“If your appearance is all people see, they have no respect for your mind.”
― Trudi Canavan, quote from The Magician's Apprentice
“Unquestioning obedience is for slaves, the uneducated and the pathetic.”
― Trudi Canavan, quote from The Magician's Apprentice
“Cold, truthful common sense was harder to like than warm, hopeful generosity.”
― Trudi Canavan, quote from The Magician's Apprentice
“He liked the idea that if either of them ever fell from grace, the other might be there to offer support.”
― Trudi Canavan, quote from The Magician's Apprentice
“As the others paired off he turned to face her.
"Can't leave me partnerless," he said.
She pulled a face, grabbed the bowl and stood up."Forgot my little speech earlier, have you, Jayan?Not if you were the last man in Kyralia.”
― Trudi Canavan, quote from The Magician's Apprentice
“Era mejor evitar las heridas desde un principio que tener que tratarlas”
― Trudi Canavan, quote from The Magician's Apprentice
“Suddenly she was all too aware how different she was. A woman among all these man. A natural from a humble background among rich young men chosen from powerful families. A beginner among the well trained.”
― Trudi Canavan, quote from The Magician's Apprentice
“You two still establishing a pecking order?”
“Oh, it’s clear who’s at the top,” Jayan said. “The lesser hordes need to sort out their own hierarchy. Are you enjoying being the prize they’re fighting over?”
“Me?”
“Yes, you. I’m afraid female magicians have quite a reputation. My young, naïve subordinates are trying to work out if any of them stands a chance with you.”
“A chance?” She turned and began picking fruit again. “Am I to expect a marriage proposal, or something much shallower?”
“Definitely shallower,” he said.”
― Trudi Canavan, quote from The Magician's Apprentice
“People and land, they’re the same, his father used to say. Neglect one and the other suffers eventually.”
― Trudi Canavan, quote from The Magician's Apprentice
“Lo único que se necesita en la vida es seguridad, conocimiento y mucho descaro.”
― Trudi Canavan, quote from The Magician's Apprentice
“The right rumour in the right ears can kill the emperor, as they say.”
― Trudi Canavan, quote from The Magician's Apprentice
“Nunca le gustó mirar atrás. El pasado estaba repleto de malos recuerdos, y los buenos lo dejaban lleno de amargura”
― Trudi Canavan, quote from The Magician's Apprentice
“I love you, he told her.
Sweet joy rushed through her. But there was a distinct smugness about his words. He’d sensed her feelings in return, and was pleased with himself for doing so.
Turns out I love you too, she replied, communicating her wry amusement. Of all the annoying people in the world.”
― Trudi Canavan, quote from The Magician's Apprentice
“Jayan found teaching both frustrating and rewarding. It depended on the apprentice. Some were attentive and talented. Some were not.”
― Trudi Canavan, quote from The Magician's Apprentice
“Our army is retreating. The Sachakans are following. They will be here soon. We must be ready. The servants are bringing horses.” He paused and frowned at one of the apprentices. “Stop wating time asking stupid questions and see if your horse is here!” he snapped. He turned and pointed. “You! Arelenin. I can see someone bringing your horse. Yes, I’d hardly miss that ugly beast if it were on the other side of the country. Go and get it.”
― Trudi Canavan, quote from The Magician's Apprentice
“There was no fast and painless way to perform an amputation, Tessia knew. Not if you did it properly.”
― Trudi Canavan, quote from The Magician's Apprentice
“It always seems easier to do nothing, when the harm is don elsewhere,” Dakon said. “They know their young ones will either learn a lesson and limp home – or die and stop being a problem – or prove successful. The worst that could happen is a bit of a diplomatic hiccup in history.”
― Trudi Canavan, quote from The Magician's Apprentice
“We have more in common than I thought, he mused wryly. He liked the idea that, if either of them ever fell from grace, the other might be there to offer support. It’s always easier to become friends with someone you have something in common with. I just hope it doesn’t take some socially disastrous fall before she’ll consider the possibility I might be a friend.”
― Trudi Canavan, quote from The Magician's Apprentice
“The healers’ university looked exactly as Tessia had imagined. Her father had described it as an ‘old but strange building that has adopted and absorbed surrounding houses as opportunity and funds allowed’. It sounded confusing and intriguing, and it was.”
― Trudi Canavan, quote from The Magician's Apprentice
“La gente y la tierra son lo mismo - solia decir su padre- si desatiendes una de las dos, la otra acaba pagando las consecuencias”
― Trudi Canavan, quote from The Magician's Apprentice
“Todos somos esclavos, ama —replicó Vora—. Las mujeres. Los hombres, a su manera. No existe la libertad, solo diferentes tipos de esclavitud. Incluso un ashaki ve constreñidos sus actos por las restricciones que imponen la tradición y la política. Y el emperador es aún menos libre que ellos.”
― Trudi Canavan, quote from The Magician's Apprentice
“It had surprised and impressed Tessia to learn that Everran and Avaria owned two wagons, one for their own everyday use and one kept for visits to the Royal Palace. Since the journey to the palace consisted of half the length of two streets, it seemed frivolous to own a vehicle especially for it.”
― Trudi Canavan, quote from The Magician's Apprentice
“When Tessia and Jayan were served a large, fat rassook each, Jayan had smugly commented that Tessia certainly had a way with villagers and he would not be surprised if she could charm pickpockets into putting money into her wallet.”
― Trudi Canavan, quote from The Magician's Apprentice
“my dragon? save anybody?
you must have have him confused with someone else- Smaug perhaps?...”
― Margaret Weis, quote from Elven Star
“But I can cite ten other reasons for not being a father."
"First of all, I don't like motherhood," said Jakub, and he broke off pensively. "Our century has already unmasked all myths. Childhood has long ceased to be an age of innocence. Freud discovered infant sexuality and told us all about Oedipus. Only Jocasta remains untouchable; no one dares tear off her veil. Motherhood is the last and greatest taboo, the one that harbors the most grievous curse. There is no stronger bond than the one that shackles mother to child. This bond cripples the child's soul forever and prepares for the mother, when her son has grown up, the most cruel of all the griefs of love. I say that motherhood is a curse, and I refuse to contribute to it."
"Another reason I don't want to add to the number of mothers," said Jakub with some embarrassment, "is that I love the female body, and I am disgusted by the thought of my beloved's breast becoming a milk-bag."
"The doctor here will certainly confirm that physicians and nurses treat women hospitalized after an aborted pregnancy more harshly than those who have given birth, and show some contempt toward them even though they themselves will, at least once in their lives, need a similar operation. But for them it's a reflex stronger than any kind of thought, because the cult of procreation is an imperative of nature. That's why it's useless to look for the slightest rational argument in natalist propaganda. Do you perhaps think it's the voice of Jesus you're hearing in the natalist morality of the church? Do you think it's the voice of Marx you're hearing in the natalist propaganda of the Communist state? Impelled merely by the desire to perpetuate the species, mankind will end up smothering itself on its small planet. But the natalist propaganda mill grinds on, and the public is moved to tears by pictures of nursing mothers and infants making faces. It disgusts me. It chills me to think that, along with millions of other enthusiasts, I could be bending over a cradle with a silly smile."
"And of course I also have to ask myself what sort of world I'd be sending my child into. School soon takes him away to stuff his head with the falsehoods I've fought in vain against all my life. Should I see my son become a conformist fool? Or should I instill my own ideas into him and see him suffer because he'll be dragged into the same conflicts I was?"
"And of course I also have to think of myself. In this country children pay for their parents' disobedience, and parents for their children's disobedience. How many young people have been denied education because their parents fell into disgrace? And how many parents have chosen permanent cowardice for the sole purpose of preventing harm to their children? Anyone who wants to preserve at least some freedom here shouldn't have children," Jakub said, and fell into silence.
"The last reason carries so much weight that it counts for five," said Jakub. "Having a child is to show an absolute accord with mankind. If I have a child, it's as though I'm saying: I was born and have tasted life and declare it so good that it merits being duplicated."
"And you have not found life to be good?" asked Bertlef.
Jakub tried to be precise, and said cautiously: "All I know is that I could never say with complete conviction: Man is a wonderful being and I want to reproduce him.”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Farewell Waltz
“Dolly Parton to my..well, ;et's just say that the greatly endowed wagon had passed me by.”
― Rachel Hawthorne, quote from Love on the Lifts
“It also becomes apparent that our every action, our every deed, word, and thought, no matter how slight or inconsequential it may seem, has an implication not only for ourselves but for all others, too. Furthermore,”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from Ethics for the New Millennium
“That's the sacred intent of life, of God--to move us continuously toward growth, toward recovering all that is lost and orphaned within us and restoring the divine image imprinted on our soul.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life's Sacred Questions
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