So, full disclosure, I really haven’t read a lot this week. I did make some highlights in a book that I’ve been reading. I’m just not sure if I’m allowed to share them because it’s an ARC from Netgalley. If anybody could tell me the technicalities behind that, I’d appreciate it. Since this is my first quotes blog in a long time, I’ll post four of my favorite quotes of all time.

1. “You is smart. You is kind. You is important.” -The Help by Kathryn Stockett
2. “Remember, darkness does not always equate to evil, just as light does not always bring good.” -House of Night Series by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast.
3. “The greatest and most powerful revolutions often start very quietly, hidden in the shadows. Remember that.” -Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
4. “Life finds a way.” -Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Please feel free to share some of your favorite quotes.

Thank you Lisa for hosting this great meme!

Welcome to Thursday Quotable! This feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week.  Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotable is where my favorite lines will be, and you’re invited to join in!

I, too, said a silent goodbye, to a place that had changed me forever—and the place that, more than any graveyard, would forever contain the memory, and the mystery, of my grandfather. They were linked inextricably, he and that island, and I wondered, now that both were gone, if I would ever really understand what had happened to me: what I had become; was becoming. I had come to the island to solve my grandfather’s mystery, and in doing so I had discovered my own. Watching Cairnholm disappear felt like watching the only remaining key to that mystery sink beneath the dark waves.

You coward. You weak, pathetic child. You threw your chance away. But I hadn’t. In reaching toward Emma, I’d risked everything—was risking it again, every day—but in doing so I had grasped and pulled myself into a world once unimaginable to me, where I lived among people who were more alive than anyone I’d known, did things I’d never dreamed I could do, survived things I’d never dreamed I could survive. All because I’d let myself feel something for one peculiar girl.

Finally, campfires dwindling, they laid out sleeping rolls for us and sang a lullaby in a lilting foreign language, and I felt pleasantly like a child. The ventriloquist came to say good night to Emma. She shooed him away, but not before he left a calling card. On the back was an address in Cardiff where he picked up mail every few months, whenever the Gypsies stopped through. On the front was his photo, with dummies, and a little note written to Emma. She showed it to me and snickered, but I felt bad for the guy. He was guilty only of liking her, same as me.

That’s because the true purpose of money is to manipulate others and make them feel lesser than you.

I’d love to see some of your favorite quotes!

Thank you Lisa for hosting this great meme!

Welcome to Thursday Quotable! This feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week.  Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotable is where my favorite lines will be, and you’re invited to join in!

“Medicine was my family’s trade,” Nadia continued. “My mother was a midwife and my father was a surgeon.” “Was?” Lynet asked gently. “They’re both dead now,” she said simply. “A fever.” “Oh, I—I’m sorry.” But Nadia just shook her head with a strained smile. “I don’t want to mourn their deaths anymore. I only want to honor their lives.” Lynet leaned forward. “How do you choose to honor them?” What she really wanted to ask was how anyone could honor the dead while still feeling alive. “I want to do what they did,” Nadia said at once, like she’d been ready for the question. “My father studied medicine in the South, before the university closed. He taught me what he learned before he died, but now that Queen Mina has reopened the university, I want to go there too, to walk the same halls that he did.”

Mina felt strangely smug about this, as if she and Lynet were keeping a secret together. She looked down at the girl beside her, the girl who had shown Mina nothing but warmth and acceptance since the moment they had met. Lynet was too young to know the prejudices of her fellow northerners, too innocent to see in Mina the sharp glint of her glass heart—and so in her innocence, she made Mina innocent as well.

As I think back, I probably would have made fun of me, too. It didn’t help that I liked math and science; they were my favorite subjects in school. I think I like math because it’s exact; I like when things add up. Numbers don’t play games or have moods or opinions.

“But what if your heart is wrong?” Kaylie asked. “I mean, come on, you have to admit the heart can be a little flaky. The heart told me I loved Timmy Tyson in first grade because he gave me a Valentine. But then I found out he also gave the exact same Valentine to Carey, Mindy, and Megan. I was crushed. My heart totally failed me on that one.”
Elsa let out a small laugh. “The same Valentine? Really?”
“Yes,” Kaylie said. “So not cool.”
“Not at all,” Elsa agreed. “But your heart didn’t fail you. The fact that you were heartbroken meant your heart worked. Your heart was just young and still in training, but every heartache teaches us something so that when the right person does come along, our hearts will be ready.”

I’d love to see some of your favorite quotes!

Thank you Lisa for hosting this great meme!

Welcome to Thursday Quotable! This feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week.  Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotable is where my favorite lines will be, and you’re invited to join in!

“Free is when you can go wherever you want,” Xor says, “eat whatever you want, and do whatever you want. Free is when nobody is telling you where to live. With the exception of your parents or guardians, of course.” Ringing laughter comes from the adults as if on cue, while the children groan in response.

Georgie laughs, too, wet and genuine, and for a moment I see it—who she must have been to him, and who he was to her. It’s the way I feel about Teddy. When you know someone inside out, so well that they feel less like another person and more like an extension of yourself. All your battles, all your victories—they’re always shared, always known. Always fought for side by side, whether you’re propping each other up or balancing each other out.

Some legends claimed the duke had been a cruel man, passing harsh judgments on his people. His sadism had been the reason why the seven members of his court were driven to kill him. But other stories depicted him as a gentle ruler, claiming his court plotted his demise because of their own desire to rule.

The night was cool and quiet as my father and I walked to the market. Every door was bolted, every shutter closed. It never ceased to surprise me how different Hereswith felt on new moon nights. Desolate and achingly silent, menace chilling the air like fog. It felt abandoned.

I’d love to see some of your favorite quotes!

Thank you Lisa for hosting this great meme!

Welcome to Thursday Quotable! This feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week.  Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotable is where my favorite lines will be, and you’re invited to join in!

“You two make a cute couple,” says the older woman sitting in front of us. I’m so distracted by the smell of Oliver’s shampoo that I don’t react fast enough. Instead Oliver says, “Thanks. If only I could get her to stop cheating on me.”

Usually I feel like these moments are stolen. I use them to belt my face off or practice a really weird monologue and savor the fact that nobody’s around to see me make a complete ass of myself. But right now all I can think about is how quiet it is and how loud my brain feels. Like the emptiness of the apartment left too much extra space for me.

To my credit, I don’t say anything. Partially because of the age-old theater rule of “If you don’t have any tea to spill, don’t say anything at all.” And honestly, no tea in my arsenal is going to be as strong or as weird as this.

He smiles his Millie smile, and I smile my Oliver one. We’ve said a lot of things to each other over the years, tossed more mean words between us than I could ever count. But making a promise only takes two.

I’d love to see some of your favorite quotes!

Thank you Lisa for hosting this great meme!

Welcome to Thursday Quotable! This feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week.  Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotable is where my favorite lines will be, and you’re invited to join in!

He reached around me and held me tight, warming my body up from the blackish goo I was covered in. For a moment, there was the singular feeling of peace, like we were the only ones in the entire world.

“You know,” Seppo said. “I wish we were going somewhere pleasant for once. It’s always draugr lair, lindworm nest, shore of corpses, can’t we go anywhere nice?” “Next time we need to save the world, I’ll make sure to ask the Norns for it to happen in a nicer place, okay?” I said, though I doubted the ancient crones of fate had any care for our small mortal lives.

“So rude,” Seppo said. “Why is everyone so rude to me, Rosamund?” “You can be uniquely annoying,” he answered. “As your partner, I find it endearing. Many don’t.”

A roll of hostility went over me. Lydian managed to say these things in the voice of trail guider—informational, conversational, pleasant—as if he were any of those things for real. I knew by now, not all monsters wore ugly skin and the most terrible creature could look beautiful, but it still made my stomach clench at the way Lydian spoke and moved; everything about him that came off as normal made it feel like bugs were crawling all over my skin. But if you knew nothing about him and just looked at him, you’d see a normal goblin. I didn’t want to see a normal goblin.

I’d love to see some of your favorite quotes!

Thank you Lisa for hosting this great meme!

Welcome to Thursday Quotable! This feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week.  Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotable is where my favorite lines will be, and you’re invited to join in!

She looks up at him, and never have I seen such an expression. It is one of pure and utter idolatry. It is too absolute to call it love. Love can be weakened by time or forgotten for the sake of another. Love can disappear, without a cause or an explanation, like a thief crept in and stole it in the night. But what she wears on her face for him now cannot disappear and cannot die. He responds by patting her absently on the top of her soaking-wet head, like one might pet a puppy.

Nori smiled. “I know, Oniichan. I know about the rainy season, tsuyu, and I know what the poets say.” Akira frowned. “Poets? What are you on about?” Nori looked away from the scrutiny in his gaze. “They say there’s fifty words for rain. One for each and every kind you can imagine.”

I feel this life is Sorrowful and unbearable Though I cannot flee away Since I am not a bird.

The orchestra slipped away from her, and she hastened to catch them. The sound of the flute pierced her to the heart. Is this what it feels like? Is this what Akira always feels like? To be in the middle of such a sound? She opened her eyes. There was a different sound now, entirely unfamiliar. It was applause. Thunderous applause.

I’d love to see some of your favorite quotes!

Thank you Lisa for hosting this great meme!

Welcome to Thursday Quotable! This feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week.  Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotable is where my favorite lines will be, and you’re invited to join in!

They were survivors, like me. This world had more life in it than I’d originally thought, and there was even a beauty to it that I found I could love … if I could forget why I was here in the first place.

Soren growled low in his throat. “What exactly is a monster to you, Janneke? You hunt down a doe, and she believes you’re a monster with her dying breath. A dog kills a rabbit and a mountain lion kills the dog. Which is the monster there?” He jerked his head to where Rekke rode. “Is she a monster because she’s on the Hunt, or is Elvira, because she’s trying to kill her? Or are the monsters the ones who tried to slay you for attempting to save their lives? What exactly is a monster?” A shadow of doubt flickered across my face, but I said nothing, instead looking away from him. “My point is we’re all monsters to someone or something by some definition. It’s the context of the situation that matters.” His eyes rested on mine as the gnawing feeling from before grew in the pit of my stomach. There was a beat of silence before he continued. “You know I’m right. I can see your jaw clenching. You always do that when you don’t want to admit you’re wrong.” I breathed out hard and slowly unclenched my jaw. “Do not.”

My father’s blood drenched my hands as a million pairs of eyes judged me, the daughter who chose the future over her past. But the shame that washed over me was nothing compared to the rage burning me up. We are all monsters even if we choose not to believe it. And the worst type were those who didn’t understand that. I was not a blood traitor for surviving and thriving. I was not damaged or broken or twisted beyond repair. No dead, mocking voices could tell me otherwise.

I breathed in his scent of woodsmoke and pine needles. “You know,” I murmured, letting the scent overwhelm me, “you were wrong.” “What could I possibly be wrong about?” I didn’t see the smile, but I knew it was there, just like I knew there’d be a twinkling light in his eyes. “You’re not a heartless monster,” I said. “You’re a monster with a heart.” He laughed.

I’d love to see some of your favorite quotes!

Thank you Lisa for hosting this great meme!

Welcome to Thursday Quotable! This feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week.  Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotable is where my favorite lines will be, and you’re invited to join in!

Did everything reinvent itself over time? It was beginning to seem like every person, every place, carried an untold story with long-buried truths resting just beneath the surface.

People could hurt each other without being monsters. And they could love each other without being saints.

“Of course there’s a creepy attic,” Violet said to Orpheus as she gazed up at the thin square of stone embedded in the ceiling above her head. “Because our family couldn’t just keep their secrets in a closet or something, like normal people.”

They have never known pain, he thought. The realization made him feel desperately lonely, and he rubbed his throbbing leg. He eventually slept. Again and again he dreamed of the anguish and the isolation on the forsaken hill.

I’d love to see some of your favorite quotes!

Follow me everywhere: https://linktr.ee/StarsBooksAndTea

Thank you Lisa for hosting this great meme!

Welcome to Thursday Quotable! This feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week.  Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotable is where my favorite lines will be, and you’re invited to join in!

Healing by way of vengeance … no such thing existed; it never had. Hurting others had only injured me further.

Thoughts?

Why did we suffer to keep secrets? Merely to protect ourselves, or to protect others?

Good question.

History doesn’t record the intricacies of women’s relationships with one another; they’re not to be uncovered.

During that time, women were barely seen as property.

Killing and secret-keeping had done this to me. It had begun to rot me from the inside out, and something inside meant to tear me open.

What do you think of the guilt being personified?

I’d love to see some of your favorite quotes!

Follow me everywhere: https://linktr.ee/StarsBooksAndTea