Quotes from The Assassin and the Desert

“Words could be just as deadly as steel.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“If you can learn to endure pain, you can survive anything. Some people learn to embrace it—to love it. Some endure it through drowning it in sorrow, or by making themselves forget. Others turn it into anger. But Ansel let her pain become hate, and let it consume her until she became something else entirely—a person I don’t think she ever wished to be”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“And Celaena felt it.
She felt each footstep, the phantom bruises on her face throbbing with the memory of Arobynn's fists. And suddenly, as the memory of that day echoed through her, she remembered the words Sam kept screaming at Arobynn as the king of the Assassins beat her, the words that she somehow forgotten in the fog of pain:
'I'll kill you!'
Sam has said it like he meant it. He'd bellowed it. Again and again and again.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“As the memory of that day echoed through her, she remembered the words Sam kept screaming at Arobynn, as the King of the Assassins beat her, the words that she'd somehow forgotten in the fog of pain: I'll kill you! Sam had said it like he meant it. He'd bellowed it, again and again and again...”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“Arobynn hit her-her ribs, her jaw, her gut. And her face. Again and again and again. Careful blows, meant to inflict as much pain as possible without doing permanent damage. And Sam kept roaring, shouting words that she couldn't quite hear over the agony. The last thing she remembered was a pang of guilt at the sight of her blood staining Arobynn's exquisite red carpet. And then darkness, blissful darkness, full of relief that she hadn't seen them hurt Sam.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“Where do men find it in themselves to do such monstrous things?”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“Well, he was certainly desirable-as desirable as Sam, maybe. Sam-when had she ever thought of him as desirable? He'd laugh until he died if ever knew she thought of him like that.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“With nothing else to distract her, Celeana eventually returned to thinking about Sam. Even weeks later, she had no idea how she'd somehow gotten attached to him, what he'd been shouting when Arobynn beat her, and why Arobynn had thought he'd need three seasoned assassins to restrain him that day.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“But there are some times when words are necessary - when explanations are needed that mere gestures cannot convey.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“Alone in the hallway, Celaena watched the shadows cast by the torches. It hadn't been the mere impossibility of a relationship with Ilias that had made her pull away.
No; it was the memory of Sam's face that had stopped her from kissing him.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“Hisli's tail flicked to the side as the arrow buried itself in the sand just inches behind her rear hooves. But Ansel didn't dare look over he shoulder. She kept riding, and she did not stop. Celeana lowered her bow and watched until Ansel disappeared beyond the horizon. One arrow, that had been her promise. But she's also promised Ansel that she's had twenty minutes to get out of range.
Celeana had fired after twenty-one.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“I think you will leave a lasting imprint on Ansel's heart. You spared her life, and returned her father's sword. And maybe when she makes her next move to reclaim her title, she will remember the assassin from the North and the kindness you showed her, and try to leave fewer bodies in her wake.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“Mikhail truly liked Ansel-that much was obvious. he always found excuses to touch her, always smiled at her, always looked at her as if she were the only person in the room. Celeana sloshed her wine around in her glass. If she were being honest, sometimes she thought Sam looked at her that way. But then he'd go and say something absurd, or try to undermine her, and she'd chide herself for even thinking about him. Her stomach tightened. What had Arobynn done to him that night? She should have inquired after him. But in the day's after him, she's been so busy, wrapped up in her rage... She hadn't dared look for him, actually. Because if Arobynn had hurt Sam the way he'd hurt her... Celeana drained the rest of her wine.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“Wasn't that wonderful?"
Breathing hard, Celeana didn't say anything as she punched Ansel so hard in the face that the girl went flying off her horse and tumbled onto the sand. Ansel just clutched her jaw and laughed.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“The undergarments were plain-and folded. Who folded their undergarments? Celeana thought of her enormous closet back home, exploding with colour and different fabrics and patterns, all tossed together. Her undergarments, while expensive, usually wound up in a heap in their drawer. Sam, probably, folded his undergarments. Though, depending on how much of him Arobynn left intact, he might not be able to now. Arobynn would never permanently main her, but Sam might have faired worse. Sam had always been the expendable one.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“When you give your master his letter, also give him this. And tell him that in the Red Desert, we do not abuse our disciples.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“Where do men find it in themselves to do such monstrous things? How do they find it acceptable?

"We'll make them pay for it in the end." Celaena grasped Ansel's hand. The girl squeezed back. "We'll see to it that they pay."

"Yes." Ansel shifted her gaze back to the stars. "Yes, we will.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“The Mute Master had told her that people dealt with their pain in different ways—that some chose to drown it, some chose to love it, and some chose to let it turn into rage.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“One arrow, that had been her promise. But she'd also promised Ansel that she had twenty minutes to get out of range. Celaena had fired after twenty-one.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“If you can learn to endure pain, you can survive anything.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“They might be vicious, but they're not invincible.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“It’s an Asterion horse,” Ansel breathed, her red-brown eyes growing huge.

The horse was black as pitch, with dark eyes that bored into Celaena’s own. She’d heard of Asterion horses, of course. The most ancient breed of horse in Erilea. Legend claimed that the Fae had made them from the four winds—spirit from the north, strength from the south, speed from the east, and wisdom from the west, all rolled into the slender-snouted, high-tailed, lovely creature that stood before her.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“She was babbling. She should stop. Actually, she should just stop talking. Forever.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“So when their campfire was nothing but embers and the horses were dozing behind them, Ansel and Celaena lay on their backs on the side of a dune and stared up at the stars.

Her hands tucked behind her head, Celaena took a long, deep breath, savoring the balmy night breeze, the exhaustion ebbing from her limbs. She rarely got to see stars so bright—not with the lights of Rifthold. The wind moved across the dunes, and the sand sighed. “That’s the stag,” Celaena breathed. “The Lord of the North.”... the smile faded when she stared at the familiar constellation. “Because the stag remains constant—no matter the season, he’s always there.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“and Mullin. Harding took a step in front of them, his”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“Si aprendes a soportar el dolor, eres capaz de sobrevivir a todo. Algunas personas aprenden a aceptarlo... a amarlo. Algunos lo soportan ahogándolo en tristeza o se fuerzan a sí mismos a olvidar. Otros lo transforman en ira.
Ansel, en cambio, dejó que su dolor se tornará odio, y que la consumiera hasta convertirla en alguien distinto; una persona que sin duda jamás deseó llegar a ser.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

“Jeśli nauczysz się znosić swój ból, będziesz w stanie przetrwać wszystko, Niektórzy ludzie wchłaniają cierpienie, przyzwyczajają się do niego, a nawet zaczynają je kochać. Inni pogrążają się w rozpaczy lub jakoś o nim zapominają, Jeszcze inni przekuwają swój ból w gniew.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert

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“I had recently read to my dismay that they have started hunting moose again in New England. Goodness knows why anyone would want to shoot an animal as harmless and retiring as the moose, but thousands of people do—so many, in fact, that states now hold lotteries to decide who gets a permit. Maine in 1996 received 82,000 applications for just 1,500 permits. Over 12,000 outof-staters happily parted with a nonrefundable $20 just to be allowed to take part in the draw. Hunters will tell you that a moose is a wily and ferocious forest creature. Nonsense. A moose is a cow drawn by a three-year-old. That’s all there is to it. Without doubt, the moose is the most improbable, endearingly hopeless creature ever to live in the wilds. Every bit of it—its spindly legs, its chronically puzzled expression, its comical oven-mitt antlers—looks like some droll evolutionary joke. It is wondrously ungainly: it runs as if its legs have never been introduced to each other. Above all, what distinguishes the moose is its almost boundless lack of intelligence. If you are driving down a highway and a moose steps from the woods ahead of you, he will stare at you for a long minute (moose are notoriously shortsighted), then abruptly try to run away from you, legs flailing in eight directions at once. Never mind that there are several thousand square miles of forest on either side of the highway. The moose does not think of this. Clueless as to what exactly is going on, he runs halfway to New Brunswick before his peculiar gait inadvertently steers him back into the woods, where he immediately stops and takes on a startled expression that says, “Hey—woods. Now how the heck did I get here?” Moose are so monumentally muddle-headed, in fact, that when they hear a car or truck approaching they will often bolt out of the woods and onto the highway in the curious hope that this will bring them to safety. Amazingly, given the moose’s lack of cunning and peculiarly-blunted survival instincts, it is one of the longest-surviving creatures in North America. Mastodons, saber-toothed tigers, wolves, caribou, wild horses, and even camels all once thrived in eastern North America alongside the moose but gradually stumbled into extinction, while the moose just plodded on. It hasn’t always been so. At the turn of this century, it was estimated that there were no more than a dozen moose in New Hampshire and probably none at all in Vermont. Today New Hampshire has an estimated 5,000 moose, Vermont 1,000, and Maine anywhere up to 30,000. It is because of these robust and growing numbers that hunting has been reintroduced as a way of keeping them from getting out of hand. There are, however, two problems with this that I can think of. First, the numbers are really just guesses. Moose clearly don’t line up for censuses. Some naturalists think the population may have been overstated by as much as 20 percent, which means that the moose aren’t being so much culled as slaughtered. No less pertinent is that there is just something deeply and unquestionably wrong about killing an animal that is so sweetly and dopily unassuming as a moose. I could have slain this one with a slingshot, with a rock or stick—with a folded newspaper, I’d almost bet—and all it wanted was a drink of water. You might as well hunt cows.”
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“Like one, that on a lonesome road
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And having once turned round walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows, a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.”
― Samuel Taylor Coleridge, quote from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

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