order to substantiate his divinity." His face crinkled into a smile. "I'm not completely certain what my findings add up to yet. I can tell you I've found convincing evidence that there's a fundamental identification between Octavius Caesar Augustus and Christianity as we call it today. I've studied comparative religions all my life, but only recently come to the conclusion that the Emperor Augustus was a comparatist extraordinaire, albeit a thoroughly pragmatic one. He was a master of turning the common themes in the religions of the cultures he conquered to the service of his empire, and of his personal reputation. He based his own spiritual practices on the moral principles he encountered in all religions,”
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