β
Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.
β
β
Rainer Maria Rilke (Letters to a Young Poet)
β
Life is a book and there are a thousand pages I have not yet read.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
No thief, however skillful, can rob one of knowledge, and that is why knowledge is the best and safest treasure to acquire.
β
β
L. Frank Baum (The Lost Princess of Oz (Oz, #11))
β
You endure what is unbearable, and you bear it. That is all.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
When I was your age, television was called books.
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
I am catastrophically in love with you.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
Life isn't fair, it's just fairer than death, that's all.
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
A very magnanimous statement, Gideon,β said Magnus.
βIβm Gabriel.β
Magnus waved a hand. βAll Lightwoods look the same to me.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
Men may be stronger, but it is women who endure.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.
β
β
Frank Herbert (Dune (Dune, #1))
β
Inconceivable!"
"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
And to the devil with it if she is!" said the Consul. "One girl, who is not Nephilim, is not, cannot, be our priority."
"She is my priority!" Will shouted.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
Just because you're beautiful and perfect, it's made you conceited.
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
Do I love you? My God, if your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches.
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
There are so many worse things than death. Not to be loved or not to be able to love: that is worse.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
The fact is, I love him. He's the boy I want and one day he'll be MINE.
β
β
Meg Cabot (Princess in Training (The Princess Diaries, #6))
β
Whatever comes," she said, "cannot alter one thing. If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside. It would be easy to be a princess if I were dressed in cloth of gold, but it is a great deal more of a triumph to be one all the time when no one knows it.
β
β
Frances Hodgson Burnett (A Little Princess)
β
In the fairy tales, the poor girl smiles when she becomes a princess. Right now, I don't know if I'll ever smile again.
β
β
Victoria Aveyard (Red Queen (Red Queen, #1))
β
Who says life is fair, where is that written?
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
Sometimes one must choose whether to be kind or honorable," he said. "Sometimes one cannot be both.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
Weβll never survive!β
βNonsense. Youβre only saying that because no one ever has.
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
It has been the privilege and the honor of my life to know you.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
Her heart was a secret garden and the walls were very high.
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
Good and evil are a great deal more complex than a princess and a dragon . . . is not the dragon the hero of his own story?
β
β
Erin Morgenstern (The Night Circus)
β
Love is many things none of them logical.
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
Tessa touched his wrist lightly with her hand. "Be brave," she said. "It's not a duck, is it?
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
Do not seek revenge and call it justice.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
Dimitri: "She might be wild and disrespectful, but if she has potentialβ"
Rose: "Wild and disrespecful? Who the hell are you anyway? Oursourced help?"
Kirova: "Guardian Belikov is the Princess Lissa's guardian now, her sanctioned guardian."
Rose: "You got cheap foreign labor to protect Lissa?
β
β
Richelle Mead (Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy, #1))
β
He's not your prince charming if he doesn't make sure you know that you're his princess.
β
β
Demi Lovato
β
No one can say that death found in me a willing comrade, or that I went easily.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
True love is the best thing in the world, except for cough drops.
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
This isnβt happily ever after.
Itβs so much more than that.
β
β
Kiera Cass (The One (The Selection, #3))
β
Once upon a time, in a land long since burned to ash, there lived a young princess who loved her kingdom β¦
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass, #7))
β
I'm afraid to answer that. I've heard that when I speak, it makes American women wish to strike me with umbrellas.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
What do you despise? By this are you truly known.
β
β
Frank Herbert (Dune (Dune, #1))
β
Good night, Westley. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning.
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
There is more to living than not dying.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
Cynics are simply thwarted romantics.
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
And now I need you to do for me what I cannot do for myself. For you to be my eyes when I do not have them. For you to be my hands when I cannot use my own. For you to be my heart when mine is done beating.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
Who are you?"
"No one of consequence."
"I must know."
"Get used to disappointment.
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
Jem knotted his fingers in the material of Will's sleeve. "You are my parabatai," he said, "You said once I could ask anything of you.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
You hear that, James Carstairs? We are bound, you and I, over the divide of death, down through whatever generations may come. Forever.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
And maybe you should stop pitying yourself,β he said. βMost people are lucky to have even one great love in their life. You have found two.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
You seem a decent fellow," Inigo said. "I hate to kill you."
You seem a decent fellow," answered the man in black. "I hate to die.
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
You don't think I can fight." Tessa said, drawing back and matching his silvery gaze with her own. "Because I'm a girl."
"I don't think you can fight because you're wearing a wedding dress", said Jem. "For what it's worth, I don't think Will could fight in that dress either."
"Perhaps not," said Will, who had ears like a bat'a. "But I would make a radiant bride.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
Gabrielβs green eyes sought Will. βIt was demon pox, wasnβt it? You know all about it, donβt you? Arenβt you some sort of expert?β
βWell, you neednβt act as if I invented it,β said Will.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
Me? Die? Didn't they tell you, princess? I'm Robin Goodfellow.
β
β
Julie Kagawa (The Iron King (The Iron Fey, #1))
β
Atque in pepetuum, frater, ave atque vale,β he whispered. The words of the poem had never seemed so fitting: Forever and ever, my brother, hail and farewell.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
You said I am a good man," he said. "But I am not that good a man. And I am--I am catastrophically in love with you.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
Bright star,β Magnus said, and his eyes were thoughtful, as if he were remembering something, or someone. βThose of you who are mortal, you burn so fiercely. And you fiercer than most, Will. I will not ever forget you.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
I am your Prince and you will marry me," Humperdinck said.
Buttercup whispered, "I am your servant and I refuse."
"I am you Prince and you cannot refuse."
"I am your loyal servant and I just did."
"Refusal means death."
"Kill me then.
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
If there is a life after this one", he said, "let me meet you in it, James Carstairs.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
You know,β Cecily said, βyou really didnβt have to throw that man through the window.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
As you wish...
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
Most people are lucky to have even one great love in their life. You have found two.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
Everything's a story - You are a story -I am a story.
β
β
Frances Hodgson Burnett (A Little Princess)
β
The Queen's Pride was his ship, and he loved her. (That was the way his sentences always went: It is raining today and I love you. My cold is better and I love you. Say hello to Horse and I love you. Like that.)
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
There you go...let it all slide out. Unhappiness can't stick in a person's soul when it's slick with tears.
β
β
Shannon Hale (Princess Academy (Princess Academy, #1))
β
Step follows step,
Hope follows Courage,
Set your face towards danger,
Set your heart on victory.
β
β
Gail Carson Levine (The Two Princesses of Bamarre (The Two Princesses of Bamarre, #1))
β
Iβll tell you the truth and its up to you to live with it.
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
Maybe the princess could save herself."
"That sounds like a pretty good story too.
β
β
Marissa Meyer (Fairest (The Lunar Chronicles, #3.5))
β
And indeed it was, the arrow still protruding from its wet, grayish skin, humping its body along with incredible speed. A flick of its tail caught the edge of a statue, sending it flying into the dry ornamental pool, where it shattered into dust.
βBy the Angel, it just crushed Sophocles,β noted Will. βHas no one respect for the classics these days?
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
For this I would be damned forever. For this I would have given up everything.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep. You may have heard of me.
β
β
Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1))
β
One does no question miracles, or complain that they are no constructed perfectly to one's liking.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
I don't know how to live in the world as a Shadowhunter without Will. I don't think i even want to. I am still a parabatai, but my other half is gone.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
I've been saying it so long to you, you just wouldn't listen. Every time you said 'Farm Boy do this' you thought I was answering 'As you wish' but that's only because you were hearing wrong. 'I love you' was what it was, but you never heard.
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
His eyes went soft and silver as she spoke. βZhe shi jie shang, wo shi zui ai ne de,β he whispered.
She understood it. In all the world, you are what I love the most.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
Of course you can have a true Shadowhunter name," Will said. "You can have mine."
Tessa stared at him, all black and white against the black-and-white snow and stone. "Your name?"
Will took a step toward her, till they stood face-to-face. Then he reached to take her hand and slid off her glove, which he put into his pocket. He held her bare hand in his, his fingers curved around hers. His hand was warm and callused, and his touch made her shiver. His eyes were steady and blue; they were everything that Will was: true and tender, sharp and witty, loving and kind. "Marry me," he said. "Marry me, Tess. Marry me and be called Tessa Herondale. Or be Tessa Gray, or be whatever you wish to call yourself, but marry me and stay with me and never leave me, for I cannot bear another day of my life to go by that does not have you in it.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
My professional aspirations were simple - I wanted to be an intergalactic princess.
β
β
Janet Evanovich
β
At last, the wheel comes full circle
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
Why do you wear a mask and hood?"
I think everybody will in the near future," was the man in black's reply. "They're terribly comfortable.
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
I was minding my own buisness long before you and the princess started humping like rabbits.
β
β
Julie Kagawa (The Iron Daughter (The Iron Fey, #2))
β
Her cheek against the moss, the young princess she had been - Aelin Galathynius - reached a hand for her. 'Get up', she said softly.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3))
β
She leaned forward and caught at his hand, pressing it between her own. The touch was like white fire through his veins. He could not feel her skin only the cloth of her gloves, and yet it did not matter. You kindled me, heap of ashes that I am, into fire. He had wondered once why love was always phrased in terms of burning. The conflagration in his own veins, now, gave the answer.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
Jem told me what Ragnor Fell said about my father,β Will said. βThat for my father, there was only ever one woman he loved, and it was her for him, or nothing. You are that for me. I love you, and I will only ever love you until I die β
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
Every meeting led to a parting, and so it would, as long as life was mortal. In every meeting there was some of the sorrow of parting, but in everything parting there was some of the joy of meeting as well.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
Tessa craned her head back to look at Will. βYou know that feeling,β she said, βwhen you are reading a book, and you know that it is going to be a tragedy; you can feel the cold and darkness coming, see the net drawing tight around the characters who live and breathe on the pages. But you are tied to the story as if being dragged behind a carriage and you cannot let go or turn the course aside.β His blue eyes were dark with understanding β of course Will would understand β and she hurried on. βI feel now as if the same is happening, only not to characters on a page but to my own beloved friends and companions. I do not want to sit by while tragedy comes for us. I would turn it aside, only I struggle to discover how that might be done.β
βYou fear for Jem,β Will said.
βYes,β she said. βAnd I fear for you, too.β
βNo,β Will said, hoarsely. βDonβt waste that on me, Tess.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
Hey, princess.β
βHey,β I whispered, as Ash slipped his arms around my waist from behind, drawing me close. I could feel his glare aimed at Puck over my head, a silent, protective gesture that spoke louder than any words. Mine. Back off.
β
β
Julie Kagawa (The Iron Queen (The Iron Fey, #3))
β
You think fairy tales are only for girls? Here's a hint - ask yourself who wrote them. I assure you, it wasn't just the women. It's the great male fantasy - all it takes is one dance to know that she's the one. All it takes is the sound of her song from the tower, or a look at her sleeping face. And right away you know - this is the girl in your head, sleeping or dancing or singing in front of you. Yes, girls want their princes, but boys want their princesses just as much. And they don't want a very long courtships. They want to know immediately.
β
β
David Levithan (Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Dash & Lily, #1))
β
Life is a book, and there are a thousand pages I have not read. I would read them together with you, as many as I can, before I die -"
She put her hand against his chest, just over his heart, and felt its beat against her palm, a unique time signature that was all its own. "I only wish you would not speak of dying," she said. "But even for that, yes, I know how you are with your words, and, Will- I love all of them. Every word you say. The silly ones, the mad ones, the beautiful ones, and the ones that are only for me. I love them, and I love you.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
They say you cannot love two people equally at once,β she said. βAnd perhaps for others that is so. But you and Willβyou are not like two ordinary people, two people who might have been jealous of each other, or who would have imagined my love for one of them diminished by my love of the other. You merged your souls when you were both children. I could not have loved Will so much if I had not loved you as well. And I could not love you as I do if I had not loved Will as I did.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
Will rose slowly to his feet. He could not believe he was doing what he was doing, but it was clear that he was, clear as the silver rim around the black of Jemβs eyes. βIf there is a life after this one,β he said, βlet me meet you in it, James Carstairs.β
βThere will be other lives.β Jem held his hand out, and for a moment, they clasped hands, as they had done during their parabatai ritual, reaching across twin rings of fire to interlace their fingers with each other. βThe world is a wheel,β he said. βWhen we rise or fall, we do it together.β
Will tightened his grip on Jemβs hand, which felt thin as twigs in his. βWell, then,β he said, through a tight throat, βsince you say there will be another life for me, let us both pray I do not make as colossal a mess of it as I have this one.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
If nature has made you for a giver, your hands are born open, and so is your heart; and though there may be times when your hands are empty, your heart is always full, and you can give things out of thatβwarm things, kind things, sweet thingsβhelp and comfort and laughterβand sometimes gay, kind laughter is the best help of all.
β
β
Frances Hodgson Burnett (A Little Princess)
β
I thought perhaps that when you told me you did not love me that my own feelings would fall away and atrophy, but they have not. They have grown every day. I love you now more desperately, this moment, than I have ever loved you before, and in an hour I will love you more than that
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
You know that feeling,β she said, βwhen you are reading a book, and you know that it is going to be a tragedy; you can feel the cold and darkness coming, see the net drawing tight around the characters who live and breathe on the pages. But you are tied to the story as if being dragged behind a carriage and you cannot let go or turn the course aside.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
He held up a book then. βI'm going to read it to you for relax.β
βDoes it have any sports in it?β
βFencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True Love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest Ladies. Snakes. Spiders... Pain. Death. Brave men. Cowardly men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passion. Miracles.β
βSounds okay,β I said and I kind of closed my eyes.
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
Now what happens?" asked the man in black.
"We face each other as God intended," Fezzik said. "No tricks, no weapons, skill against skill alone."
"You mean you'll put down your rock and I'll put down my sword and we'll try to kill each other like civilized people, is that it?
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
If Jem dies, I cannot be with Tessa,β said Will. βBecause it will be as if I were waiting for him to die, or took some joy in his death, if it let me have her. And I will not be that person. I will not profit from his death. So he must live.β He lowered his arm, his sleeve bloody. βIt is the only way any of this can ever mean anything. Otherwise it is only ββ
βPointless, needless suffering and pain? I donβt suppose it would help if I told you that was the way life is. The good suffer, the evil flourish, and all that is mortal passes away,β Magnus said.
βI want more than that,β said Will. βYou made me want more than that. You showed me I was only ever cursed because I had chosen to believe myself so. You told me there was possibility, meaning. And now you would turn your back on what you created.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
Stories have changed, my dear boy,β the man in the grey suit says, his voice almost imperceptibly sad. βThere are no more battles between good and evil, no monsters to slay, no maidens in need of rescue. Most maidens are perfectly capable of rescuing themselves in my experience, at least the ones worth something, in any case. There are no longer simple tales with quests and beasts and happy endings. The quests lack clarity of goal or path. The beasts take different forms and are difficult to recognize for what they are. And there are never really endings, happy or otherwise. Things keep overlapping and blur, your story is part of your sisterβs story is part of many other stories, and there in no telling where any of them may lead. Good and evil are a great deal more complex than a princess and a dragon, or a wolf and a scarlet-clad little girl. And is not the dragon the hero of his own story? Is not the wolf simply acting as a wolf should act? Though perhaps it is a singular wolf who goes to such lengths as to dress as a grandmother to toy with its prey.
β
β
Erin Morgenstern (The Night Circus)
β
When you will not fly into a passion people know you are stronger than they are, because you are strong enough to hold in your rage, and they are not, and they say stupid things they wish they hadn't said afterward. There's nothing so strong as rage, except what makes you hold it in--that's stronger. It's a good thing not to answer your enemies.
β
β
Frances Hodgson Burnett (A Little Princess)
β
Wo wei ni xie de,β he said, as he raised the violin to his left shoulder, tucking it under his chin. He had told her many violinists used a shoulder rest, but he did not: there was a slight mark on the side of his throat, like a permanent bruise, where the violin rested.
βYou β made something for me?β Tessa asked.
βI wrote something for you,β he corrected, with a smile, and began to play.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
By the Angel, Bridgetβs depressing,β said Henry, setting down his newspaper directly on his plate and causing the edge to soak through with egg yolk. Charlotte opened her mouth as if to object, and closed it again. βItβs all heartbreak, death and unrequited love.β
βWell, that is what most songs are about,β said Will. βRequited love is nice, but it doesnβt make much of a ballad.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
My brother cleared his throat. "I wish she knew that I think she is the most hilarious person on Earth. And that whenever she's not home, I feel like I'm missing my partner in crime."
My throat tightened. Do not cry. Do not cry.
"I wish she knew that she's really Mom's favorite--"
I shook my head here.
"--the princess she always wanted. That Mom used to dress her up like a little doll and parade her around like Mara was her greatest achievement. I wish Mara knew that I never minded, because she's my favorite too.
β
β
Michelle Hodkin (The Evolution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #2))
β
Magnus took a deep breath and spoke gently. βWill. You asked me for my wisdom, as someone who has lived many lifetimes and buried many loves. I can tell you that the end of a life is the sum of the love that was lived in it, that whatever you think you have sworn, being here at the end of Jemβs life is not what is important. It was being here for every other moment. Since you met him, you have never left him and never not loved him. That is what matters.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
β
The true secret in being a hero lies in knowing the order of things. The swineherd cannot already be wed to the princess when he embarks on his adventures, nor can the boy knock on the witch's door when she is already away on vacation. The wicked uncle cannot be found out and foiled before he does something wicked. Things must happen when it is time for them to happen. Quests may not simply be abandoned; prophecies may not be left to rot like unpicked fruit; unicorns may go unrescued for a very long time, but not forever. The happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story.
β
β
Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn (The Last Unicorn, #1))
β
How should we be able to forget those ancient myths that are at the beginning of all peoples, the myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into princesses; perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.
So you must not be frightened if a sadness rises up before you larger than any you have ever seen; if a restiveness, like light and cloudshadows, passes over your hands and over all you do. You must think that something is happening with you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand; it will not let you fall. Why do you want to shut out of your life any uneasiness, any miseries, or any depressions? For after all, you do not know what work these conditions are doing inside you.
β
β
Rainer Maria Rilke (Letters to a Young Poet)
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I love you,' Buttercup said. 'I know this must come as something of a surprise to you, since all I've ever done is scorn you and degrade you and taunt you, but I have loved you for several hours now, and every second, more. I thought an hour ago that I loved you more than any woman has ever loved a man, but a half hour after that I knew that what I felt before was nothing compared to what I felt then. But ten minutes after that, I understood that my previous love was a puddle compared to the high seas before a storm. Your eyes are like that, did you know? Well they are. How many minutes ago was I? Twenty? Had I brought my feelings up to then? It doesn't matter.' Buttercup still could not look at him. The sun was rising behind her now; she could feel the heat on her back, and it gave her courage. 'I love you so much more now than twenty minutes ago that there cannot be comparison. I love you so much more now then when you opened your hovel door, there cannot be comparison. There is no room in my body for anything but you. My arms love you, my ears adore you, my knees shake with blind affection. My mind begs you to ask it something so it can obey. Do you want me to follow you for the rest of your days? I will do that. Do you want me to crawl? I will crawl. I will be quiet for you or sing for you, or if you are hungry, let me bring you food, or if you have thirst and nothing will quench it but Arabian wine, I will go to Araby, even though it is across the world, and bring a bottle back for your lunch. Anything there is that I can do for you, I will do for you; anything there is that I cannot do, I will learn to do. I know I cannot compete with the Countess in skills or wisdom or appeal, and I saw the way she looked at you. And I saw the way you looked at her. But remember, please, that she is old and has other interests, while I am seventeen and for me there is only you. Dearest Westley--I've never called you that before, have I?--Westley, Westley, Westley, Westley, Westley,--darling Westley, adored Westley, sweet perfect Westley, whisper that I have a chance to win your love.' And with that, she dared the bravest thing she'd ever done; she looked right into his eyes.
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William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
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I look at the blanked-out faces of the other passengers--hoisting their briefcases, their backpacks, shuffling to disembark--and I think of what Hobie said: beauty alters the grain of reality. And I keep thinking too of the more conventional wisdom: namely, that the pursuit of pure beauty is a trap, a fast track to bitterness and sorrow, that beauty has to be wedded to something more meaningful.
Only what is that thing? Why am I made the way I am? Why do I care about all the wrong things, and nothing at all for the right ones? Or, to tip it another way: how can I see so clearly that everything I love or care about is illusion, and yet--for me, anyway--all that's worth living for lies in that charm?
A great sorrow, and one that I am only beginning to understand: we don't get to choose our own hearts. We can't make ourselves want what's good for us or what's good for other people. We don't get to choose the people we are.
Because--isn't it drilled into us constantly, from childhood on, an unquestioned platitude in the culture--? From William Blake to Lady Gaga, from Rousseau to Rumi to Tosca to Mister Rogers, it's a curiously uniform message, accepted from high to low: when in doubt, what to do? How do we know what's right for us? Every shrink, every career counselor, every Disney princess knows the answer: "Be yourself." "Follow your heart."
Only here's what I really, really want someone to explain to me. What if one happens to be possessed of a heart that can't be trusted--? What if the heart, for its own unfathomable reasons, leads one willfully and in a cloud of unspeakable radiance away from health, domesticity, civic responsibility and strong social connections and all the blandly-held common virtues and instead straight toward a beautiful flare of ruin, self-immolation, disaster?...If your deepest self is singing and coaxing you straight toward the bonfire, is it better to turn away? Stop your ears with wax? Ignore all the perverse glory your heart is screaming at you? Set yourself on the course that will lead you dutifully towards the norm, reasonable hours and regular medical check-ups, stable relationships and steady career advancement the New York Times and brunch on Sunday, all with the promise of being somehow a better person? Or...is it better to throw yourself head first and laughing into the holy rage calling your name?
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Donna Tartt (The Goldfinch)