Quotes from The Sweet Far Thing

Libba Bray ·  819 pages

Rating: (59.2K votes)


“And that is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


“People have a habit of inventing fictions they will believe wholeheartedly in order to ignore the truth they cannot accept.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


“Do you ever feel that way?"
"Lonely?"
I search for the words. "Restless. As if you haven't really met yourself yet. As is you'd passed yourself once in the fog, and your heart leapt - 'Ah! There I Am! I've been missing that piece!' But it happens too fast, and then that part of you disappears into the fog again. And you spend the rest of your days looking for it."
He nods, and I think he's appeasing me. I feel stupid of having said it. It's sentimental and true, and I've revealed a part of myself I shouldn't have.
"Do you know what I think?" Kartik says at last.
"What?"
"Sometimes, I think you can glimpse it in another.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


“I am a jumble of passions, misgivings, and wants. It seems that I am always in a state of wishing and rarely in a state of contentment.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


“It is funny how you do not miss affection until it is given, but once it is, it can never be enough; you would drown in it if possible.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing



“There is an ancient tribal proverb I once heard in India. It says that before we can see properly we must first shed our tears to clear the way.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


“When I dream, I dream of him. For several nights now he’s come to me, waving from a distant shore as if he’s been waiting patiently for me to arrive. He doesn’t utter a word, but his smile says everything: I’ve missed you.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


“Power changes everything till it is difficult to say who are the heroes and who the villains.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


“I do not want to pass the time. I want to grab hold of it and leave my mark upon the world.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


“We sit and listen and are enthralled anew, for good stories, it seems, never lose their magic.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing



“You must remember, my dear lady, the most important rule of any successful illusion: First, the people must want to believe in it.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


“I'm like everyone else in this stupid, bloody, amazing world. I'm flawed. Impossibly so. But hopeful. I'm still me.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


“I wish to live for myself. I should never want to be trapped.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


“The trouble with morning is that it comes well before noon.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


“Reminds us that greatness lies even in the smallest of moments, in the humblest of hearts, and we shall, each of us, be called to greatness. Whether we shall rise to meet it or let it slip away is the challenge put before us all.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing



“But aren't many gardens beautiful because they are imperfect?...aren't the strange, new flowers that arise by mistake or misadventure as pleasing as the well-tended and planned?”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


“Instead, I try to adjust to the dawn, letting the tears fall where they may, because it is morning; it is morning and there is so much to see.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


“Peace is not happenstance. It is a living fire that must be fed constantly. It must be tended with vigilance, else it dies out.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


“There is a time in every life when paths are chosen, character is forged. I could have chosen a different path. But I didn’t. I failed myself.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


“But the past cannot be changed, and we carry our choices with us, forward, into the unknown. We can only move on.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing



“War." Gorgon spits the word. "That is what they call it to give the illusion of honor and law. It is chaos. Madness and blood and the hunger to win. It has always been thus and shall always be so.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


“Oh, I've a love, a true, true love, who waits upon yon shore... and if my love won't be my love, then I will live no more...”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


“How terrible it is to have no cares, no longings. I do not fit. I feel too deeply and want too much. As cages go, it is a gilded one, but I shall not live well in it or any cage, for that matter.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


“I'm sorry,' he says simply. 'People make mistakes, Gemma. We take the wrong action for the right reasons, and the right action for the wrong reasons.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


“The night's chilly breath tickles up my neck and finds my ear, whispering secrets only the wind knows.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing



“Because it is morning, it is morning, and there is so much to see.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


“A gentle breeze catches in the branches then and I hear it, soft and low, a murmured prayer--Gem-ma, Gem-ma--and then the leaves bend down and trail delicate fingers across my cold cheeks.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


“When she can't bring me to heal with scolding, she bends me to shape with guilt.”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


“If God has nothing better to do than punish schoolgirls for a bit of tomfoolery, then I've no use for God. ”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing


About the author

Libba Bray
Born place: in Montgomery, Alabama, The United States
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