“You have to be a medicine cat....”
― Erin Hunter, quote from Yellowfang's Secret
“This would never have happened in my day,” Archeye commented from where he sat in front of the elders’ den. “What’s next? Kit warriors?”
― Erin Hunter, quote from Yellowfang's Secret
“Cedarstar was the first of the nine cats to step forward. He bowed his head to Brokentail and meowed, “I give you a life to live by the warrior code. Remember it well, Brokentail, and let it be your guide. Wiser cats than you or I have lost their way without it.”
― Erin Hunter, quote from Yellowfang's Secret
“Stonetooth took his place. “I give you a life for duty,” he meowed. “Remember what you owe to your Clan as well as what your Clan owes to you.” He touched noses with Brokentail, who flexed his claws briefly and then was still.”
― Erin Hunter, quote from Yellowfang's Secret
“The fourth cat stepped forward; Yellowfang didn’t know his name. He was a skinny gray tom, and he studied Brokentail carefully before he spoke. “I give you a life for truth. Without it, kin is set against kin, Clan against Clan. Hold fast to truth in all your dealings and let it guide your words.”
― Erin Hunter, quote from Yellowfang's Secret
“Brokentail, I give you a life for compassion. Use it to shelter the weakest in your Clan, the kits and elders and the sick. Use it to show mercy to your enemies and to choose the path your paw steps will follow.”
― Erin Hunter, quote from Yellowfang's Secret
“I give you a life for clear sight,” she meowed. “Brokentail, know yourself and your destiny, but know too that destiny can be changed if you choose the right path.”
― Erin Hunter, quote from Yellowfang's Secret
“tabby warrior looked like a baby crow with a black frill”
― Erin Hunter, quote from Yellowfang's Secret
“Oh, yes?” Lizardstripe mewed. “What a miracle. If I’d known toms could have kits, I would have made Mudclaw have these brats of mine himself.”
― Erin Hunter, quote from Yellowfang's Secret
“I give you a life for strength. This is the time you and your Clan will stand or fall. You need to be stronger than ever.”
― Erin Hunter, quote from Yellowfang's Secret
“Yellowfang crouched among the thorns with Deerleap on one”
― Erin Hunter, quote from Yellowfang's Secret
“His name is Brokenkit,” she meowed, her voice faltering. Lizardstripe nodded, stretching out a paw to touch the bend in his tail. That was where every cat would think his name came from. But Yellowfang knew the truth. She named her son for the feeling in her chest as she left him there, as if her heart were cleaving in two, as if her life had broken down the middle.”
― Erin Hunter, quote from Yellowfang's Secret
“Dawnstar, the former ShadowClan leader who had given a life to Raggedstar. “I give you a life for honor,” she told Brokentail. “Honor is expected from all cats, but most of all, from a Clan leader. Use the honor of leadership carefully.”
― Erin Hunter, quote from Yellowfang's Secret
“I give you a life for judgment,” he meowed. “ShadowClan stands at a place where the path ahead divides. Choose to follow the right path, for the good of your Clan.”
― Erin Hunter, quote from Yellowfang's Secret
“Tail held high, Brokentail’s tiny sister pattered forward into the circle to stand beside him. “I give you a life for love of kin,” she mewed, the wisdom in her voice startling Yellowfang as it came from so small a body. “And as Clan leader, remember that every Clan cat is your kin.”
― Erin Hunter, quote from Yellowfang's Secret
“Why were Jack and his brother digging post holes? A fence there would run parallel to the one that already enclosed the farmyard. The Welches had no animals to keep in or out - a fence there could serve no purpose. Their work was pointless. Years later, while I was waiting for a boat to take me across the river, I watched two Vietnamese women methodically hitting a discarded truck tire with sticks. They did it for a good long while, and were still doing it when I crossed the river. They were part of the dream from which I recognized the Welches, my defeat-dream, my damnation-dream, with its solemn choreography of earnest useless acts.”
― Tobias Wolff, quote from This Boy's Life
“That reminded him of how thrifty she was, and he promptly decided-at least for the moment-that her thriftiness was one of her most endearingly amusing qualities.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked.
He tipped his chin down so that he could better see her and brushed a stray lock of golden hair off her cheek. “I was thinking how wise I must be to have known within minutes of meeting you that you were wonderful.”
She chuckled, thinking his words were teasing flattery. “How soon did my qualities become apparent?”
“I’d say,” he thoughtfully replied, “I knew it when you took sympathy on Galileo.”
She’d expected him to say something about her looks, not her conversation or her mind. “Truly?” she asked with unhidden pleasure.
He nodded, but he was studying her reaction with curiosity. “What did you think I was going to say?”
Her slim shoulders lifted in an embarrassed shrug. “I thought you would say it was my face you noticed first. People have the most extraordinary reaction to my face,” she explained with a disgusted sigh.
“I can’t imagine why,” he said, grinning down at what was, in his opinion-in anyone’s opinion-a heartbreakingly beautiful face belonging to a young woman who was sprawled across his chest looking like an innocent golden goddess.
“I think it’s my eyes. They’re an odd color.”
“I see that now,” he teased, then he said more solemnly, “but as it happens it was not your face which I found so beguiling when we met in the garden, because,” he added when she looked unconvinced, “I couldn’t see it.”
“Of course you could. I could see yours well enough, even though night had fallen.”
“Yes, but I was standing near a torch lamp, while you perversely remained in the shadows. I could tell that yours was a very nice face, with the requisite features in the right places, and I could also tell that your other-feminine assets-were definitely in all the right places, but that was all I could see. And then later that night I looked up and saw you walking down the staircase. I was so surprised, it took a considerable amount of will to keep from dropping the glass I was holding.”
Her happy laughter drifted around the room and reminded him of music. “Elizabeth,” he said dryly, “I am not such a fool that I would have let a beautiful face alone drive me to madness, or to asking you to marry me, or even to extremes of sexual desire.”
She saw that he was perfectly serious, and she sobered, “Thank you,” she said quietly. “That is the nicest compliment you could have paid me, my lord.”
“Don’t call me ‘my lord,’” he told her with a mixture of gentleness and gravity, “unless you mean it. I dislike having you address me that way if it’s merely a reference to my title.”
Elizabeth snuggled her cheek against his hard chest and quietly replied, “As you wish. My lord.”
Ian couldn’t help it. He rolled her onto her back and devoured her with his mouth, claimed her with his hands and then his body.”
― Judith McNaught, quote from Almost Heaven
“King Nicholas had explained the lense box to”
― Eoin Colfer, quote from Airman
“There comes always a moment when the desire to act, however ill the cause, is stronger than the wish to listen.”
― Kate Mosse, quote from Sepulchre
“How we gets to the place where we scared to talk softness to each other.”
― Lorraine Hansberry, quote from A Raisin in the Sun
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