Quotes from The Blue Sword

Robin McKinley ·  256 pages

Rating: (48.8K votes)


“[Harry] had always suffered from a vague restlessness, a longing for adventure that she told herself severely was the result of reading too many novels when she was a small child.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“...My friend, there are some things that I cannot tell you. Some I will tell you in time; some, others will tell you; some you may never know, or you may be the first to find the answers.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“You are attempting to be logical, I suspect, and logic has little to do with government, and nothing at all to do with military administration. ”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“One doesn't generally look into mirrors when one is especially angry; one has better things to do, like pace the floor or throw things.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“There had been certain romantic interludes in the past that had included galloping across the desert at night; but he had never abducted any woman whose enthusiastic support for such a plan had not been secured well in advance.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword



“What was she to say? "The prodigal has returned? The mutineer wishes to be reinstated? The subordinate, having gone to a great deal of trouble to prove her commander wrong, has come back and promises to be a good little subordinate hereafter, or at least until next time?”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“It seems to me further, that it is very odd that fate should leave so careful a trail, and spend so little time preparing the one that must follow it.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“...like a grain of sand that gets into an oyster's shell. What if the grain doesn't want to become a pearl? Is it ever asked to climb out quietly and take up its old position as a bit of ocean floor?”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“Friends you will have need of, for in you two worlds meet. There is no one on both sides with you, so you must learn to take your own counsel; and not to fear what is strange, if you know it also to be true.
—Luthe”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“Mathin said: "It is best to take your opponent's sash. The kysin mark each blow dealt, but to cut off the other rider's sash is best. This you will do."

"Oh," said Harry.

"You may, if you wish, unhorse him first," Mathin added as an afterthought.

"Thanks," said Harry.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword



“Tsornin's nostrils showed red, but his ears were as alert as ever, and occasionally he would rub his nose gently against the nape of her neck, just in case she was momentarily not thinking about him.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“He looked at her rather as a man looks at a problem that he would very much prefer to do without. She supposed it was a distinction of a sort to be a harassment to a king.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“He didn't look insane or inhuman. He did look uncooperative.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“Sungold blew impatiently and began to dig a hole with one foot. She booted his elbow with her toe and he stopped, but after a moment he lowered his head and blew again, harder, and she could feel him shifting his weight, considering if she might let him dig just a small hole.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“Cigars should be like onions," she said, unfastening the catch and pushing back the pane. "Either the whole company does, or the whole company does not.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword



“He grunted; she recognized it as relief that she wasn't going to nag him further about Tor the Just, who probably wasn't that boring if he could hold off the Notherners for nine days and melt a hole in the hills.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“[Gonturan] is a true friend, but a friend with thoughts of her own, and the thoughts of others are dangerous.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“Your attitude is perhaps a little unnecessarily rigorous," suggested Jack.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“She had had insomnia badly when she was fresh from Home.... She had had only occasional bad nights since then. Bad? she thought. Why bad? I rarely feel much the worse the next day, except for a sort of moral irritability that seems to go with the feeling that I ought to have spent all those silent hours asleep.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“Mathin had taught her patience, and she had known all of her life how to be stubborn.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword



“My father... raised me to make up my own mind. The way he did this was by yielding to me when I asked, even when I was foolish. I lived through it; and I know my own mind; and he will do what I ask him.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“There was, too, a reality to her new life that her old life had lacked, and she realized with a shock that she had never truly loved or hated, for she had never seen the world she had been used to living in closely enough for it to evoke passion in her.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“There was a certain bitter humor to lying awake wishing for something one cannot have, after lying awake not so long ago wishing for the opposite thing that one had just lost. Not a very useful sort of adaptability, this, she thought.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“It is not a comfortable passion.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“--including Rilly, who was beside herself with excitement, and her mother, who was beside herself with Rilly--”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword



“But their strength is the strength of numbers and of stubbornness and persistence; do not underestimate it.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“But he hated to see his people people unhappy--because he was a good king, not because he was a nervous one--”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“In fact, she would have added the rider that she wasn't sure it could be done at all, getting to know someone at any succession of such parties, however prolonged.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“No, but I am working up to telling you that there is no possibility of there being done what ought to be done-”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword


“But it is not, as we say when we are being diplomatic, a fruitful source of inquiry.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from The Blue Sword



About the author

Robin McKinley
Born place: in Warren, Ohio, The United States
Born date November 16, 1952
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Sixty-nine was an interesting age--an age of infinite possibilities--an age when at last the experience of a lifetime was beginning to tell. But to feel old--that was different, a tired, discouraged state of mind when one was inclined to ask oneself depressing questions. What was he after all? A little dried-up elderly man, with neither chick nor child, with no human belongings, only a valuable Art collection which seemed at the moment strangely unsatisfying. No one to care whether he lived or died...”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Mysterious Mr. Quin


“When it's all said and done, the only thing that matter in life are so damn simple. Family, friends. being safe and well. I think before the war a lot of people got sucked in by the crap on TV. They thought having the right shoes or the right jeans or the right car really mattered. Boy were we ever dumb.”
― John Marsden, quote from The Night Is for Hunting


“She cries quietly, her shoulders heaving up and down, not the kind of loud sobbing that the women Chika knows do, the kind that screams Hold me and comfort me because I cannot deal with this alone. The woman's crying is private, as though she is carrying out a necessary ritual that involves no one else.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from The Thing Around Your Neck


“The Arabs from Zanzibar convinced them to become Muslim, then recruited them to capture our Chewa people and put us into bondage. They raided our villages, killed our men, then sent our women and children across the lake in boats. Once there, the slaves were shackled by the neck and made to march across Tanzania. This took three months. Once they reached the ocean, most of them were dead. Later on, the Yao captured and traded us to the Portuguese in exchange for guns, gold, and salt.”
― William Kamkwamba, quote from The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope


“What is true is what is true for you. No one has any right to force data on you and command you to believe it or else. If it is not true for you, it isn’t true. Think your own way through things, accept what is true for you, discard the rest. There is nothing unhappier than one who tries to live in a chaos of lies.”
― Lawrence Wright, quote from Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief


Interesting books

Redshirts
(68.5K)
Redshirts
by John Scalzi
River of Gods
(4.8K)
River of Gods
by Ian McDonald
Flaubert's Parrot
(10.1K)
Flaubert's Parrot
by Julian Barnes
Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky
(5.1K)
Understanding Power:...
by Noam Chomsky
Tell Me It's Real
(5.1K)
Tell Me It's Real
by T.J. Klune
Spider’s Revenge
(13.7K)
Spider’s Revenge
by Jennifer Estep

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.