Quotes from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“In a child's eyes, a mother is a goddess. She can be glorious or terrible, benevolent or filled with wrath, but she commands love either way. I am convinced that this is the greatest power in the universe.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“We can never be gods, after all--but we can become something less than human with frightening ease.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“But love like that doesn't just disappear, does it? No matter how powerful the hate, there is always a little love left, underneath.
Yes. Horrible, isn't it?”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“There's truth even in tainted knowledge, if one reads carefully.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“It is blasphemy to separate oneself from the earth and look down on it like a god. It is more than blasphemy; it is dangerous. We can never be gods, after all - but we can become something less than human with frightening ease.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“Fortunately, where reason failed, blind panic served well enough.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“The priest's lesson: beware the Nightlord, for his pleasure is a mortal's doom. My grandmother's lesson: beware love, especially with the wrong man.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“You are what your creators and experiences have made you, like every other being in this universe. Accept that and be done; I tire of your whining.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“...and when I lift my head to scream out my fury, a million stars turn black and die. No one can see them, but they are my tears.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“Once upon a time there was a

Once upon a time there was a

Once upon a time there was a

Stop this. It's undignified.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“You are Insignificant. One of millions, neither special nor unique. I did not ask for this ignominy, and I resent the comparison.
Fine. I don't you like you, either.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“There is nothing foolish about hope.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“I am not as I once was. They have done this to me, broken me open and torn out my heart. I do not know who I am anymore.
I must try to remember.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“I remembered Nahadoth's lips on my throat and fought to suppress a shudder, only half succeeding. Death as a consequence of lying with a god wasn't something I had considered, but it did not surprise me. A mortal man's strength had its limits. He spent himself and slept. He could be a good lover, but even his best skills were only guesswork - for every caress that sent a woman's head into the clouds, he might try ten that brought her back to earth.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“So there was love, once. More than love. And now there is more than hate. Mortals have no words for what we gods feel. Gods have no words for such things. But love like that doesn't just disappear, does it? No matter how powerful the hate, there is always love left, underneath. Horrible, isn't it?”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“The Nightlord cannot be controlled, child. He can only be unleashed. And you asked him not to kill.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“The younger man stepped away from the table and came toward me, his whole posture radiating menace. Every Darre woman is taught to deal with such behavior from men. It is an animal trick that they use, like dogs ruffling their fur and growling. Only rarely is there an actual threat behind it, and a woman's strength lies in discerning when the threat is real and when it is just hair and noise.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“And in that sliver of time, I felt the power around me coalesce, malice-hard and sharp as crystal.

That this analogy occurred to me should have been a warning.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“It was very bad if the council had resorted to recruiting men. By tradition men were our last line of defence, their physical strength bent towards the single and most important task of protecting our homes and children. This meant the council had decided that our only defence was to defeat the enemy, period. Anything else meant the end of Darre.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“Separarse de la tierra y contemplarla desde arriba como los dioses es una blasfemia. No podemos ser dioses... pero podemos llegar a ser menos que humanos con aterradora facilidad.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“Whether you live or die is irrelevant. You are Arameri, and like all of us, you will serve.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“beware love, especially the wrong man”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“De esta materia prima están hechos los grandes cuentos, ¿no? Puro romanticismo. En los cuentos, las parejas así viven felices para siempre. Pero los cuentos no dicen lo que sucede cuando se hace eso y se ofende a la familia más poderosa del mundo.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“It is blasphemy to separate oneself from the earth and look down on it like a god. It is more than blasphemy; it is dangerous. We can never be gods, after all—but we can become something less than human with frightening ease.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“It is important to give just the right instructions. He thinks in loopholes.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“In a child’s eyes, a mother is a goddess. She can be glorious or terrible, benevolent or filled with wrath, but she commands love either way.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“Men who served anyone could be trusted by no one.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“The Darren language has a word for the attraction one feels to danger: esui. It is esui that makes warriors charge into hopeless battles and die laughing. Esui is also what draws women to lovers who are bad for them--men who would make poor fathers, women of the enemy.”
― N.K. Jemisin, quote from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

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Popular quotes

“Billy didn't need someone to pour him his drinks, he needed someone to tell him that living isn't poetry. It isn't prayer. To tell him and convince him. And none of us could do it because every one of us thought that as long as Billy believed it was, as long as he kept himself believing it, then maybe it could still be true.”
― Alice McDermott, quote from Charming Billy

“Why in the world would someone say, 'I can't afford it' or 'I can't do it' to something they want? Why would someone deny themselves the things they want? It makes no logical sense.”
― Robert T. Kiyosaki, quote from Rich Dad's Retire Young, Retire Rich: How to Get Rich Quickly and Stay Rich Forever!

“La idea de la muerte llega siempre con paso de lobo, con andares de
culebra, como todas las peores imaginaciones. Nunca de repente llegan
las ideas que nos trastornan; lo repentino ahoga unos momentos, pero
nos deja, al marchar, largos años de vida por delante. Los pensamientos
que nos enloquecen con la peor de las locuras, la de la tristeza, siempre
llegan poco a poco y como sin sentir, como sin sentir invade la niebla los
campos, o la tisis los pechos. Avanza, fatal, incansable, pero lenta,
despaciosa, regular como el pulso. Hoy no la notamos; a lo mejor
mañana tampoco, ni pasado mañana, ni en un mes entero. Pero pasa ese
mes y empezamos a sentir amarga la comida, como doloroso el
recordar, ya estamos picados. Al correr de los días y las noches nos
vamos volviendo huraños, solitarios; en nuestra cabeza se cuecen las
ideas, las ideas que han de ocasionar el que nos corten la cabeza donde
se cocieron, quién sabe si para que no siga trabajando tan atrozmente.
Pasamos a lo mejor hasta semanas enteras sin variar; los que nos
rodean se acostumbraron ya a nuestra adustez y ya ni extrañan siquiera
nuestro extraño ser. Pero un día el mal crece, como los árboles, y
engorda, y ya no saludamos a la gente; y vuelven a sentirnos como raros
y como enamorados. Vamos enflaqueciendo, enflaqueciendo, y nuestra
barba hirsuta es cada vez más lacia. Empezamos a sentir el odio que nos
mata; ya no aguantamos el mirar; nos duele la conciencia, pero ¡no
importa!, ¡más vale que duela! Nos escuecen los ojos, que se llenan de
agua venenosa cuando miramos fuerte. El enemigo nota nuestro anhelo,
pero está confiado; el instinto no miente. (...) Cuando huimos como las
corzas, cuando el oído sobresalta nuestros sueños, estamos ya minados
por el mal; ya no hay solución, ya no hay arreglo posible. Empezamos a
caer, vertiginosamente ya, para no volvernos a levantar de vida. Quizás
para levantarnos un poco a última hora, antes de caer de cabeza hasta
el infierno... Mala cosa.”
― Camilo José Cela, quote from The Family of Pascual Duarte

“God isn't fooled by mercenary goodness I told myself and went back to manic smiling.”
― Janice Galloway, quote from The Trick is to Keep Breathing

“Every schoolboy knows that the Indians used every part of the buffalo, which is true. But they did not use every part of every buffalo.”
― quote from American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon

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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.

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