“I'm not sure anyone knows what they're looking for until they find it.”
“I only have one heart, and I'm saving it.”
“You can be brave and still be feminine. You can lead and still love flowers. Most importantly, you can be queen and still be a bride.”
“There are some things you don't learn about yourself until you let someone else into the most intimate places of your heart.”
“I’m smart and beautiful and strong. I don’t need to be rescued.”
“Didn't they know who I was, what they'd trained me for? I was Eadlyn Schreave. No one was more powerful than me.
So if they thought I was going down without a fight, they were sadly mistaken.”
“I couldn’t help but
notice it was always this way. At state events or important dinners, Mom was beside Dad or situated
right behind him. But when they were just husband and wife—not king and queen—he followed her
everywhere.”
“I kept thinking that I couldn't live my life for other people, that love was nothing but chains. And maybe it was, but so help me, I needed these chains.”
“You know how your mother and I met,” Dad began.
I rolled my eyes. “Everyone does. You two are practically a fairy tale.”
“I’m not sure if fate or destiny is real. But I can
tell you that sometimes the very thing you’ve been hoping for will walk through the door, determined
to fend you off. And still, somehow, you will find that you are enough.”
“When you know who matters most to you, giving things up, even yourself, doesn’t really feel like a sacrifice.”
“I could not hold my breath for seven minutes. I couldn’t even make it to one. I once tried to run a mile in seven minutes after hearing some athletes could do it in four but failed spectacularly when a side stitch crippled me about halfway in.
However, there was one thing I managed to do in seven minutes that most would say is quite impressive: I became queen.
By seven tiny minutes I beat my brother, Ahren, into the world, so the throne that ought to have been his was mine. Had I been born a generation earlier, it wouldn’t have mattered. Ahren was the male, so Ahren would have been the heir.
Alas, Mom and Dad couldn’t stand to watch their firstborn be stripped of a title by an unfortunate but rather lovely set of breasts. So they changed the law, and the people rejoiced, and I was trained day by day to become the next ruler of Illéa.”
“Should I get more butter?"
"Shut up, Eadlyn,”
“I'm happy, Ahren. I'm a princess. I have everything."
"I think you're mistaking comfort for joy.”
“I was slow to pick up on their hints. I knew what the Selection was, but never, not even once, had it been suggested as an option for any of us, let alone me.
"No."
Mom put up her hands, cautioning me. "Just listen-"
"A Selection?" I burst out. "That’s insane!"
"Eadlyn, you're being irrational. "
I glared at her. "You promised- you promised- you'd never force me into marrying someone for an alliance. How is this any better?"
"Hear us out," she urged.
"No!" I shouted. "I won't do it.”
“I'm eighteen. I'm genetically encoded to fight with my parents.”
“I’m not sure anyone knows what they’re looking for until they find it.”
“It was a bubble of pure joy.
There were no cameras around to capture it, no reporters to tell the world about it. And for some
reason, that made it so much better.”
“Your Highness," he greeted.
"It's 'Royal Pain in the Ass' to you, sir.”
“failure meant having my life led by someone else.”
“It wasn’t all that long ago that he’d stood where I did, that my mom’s face was one of many in his
world. And yet, despite all the impediments and all the time that had passed, they were still deeply in
love.
It was obvious in everything, from their shared room to the way they fretted over each other to the
way they seemed to be incapable of not flirting with each other even after being married so long.”
“I watched him go and told myself that the only reason I was smiling like that was because the cameras were hidden somewhere, not because of anything Kile Woodwork had done.”
“My Selection wasn’t a farce, but it wasn’t that far off. My father chose all the
contestants by hand, picking young women with political alliances, influential families, or enough
charm to make the entire country worship the ground they walked on. He knew he had to make it
varied enough to seem legit, so there were three Fives thrown into the mix but nothing below that.
The Fives were meant to be little more than throwaways to keep anyone from being suspicious.”
I realized my mouth was gaping open and shut it immediately. “Mom?”
“Was meant to be gone almost immediately. Truth be told, she barely made it past my father ’s
attempts to sway my opinion or remove her himself. And look at her now.” His whole face changed.
“Though it was hard for me to imagine, she is even more beloved as queen than my mother. She has
made four beautiful, intelligent, strong children. And she has been the source of every happiness in
my life.”
“I never got to tell you so many things. Like how I wish I
could command a room like you. It’s so impressive. Or how your eyes sparkle when you make a joke.
It’s really pretty.”
“Are you all right? I know last night was kind of scary.”
“I just didn’t expect it. It was asparagus. . . . He literally punched someone over a vegetable.”
Kile laughed. “See, this is why you stick with butter.”
“Oh, you and your stupid butter.” ”
“Love did nothing but break down defenses, and I could not afford that.”
“Welcome to the first ever Selection Variety Show, starring a bunch of losers competing for your attention.”
“I didn't know it would be so easy to make you smile”
“You are Eadlyn Schreave. You are the next person in line to run this country, and you will be the
first girl to do it on your own. No one,” I said, “is as powerful as you.”
“I did not deceive you, mon ami. At most, I permitted you to deceive yourself.”
“That close, his eyes made the world disappear. He smelled clean. Like summers before the war. Like sanctuary.”
“Est Sularus oth Mithas”—“My honor is life.”
“Sovegna vos.
Here are the years that walk between, bearing
Away the fiddles and the flutes, restoring
One who moves in the time between sleep and waking, wearing
White light folded, sheathed about her, folded.
The new years walk, restoring
Through a bright cloud of tears, the years, restoring
With a new verse the ancient rhyme. Redeem
The time. Redeem
The unread vision in the higher dream
While jewelled unicorns draw by the gilded hearse.”
“If your life's at a juncture and you need to think about things, there's nowhere better than home. However old you are.”
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.