“I can deal with anything, as long as I know it's the truth. It's the lies that are hard.”
― Jennifer Laurens, quote from Penitence
“You're the first girl who's had the guts to touch my controls.”
― Jennifer Laurens, quote from Penitence
“I want to be the one protecting you.”
― Jennifer Laurens, quote from Penitence
“You have the poutiest lips I've ever seen."
"Pouty?' I snorted. "Like I look bratty?"
"Like you look kissable.”
― Jennifer Laurens, quote from Penitence
“He nodded, his forehead fused with mine. "My head fogs when you kiss me like that. I can't think," he murmured.
"It does?" I grinned. "I like making your head fog." I kissed him again.”
― Jennifer Laurens, quote from Penitence
“You feel control drain away like sand falling from your fingertips. You can't hold onto it. It's gone. And so are you.”
― Jennifer Laurens, quote from Penitence
“But there you are. Helpless. Unable to defend yourself. Vulnerable. Victim.”
― Jennifer Laurens, quote from Penitence
“Thirty minutes until I saw Weston. I shouldn't be this excited about a ride home.”
― Jennifer Laurens, quote from Penitence
“Oh, I think not,” Varys said, swirling the wine in his cup. “Power is a curious thing, my lord. Perchance you have considered the riddle I posed you that day in the inn?”
“It has crossed my mind a time or two,” Tyrion admitted. “The king, the priest, the rich man—who lives and who dies? Who will the swordsman obey? It’s a riddle without an answer, or rather, too many answers. All depends on the man with the sword.”
“And yet he is no one,” Varys said. “He has neither crown nor gold nor favor of the gods, only a piece of pointed steel.”
“That piece of steel is the power of life and death.”
“Just so… yet if it is the swordsmen who rule us in truth, who do we pretend our kings hold the power? Why should a strong man with a sword ever obey a child king like Joffrey, or a wine-sodden oaf like his father?”
“Because these child kings and drunken oafs can call other strong men, with other swords.”
“Then these other swordsmen have the true power. Or do they?” Varys smiled. “Some say knowledge is power. Some tell us that all power comes from the gods. Others say it derives from law. Yet that day on the steps of Baelor’s Sept, our godly High Septon and the lawful Queen Regent and your ever-so-knowledgeable servant were as powerless as any cobbler or cooper in the crowd. Who truly killed Eddard Stark, do you think? Joffrey, who gave the command? Ser Ilyn Payne, who swung the sword? Or… another?”
Tyrion cocked his head sideways. “Did you mean to answer your damned riddle, or only to make my head ache worse?”
Varys smiled. “Here, then. Power resides where men believe it resides. No more and no less.”
“So power is a mummer’s trick?”
“A shadow on the wall,” Varys murmured, “yet shadows can kill. And ofttimes a very small man can cast a very large shadow.”
Tyrion smiled. “Lord Varys, I am growing strangely fond of you. I may kill you yet, but I think I’d feel sad about it.”
“I will take that as high praise.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Clash of Kings
“My brother Ramo was only a little boy half my age, which was twelve. He was small for one who had lived so many suns and moons, but quick as a cricket.”
― Scott O'Dell, quote from Island of the Blue Dolphins
“But goodness alone is never enough. A hard, cold wisdom is required for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from Stranger in a Strange Land
“But did thee feel the earth move?”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from For Whom the Bell Tolls
“A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day.”
― Bill Watterson, quote from The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
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