Ally Quotes

We've searched our database for all the quotes and captions related to Ally. Here they are! All 200 of them:

Growing apart doesn't change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I'm glad for that.
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
Ally." Peeta says the words slowly, tasting it. "Friend. Lover. Victor. Enemy. Fiancee. Target. Mutt. Neighbor. Hunter. Tribute. Ally. I'll add it to the list of words I use to try to figure you out. The problem is, I can't tell what's real anymore, and what's made up.
Suzanne Collins (Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3))
It is an occupational hazard that anyone who has spent her life learning how to lie eventually becomes bad at telling the truth.
Ally Carter (Heist Society (Heist Society, #1))
Every minute you spend with someone gives them a part of your life and takes part of theirs.
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
I thought about how there are two types of secrets: the kind you want to keep in, and the kind you don't dare to let out.
Ally Carter (Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Gallagher Girls, #3))
All extremes of feeling are allied with madness.
Virginia Woolf (Orlando)
It is strange how we hold on to the pieces of the past while we wait for our futures.
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
Is falling in love with someone's story the same thing as falling in love with the person himself?
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
the only way Bex would miss this would be if she were unconscious. And tied up. And in a concrete bunker. In Siberia.
Ally Carter (Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Gallagher Girls, #3))
You really saw some?" Liz said an hour later. Sure, we had the stereo blaring and the shower running, but Liz still whispered, "They really...exist?" "Liz," I whispered back, "they're not unicorns." "No," Bex said flatly, "they're boys. And they're...good.
Ally Carter (Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls, #2))
Noah: "You wanna dance with me?" Allie: "Sure. Now?" Noah: "Mmm Hmm" Allie: "You're not supposed to dance in the street." Noah: "You are supposed to dance in the street." Allie: "Yeah, but we don't have any music." Noah: "Well, we'll make some... Bum bum bum bum bum bum..." Allie: "You're a terrible singer." Noah: "I know." Allie: "And I like this song.
Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook)
Ah you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but blinding!
Bane
Not knowing you can't do something, is sometimes all it takes to do it.
Ally Carter
In the end you can't always choose what to keep. You can only choose how you let it go.
Ally Condie (Crossed (Matched, #2))
But the heaviest things, I think, are the secrets. They can drown you if you let them.
Ally Carter (Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Gallagher Girls, #3))
Most little girls in England grow up wanting to marry a prince. Bex grew up wanting to kick James Bond's butt and assume his double-0 ranking.
Ally Carter (Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls, #2))
Once you want something, everything changes.
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
Sometimes people run… to see if you'll come after them
Ally Carter (Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Gallagher Girls, #3))
Zach,” I said as I lay there “Where did you go? When you were looking for me?” I shifted in his arms, looked into his eyes. “Crazy.” His voice was a whisper against my skin. “I went crazy.
Ally Carter (Out of Sight, Out of Time (Gallagher Girls, #5))
We could have been happy. I know that, and it is perhaps the hardest thing to know.
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
Step 4: Cough and gag. Step 5: Repeat Step 4 until it feels like maybe your lungs aren't inside your body anymore. Step 6: Remember that a really cute boy is beside you, so try to cough in a far more attractive manner.
Ally Carter (Only the Good Spy Young (Gallagher Girls, #4))
Now that I've found the way to fly, which direction should I go into the night?
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
Number of empty Ben & Jerry's containers: 3 -- two mint chocolate cookie, one plain vanilla. (Who buys plain vanilla ice cream from Ben & Jerry's, anyway? Is there a greater waste?)
Ally Carter
Why are some things easier to write than say?
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
...nothing ever happens quickly (except when it does). Nothing is ever, ever easy (except when it is). And, most of all, nothing ever goes perfectly according to plan (except in the movies).
Ally Carter (Only the Good Spy Young (Gallagher Girls, #4))
Three months ago, if you asked me, I would have told you that if you really loved someone, you’d let them go. But now I look at you, and I dreamed about Maggie, and I see that I’ve been wrong. If you really love someone, Allie, I think you have to take them back.
Jodi Picoult (Mercy)
And I didn't choose it, Kat. I chose you.
Ally Carter (Heist Society (Heist Society, #1))
You don't need a search warrant to go through someone's trash. Seriously. Once it hits the curb it is totally fair game-you an look it up.
Ally Carter (Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls, #2))
and then Zach said a really bad word, but I doubt DeeDee noticed because it was in Farsi
Ally Carter (Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls, #2))
I suppose a lot of teenage girls feel invisible sometimes, like they just disappear. Well, that's me—Cammie the Chameleon. But I'm luckier than most because, at my school, that's considered cool. I go to a school for spies.
Ally Carter (I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls, #1))
Hiding is for amateurs.
Ally Carter (Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Gallagher Girls, #3))
But if you were Matched," I say softly, "What do you think she'd be like?" "You," he says, almost before I've finished. "You.
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
I'm the guy who happened to be home the night Kat came to steal a Monet."- Hale
Ally Carter (Heist Society (Heist Society, #1))
Sometimes it takes an outsider, someone with fresh eyes to see the truth.
Ally Carter (Heist Society (Heist Society, #1))
It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.
James Baldwin
That’s how I know they are dreams. Because the simple and plain and everyday things are the ones that we can never have. (Cassia Reyes)
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
Did you hear that? I'm special.
Ally Carter (Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls, #2))
I think of how perhaps the best way to fly would be with hands full of earth, so you always remember where you came from.
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
Don't get it right, get it written.
Ally Carter
There are no words to express the abyss between isolation and having one ally. It may be conceded to the mathematician that four is twice two. But two is not twice one; two is two thousand times one.
G.K. Chesterton
you're the gallagher girl. figure it out."- zach
Ally Carter (Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls, #2))
Note to self: Rachel Morgan is a totally awesome liar.
Ally Carter (Only the Good Spy Young (Gallagher Girls, #4))
I for one like chaos. Chaos looks good on me.
Ally Carter (Uncommon Criminals (Heist Society, #2))
I think it's kinda nice.' And I did. my mom isn't famous for her pies. No, she's famous for defusing a nuclear device in Brussels with only a pair of cuticle scissors and a ponytail holder. Somehow, at the moment, pies seemed cooler.
Ally Carter (I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls, #1))
Can I see you outside for a second?" Kat glared at Hale, then walked to the patio doors and out onto the veranda. As Hale closed the door behind him, Kat heard Angus say, "Ooh, Mom and Dad are going to fight now.
Ally Carter (Heist Society (Heist Society, #1))
What becomes of a man who acquires a beautiful woman, with her "beauty" his sole target? He sabotages himself. He has gained no friend, no ally, no mutual trust: She knows quite well why she has been chosen. He has succeeded in buying something: the esteem of other men who find such an acquisition impressive.
Naomi Wolf (The Beauty Myth)
I'm sure you think that I don't understand what you're going through, but I do. It's just that sometimes, our future is dictated by what we are, opposed to what we want.
Nicholas Sparks
A Gallagher Girl's real grades don’t come in pass or fail—they're measured in life or death.
Ally Carter (Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls, #2))
Seriously", Macey snapped. "go. Kiss. A baby" "can you believe her?" Preston asked, coking his head towards macey." everytime she sees me, all she does is call me baby and talk about kissing." Macey looked like she wanted to kill him. But I kind of wanted to laugh.
Ally Carter (Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Gallagher Girls, #3))
My Dearest Allie. I couldn't sleep last night because I know that it's over between us. I'm not bitter anymore, because I know that what we had was real. And if in some distant place in the future we see each other in our new lives, I'll smile at you with joy and remember how we spent the summer beneath the trees, learning from each other and growing in love. The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds, and that's what you've given me. That's what I hope to give to you forever. I love you. I'll be seeing you. Noah
Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook (The Notebook, #1))
Listen to me." He grabbed my arms, holding me there. " I couldn't find you. And I will never forgive myself for that. Ever.
Ally Carter (Out of Sight, Out of Time (Gallagher Girls, #5))
...maybe it's only fitting that relationship that started with a lie would end with one.
Ally Carter (I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls, #1))
Love changes what is probable and makes unlikely things possible.
Ally Condie (Crossed (Matched, #2))
You cannot change your journey if you are unwilling to move at all.
Ally Condie (Reached (Matched, #3))
Friends ask you questions; enemies question you.
Criss Jami (Healology)
For a genius thief you really are a stupid girl aren't you?
Ally Carter (Uncommon Criminals (Heist Society, #2))
Cassia. I know which life is my real one now, no matter what happens. It’s the one with you. For some reason, knowing that even one person knows my story makes things different. Maybe it’s like the poem says. Maybe this is my way of not going gentle. I love you. (Ky Markham)
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
Ky can play this game. He can play all of their games, including the one in front of him that he just lost. He knows exactly how to play, and that's why he loses every time.
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
Thanks to you, Gabs, we just figured out a half dozen ways not to rob the Henley.
Ally Carter (Heist Society (Heist Society, #1))
I love. The most reckless thing of all.
Ally Condie (Crossed (Matched, #2))
Pretend and it will be true.
Ally Carter (Heist Society (Heist Society, #1))
Our time together feels like a storm, like a wild wind and rain, like something too big to handle but too powerful to escape.
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
I wish I could have one without the other, but that's the problem with being alive. You don't usually get to choose the measure of suffering or the degree of joy you have.
Ally Condie (Reached (Matched, #3))
I came up on the screen, too, Cassia. But he was the one you chose to see.
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
Time, the greatest thief of all.
Ally Carter (Heist Society (Heist Society, #1))
I want to reach out and grab his hand and hold it to me, right over my heart, right where it aches the most. I don't know if doing that would heal me or make my heart break entirely, but either way this constant hungry waiting would be over.
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
Of course, the downside of attending a fictional school is that our lacrosse team sucks.
Ally Carter (Heist Society (Heist Society, #1))
If you let hope inside, it takes you over. It feeds on your insides and uses your bones to climb and grow. Eventually it becomes the thing that is your bones, that holds you together. Holds you up until you don't know how to live without it anymore. To pull it out of you would kill you entirely.
Ally Condie (Reached (Matched, #3))
It is one thing to make a choice and it is another thing to never have the chance.
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
Just so you know Gallagher Girl,' he whispered softly, 'I'm going to kiss you now.
Ally Carter (Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls, #2))
spy" -zach
Ally Carter (Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls, #2))
I needed to see you. And touch you. And just... know
Ally Carter (Only the Good Spy Young (Gallagher Girls, #4))
Whether you like it or not, you are committed to the human endeavor. I cannot ally myself with such a purely negative goal as avoidance of suffering. Suffering is a chance you take by the fact of being alive.
William S. Burroughs (Letters to Allen Ginsberg 1953-1957)
He looked as though I'd just run over his pet puppy (though no actual puppies were harmed in the formation of that metaphor).
Ally Carter (I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls, #1))
What is a Gallagher Girl? She's a genius, a scientist, a heroine, a spy... a Gallagher Girl is whatever she wants to be.
Ally Carter (United We Spy (Gallagher Girls, #6))
So I hear we get to go to town this weekend. Want to catch a movie or something? --Z P.S. That is, if Jimmy doesn't mind. Translation: This weekend might be a good chance for us to see each other outside our school in a social environment, free of competetiton. I do not view other boys as threats, and I enjoy making them seem insignificant by calling them the wrong names. (Translation by Macey McHenry)
Ally Carter (Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls, #2))
Every decent con man knows that the simplest truth is more powerful than even the most elaborate lie.
Ally Carter (Uncommon Criminals (Heist Society, #2))
And as every spy knows, common enemies are how allies always begin.
Ally Carter (Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Gallagher Girls, #3))
Accept — then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it. Make it your friend and ally, not your enemy. This will miraculously transform your whole life.
Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment)
Red is the first color of spring. It's the real color of rebirth. Of beginning.
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
Excuse me, but aren't boys forbidden on this floor?' Macey said on our way to the suite. 'That's the advantage of being the only boy,' he (Zach) said. 'No one actually comes right out and makes rules like that.
Ally Carter (Out of Sight, Out of Time (Gallagher Girls, #5))
I wonder if I will ever have the strength to hold onto something. Or if I will always be someone who destroys.
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
Because death is the only thing that could have ever kept him from you.
Ally Carter (Out of Sight, Out of Time (Gallagher Girls, #5))
And Zach was taking his jacket off and draping it around my shoulders, which (according to Liz, who double checked with Macey) is the single-sexiest thing a guy can do.
Ally Carter (Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Gallagher Girls, #3))
I know in the spy movies it always looks really cool when the operative goes from a maid's uniform to a slinky, sexy, ballgown in the amount of time it takes an elevator to climb three floors. Well, I don't know how it is for TV spies, but I can tell you that even with Velcro, the art of the quick change is one that must take a lot of practice (not to mention better lighting than one is likely to find in a tunnel that was once part of the underground railroad).
Ally Carter (I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls, #1))
She'd absolutely adored the library_an entire building where anyone could take things they didn't own and feel no remorse about it.
Ally Carter (Heist Society (Heist Society, #1))
His lips move silently, and I know what he says: the words of a poem that only two people in the world know.
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
No one should die alone.
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
I always finish what i start
Ally Carter (Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls, #2))
I tell you, I'm half tempted to break into CIA custody just so I can break Joe Solomon out of CIA custody just so I can break Joe Solomon.
Ally Carter (Only the Good Spy Young (Gallagher Girls, #4))
The time for crying with your girlfriends about a broken heart is over chocolate ice cream and chick flicks—not stun guns and bulletproof vests.
Ally Carter (I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls, #1))
I am trapped in glass and I want to break out and breath deep but I´m too afraid that it will hurt.
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
So you just...left?' Zach huffed. 'All the cool kids are doing it.
Ally Carter (Out of Sight, Out of Time (Gallagher Girls, #5))
Ooh..I want one" - Bex They're not puppies." -Cammie
Ally Carter
If you die of pneumonia,I'm pretty sure there are at least a dozen guys who'll try to kill me and make it look like an accident (Hale)
Ally Carter (Heist Society (Heist Society, #1))
Violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children: organized religion ought to have a great deal on its conscience.
Christopher Hitchens (God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything)
Tell me or I'll yell for Mr. and Mrs. Baxter, and you can find out how bex became bex
Ally Carter (Only the Good Spy Young (Gallagher Girls, #4))
Great. Now I have to go back and tell Haymitch I want an eighty-year-old and Nuts and Volts for my allies. He'll love that.
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
How'd you get in here?" She raised her eyebrows. “You pick pockets.” Kat watched his hand fly to his back pocket. “I can pick locks. Looking for this?” she asked, holding up his wallet. “Oops. Maybe I can pick pockets too.
Ally Carter (Heist Society (Heist Society, #1))
I could have lied. I could have fought. But desperate times call for desperate measures, so I took a chance and called upon a Gallagher Girl's weapon of last resort. I flirted
Ally Carter (Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Gallagher Girls, #3))
I wouldn't mind meeting a dashing thief," the woman's friend whispered. Hale winked at Kat. Kat raised her eyebrows and whispered, "I'd like to meet one of those, too.
Ally Carter (Heist Society (Heist Society, #1))
You know,' I whispered, 'some girls might think it's creepy having a boy watch them sleep.' He smirked and pointed to himself. 'Spy.' 'Oh.' I nodded. 'Right. So you're a trained Peeping Tom.' 'Product of the best peeping academies in the country.' 'Well, now I feel much better.' 'You should.
Ally Carter (Out of Sight, Out of Time (Gallagher Girls, #5))
Forgetting lets you live without the pain for a moment but remembering hits hard.
Ally Condie (Crossed (Matched, #2))
Somebody knows.
Ally Carter
Good idea. I could use a snack.” Andarna’s tone is indecently excited. “We do not eat our allies,” Tairn lectures. “You never let me have any fun.
Rebecca Yarros (Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2))
She is an able negotiator and a strong ally." Pickering said, as his eyes caressed her lovely face.  He noticed both her arms were wrapped tightly around Victor's, and that she looked up at him with such commitment that it made his cynical view of love soften.  Reminding him bittersweetly of how he had felt once, a very long time ago.
Barbara Sontheimer (Victor's Blessing)
I climb into the dark for you Are you waiting in the stars for me?
Ally Condie (Crossed (Matched, #2))
rules exist for a reason. Rules exist because when people don't follow them, people get hurt.
Ally Carter (Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Gallagher Girls, #3))
I realize now how much courage it takes to choose the life you want, whatever that might be.
Ally Condie (Reached (Matched, #3))
I love being a pavement artist; seriously, I do. It's like when guys who would normally hate being freakishly tall discover basketball, or when girls with abnormally long fingers sit down at a piano. Blending in, going unseen, being a shadow in the sun is what I'm good at. Seeing the shadows, it turns out, is not my natural gift.
Ally Carter (Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls, #2))
I clinked my bottle against his. “To being the only girl a guy with no standards doesn’t want to sleep with.” I said, taking a swig. “Are you serious?” he asked, pulling the bottle from my mouth. When I didn’t recant, he leaned toward me. “First of all…I have standards. I’ve never been with an ugly woman. Ever. Second of all, I wanted to sleep with you. I thought about throwing you over my couch fifty different ways, but I haven’t because I don’t see you that way anymore. It’s not that I’m not attracted to you, I just think you’re better than that.” I couldn’t hold back the smug smile that crept across my face. “You think I’m too good for you.” He sneered at my second insult. “I can’t think of a single guy I know that’s good enough for you.
Jamie McGuire (Beautiful Disaster (Beautiful, #1))
Insane means fewer cameras!
Ally Carter (Only the Good Spy Young (Gallagher Girls, #4))
You don't have favourites among your children, but you do have allies.
Zadie Smith (On Beauty)
I'm someone who doesn't have anything to lose.
Ally Carter (Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Gallagher Girls, #3))
Did the poet know how lucky he was, to have such beautiful words and a place to put them and keep them?
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
Hey, Macey, sorry to drop in but Cammie just had to be alone with me. You know how she gets.
Ally Carter (Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Gallagher Girls, #3))
He was beside me then, his arms wrapped around me, holding me tightly. "I'm not crazy," I whispered. "I know." Believe it or not, that's the most romantic thing Zachary Goode ever told me. And I kind of loved him for it.
Ally Carter (Out of Sight, Out of Time (Gallagher Girls, #5))
So, the thing we’re all not talking about,” he says. He gestures to me. “You almost died, a sadistic pansycake saved you, and now we’re all waging some serious war with the factionless as allies.” “Pansycake?” says Christina. “Dauntless slang.” Lynn smirks. “Supposed to be a huge insult, only no one uses it anymore.” “Because it’s so offensive,” says Uriah, nodding. “No. Because it’s so stupid no Dauntless with any sense would speak it, let alone think it. Pansycake. What are you, twelve?” “And a half,” he says.
Veronica Roth (Insurgent (Divergent, #2))
The absurdity of working so hard to continue doing something you don’t like can be overwhelming.
Allie Brosh (Hyperbole and a Half)
What is it about your voice that makes me want to hear you speak?
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
Life is classified. There is always so much that goes unsaid.
Ally Carter (Out of Sight, Out of Time (Gallagher Girls, #5))
There are six reasons anyone does anything: Love. Faith. Greed. Boredom. Fear..." he said, ticking them off on his fingers; but he lingered on the last, drawing a deep breath before he said, "Revenge.
Ally Carter (Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Gallagher Girls, #3))
I sprung you because I've got a message for you" "doesn't your family own a cell phone company?" "only a little one
Ally Carter (Heist Society (Heist Society, #1))
So... I take it that's the man in your life.
Ally Carter (Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Gallagher Girls, #3))
You look disappointed to see me, Zach," Macey teased. "Don't you like my jacket?
Ally Carter (Only the Good Spy Young (Gallagher Girls, #4))
And there's a cop over there." "What?" the boy said, glancing at the D.C. police officer that stood at the corner of the street, "You think that guy can do a better job protecting you than I can?" Actually, I thought Liz could have done a better job "protecting" me than he could, but instead I said, "No, I think if you don't leave me alone, I can scream and that cop will arrest you." Somehow the boy seemed to know it was a joke...
Ally Carter (Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls, #2))
Oh, and Cammie," At the sounds of his voice, I spun around, expecting to hear him crack a joke or call me Gallagher Girl. The last thing I expected was to feel his arms sliding arounds me, to sense the whole world turning upside down as Zach dipped me in the middle of the foyer and pressed his lips to mine. Then he smiled that smile I'd come to know. "I always finish what I start.
Ally Carter (Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls, #2))
It's not Cam's fault," Bex told her. "We rigged her bed so that if she gets up, I get an electric shock." "Liz designed it," Macey said, and Bex shrugged. "We told you we were taking precautions." Of course. Because at Gallagher Academy, "precautions" usually equals "voluntary shock therapy".
Ally Carter (Out of Sight, Out of Time (Gallagher Girls, #5))
Oh, don't mind me," came an extremely sarcastic voice near the wall. “You two go ahead and make out–I'll just sit here and bleed quietly.
Julie Kagawa (The Eternity Cure (Blood of Eden, #2))
Remembering is part of thinking, but not all of it.
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
Because sometimes not liking someone is easier.
Ally Carter (Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls, #2))
Oh.' I shot upright. 'I was in Mongolia.' Note to self: learn to be a less extreme liar.
Ally Carter (I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls, #1))
Because even though the truth can set you free, that doesn't mean it won't be painful.
Ally Carter (Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls, #2))
Most people can motivate themselves to do things simply by knowing that those things need to be done. But not me. For me, motivation is this horrible, scary game where I try to make myself do something while I actively avoid doing it. If I win, I have to do something I don't want to do. And if I lose, I'm one step closer to ruining my entire life. And I never know whether I'm going to win or lose until the last second.
Allie Brosh (Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened)
How can we appreciate anything fully when overwhelmed with too much?
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
The whole summer lay ahead of us-time to rest, time to wait. And when the future comes-no matter what comes with it-I'll be smarter. I'll be stronger. I'll be ready.
Ally Carter (Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls, #2))
love is the biggest con of all
Ally Carter (Uncommon Criminals (Heist Society, #2))
In a story, you can turn to the front and begin again and everyone lives once more. That doesn't work in real life.
Ally Condie (Reached (Matched, #3))
Once you want something, everything changes. Now I want everything. More and more and more.
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
As I began to love myself I found that anguish and emotional suffering are only warning signs that I was living against my own truth. Today, I know, this is “AUTHENTICITY”. As I began to love myself I understood how much it can offend somebody if I try to force my desires on this person, even though I knew the time was not right and the person was not ready for it, and even though this person was me. Today I call it “RESPECT”. As I began to love myself I stopped craving for a different life, and I could see that everything that surrounded me was inviting me to grow. Today I call it “MATURITY”. As I began to love myself I understood that at any circumstance, I am in the right place at the right time, and everything happens at the exactly right moment. So I could be calm. Today I call it “SELF-CONFIDENCE”. As I began to love myself I quit stealing my own time, and I stopped designing huge projects for the future. Today, I only do what brings me joy and happiness, things I love to do and that make my heart cheer, and I do them in my own way and in my own rhythm. Today I call it “SIMPLICITY”. As I began to love myself I freed myself of anything that is no good for my health – food, people, things, situations, and everything that drew me down and away from myself. At first I called this attitude a healthy egoism. Today I know it is “LOVE OF ONESELF”. As I began to love myself I quit trying to always be right, and ever since I was wrong less of the time. Today I discovered that is “MODESTY”. As I began to love myself I refused to go on living in the past and worrying about the future. Now, I only live for the moment, where everything is happening. Today I live each day, day by day, and I call it “FULFILLMENT”. As I began to love myself I recognized that my mind can disturb me and it can make me sick. But as I connected it to my heart, my mind became a valuable ally. Today I call this connection “WISDOM OF THE HEART”. We no longer need to fear arguments, confrontations or any kind of problems with ourselves or others. Even stars collide, and out of their crashing new worlds are born. Today I know “THAT IS LIFE”!
Charlie Chaplin
Even though Cammie is fluent in fourteen languages and capable of killing a man seven different ways with her bare hands, she has no idea what to do when she meets an ordinary boy who thinks she's an ordinary girl.
Ally Carter (I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls, #1))
You should have had the decency to die when you needed to." “Sorry,” I admitted. “I’ve been going through a bit of a rebellious streak. I swear it’s almost over.
Ally Carter (United We Spy (Gallagher Girls, #6))
Hey anyone who thinks a non-military–grade rappelling cable can support the weight of two grown men and a miniature donkey deserves to fall off a cliff.
Ally Carter (Uncommon Criminals (Heist Society, #2))
Mr. Solomon was right the worst kind of torture is watching someone you love get hurt.
Ally Carter (I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls, #1))
You cannot con an honest man.
Ally Carter (Uncommon Criminals (Heist Society, #2))
Kat felt her heart beat faster, adrenaline pumping through her veins, and she knew he was right. She studied him for a long time. "Do you believe in curses, Hale?" He looked at her. "I believe in you.
Ally Carter (Uncommon Criminals (Heist Society, #2))
It's all right to wonder.
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
Don't let two men fall in love with you, girls. It's not the sort of thing that ends well." -Uncle Charles
Ally Carter (Uncommon Criminals (Heist Society, #2))
Everyone has something of beauty about them. But loving lets you look, and look, and look again. You notice the back of a hand, the turn of a head, the way of a walk. When you first love, you look blind and you see it all as the glorious, beloved whole, or a beautiful sum of beautiful parts. But when you see the one you love as pieces, as why's, you can love those parts too, and it's a love at once more complicated and more complete.
Ally Condie (Crossed (Matched, #2))
You shouldn't judge someone until you've walk a mile through an underground tunnel in her uncomfortable shoes
Ally Carter (I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls, #1))
Do you know what pain is, Cammie? It’s the body’s physical response to imminent harm. It is the mind’s way of telling us to move our hand off the stove or let go of the broken glass.
Ally Carter (Out of Sight, Out of Time (Gallagher Girls, #5))
Ooh, the silent treatment.
Ally Carter
Garrett: Allie's gonna crash in my room. Garrett: Your dick can stay in your room.
Elle Kennedy (The Score (Off-Campus, #3))
Townsend shrugged. 'With all due respect to the good doctor, I highly suspect he's a moron.
Ally Carter (Out of Sight, Out of Time (Gallagher Girls, #5))
'Tell Suzie she's a lucky cat.' Have sexier words ever been spoken?
Ally Carter
Tell me, Cameron Ann Morgan, what do you want to be when you grow up?" "Alive.
Ally Carter (United We Spy (Gallagher Girls, #6))
The things that are most precious to us are sometimes the most secret.
Ally Carter (Perfect Scoundrels (Heist Society, #3))
Sometimes the biggest lies we tell are to ourselves.
Ally Carter (Out of Sight, Out of Time (Gallagher Girls, #5))
Learn her skills, honor her sword, and keep her secrets.
Ally Carter (Only the Good Spy Young (Gallagher Girls, #4))
The older I got, the smarter my teachers became.
Ally Carter (Out of Sight, Out of Time (Gallagher Girls, #5))
Dancing. Come on. You can do it. It's a lot like navigating through a laser grid. It requires rhythm.' He moved her hips to the beat of the distant music. 'And patience.' He spun her around slowly and back toward him. 'And it's only fun if you trust your partner.' The dip was so slow, so smooth that Kat didn't know it was happening until the world was already turned upside down and Hale's face was inches from her own. Count me in, Kat.' He squeezed her tighter. 'You should always count me in.
Ally Carter (Heist Society (Heist Society, #1))
I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You
Ally Carter (I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls, #1))
And that's the most frustrating thing about depression. It isn't always something you can fight back against with hope. It isn't even something - it's nothing. And you can't combat nothing.
Allie Brosh (Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened)
There's a reason they didn't keep this poem. This poem tells you to fight.
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
Its Vermeer" Kat turned to the boy who lingered in the doorway. "It's stolen" "What can I say?" Hale eased behind her and studied the painting over her shoulder. "I met a very nice man who bet me he had the best security system in Istanbul." His breath was warm on the back of her neck. "He was mistaken.
Ally Carter (Heist Society (Heist Society, #1))
I've always wanted not to give a fuck. While crying helplessly into my pillow for no good reason, I would often fantasize that maybe someday I could be one of those stoic badasses whose emotions are mostly comprised of rock music and not being afraid of things.
Allie Brosh (Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened)
How Not to Break Into Sublevel Two (A list by Cameron Morgan, with help from Macey McHenry) .... -Teleportation: Sure, Liz says she has an excellent working theory, but she doesn't have a prototype yet. And without a prototype it's pretty much a moot point. -That thing Bex's parents did in Dubai with liquid nitrogen, an earthquake simulator, and a ferret: Because we don't have a ferret.
Ally Carter (Only the Good Spy Young (Gallagher Girls, #4))
So in the middle of all the noise, I point to the sky. I hope he understands what I mean, because I mean so many things: My heart will always fly his name. I won't go gentle. I'll find a way to soar like the angels in the stories and I will find him. And I know he understands as he looks straight at me, deep into my eyes. His lips move silently, and I know what he says: the words of a poem that only two people in the world know. Tears well up but I blink them away. Because if there is one moment in my life that I want to see clearly, this is it.
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
I never knew there were this many stars." "I can't see them," he told me. "I just see you." "That's one of your cheesier lines," I told him. "It's the altitude," he told me. "I don't have enough oxygen in my brain." "I see.
Ally Carter (United We Spy (Gallagher Girls, #6))
Hale, this life . . .' she started slowly, still practically speechless. 'This . . . what we do--what my family does--it looks a lot more glamorous when you choose it.' 'So choose it.' He handed her another envelope. Smaller this time. Thinner. 'What's this?' she asked. 'That, darling, is my full confession. Dates. Times.' Hale leaned against the antique table. 'I thought the crane rental receipt was a particularly nice touch.' Kat looked at him, speechless. 'It's your ticket back into Colgan. If you want it.' 'Hale, I . . .' But Hale was still moving, shrinking the distance between them. He seemed impossibly close as he whispered. 'And I didn't choose it, Kat. I chose you.
Ally Carter (Heist Society (Heist Society, #1))
The result of this deeply male-dominated culture is that the male experience, the male perspective, has come to be seen as universal, while the female experience--that of half the global population, after all--is seen as, well, niche.
Caroline Criado Pérez (Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men)
Look at the way the walls curve,' Macey said, her gaze panning around the strangely shaped room. 'it's almost like...' 'The library,' Liz said, and immediately I knew that she was right. It was exactly like the library at the Gallagher Academy, from the position of the fireplace to the tall windows that overlooked the grounds. 'How do you know?' Zach asked. Liz looked totally insulted. 'Because...uh...library.' 'Okay.' Zach threw up his hands. 'Point taken.
Ally Carter (Out of Sight, Out of Time (Gallagher Girls, #5))
Excuse me, Abigail, but whose shift did she get away during?' Townsend asked with a glare. 'Excuse me, Townsend, but who was supposed to booby-trap the doors?' 'I'm an agent of Her Majesty's Secret Service,' Townsend said, indignant. 'I do not do booby traps.
Ally Carter (Out of Sight, Out of Time (Gallagher Girls, #5))
Celaena Sardothien wasn’t in league with Aelin Ashryver Galathynius. Celaena Sardothien was Aelin Ashryver Galathynius, heir to the throne and rightful Queen of Terranes. Celaena was Aelin Galathynius, the greatest living threat to Adarlan, the one person who could raise an army capable of standing against the king. Now, she was also the one person who knew the secret source of the king’s power—and who sought a way to destroy it. And he had just sent her into the arms of her strongest potential allies: to the homeland of her mother, the kingdom of her cousin, and the domain of her aunt, Queen Maeve of the Fae. Celaena was the lost Queen of Terrasen. Chaol sank to his knees.
Sarah J. Maas (Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass, #2))
Do you understand any of this?" he said, pointing to the lines and symbols that covered the massive screens. "Some people understand the value of an education." Hale stretched and crossed his legs, the settled his arm around Kat's shoulders. "That's sweet, Kat. Maybe later I'll buy you a university. And an ice cream." "I'd settle for the ice cream." "Deal.
Ally Carter (Heist Society (Heist Society, #1))
Abuse manipulates and twists a child’s natural sense of trust and love. Her innocent feelings are belittled or mocked and she learns to ignore her feelings. She can’t afford to feel the full range of feelings in her body while she’s being abused—pain, outrage, hate, vengeance, confusion, arousal. So she short-circuits them and goes numb. For many children, any expression of feelings, even a single tear, is cause for more severe abuse. Again, the only recourse is to shut down. Feelings go underground.
Laura Davis (Allies in Healing: When the Person You Love Was Sexually Abused as a Child)
Either we're a team or we aren't. Either you trust me or you don't." Hale took a step toward her. "What's it going to be, Kat?" It is an occupational hazard that anyone who has spent her life learning how to lie eventually becomes bad at telling the truth; in that moment Kat didn't have a clue what to say. I carn't do this with out you sounded trite. What they were doing was to big for a simple please. Hale I-" You know what? Never mind. Either way, I'm in Kat." He seemed utterly resloved as he slipped on his sunglasses. "I'm all in
Ally Carter (Heist Society (Heist Society, #1))
Trust. We stake our lives on it, but it's a subject that not even the Gallagher Academy can teach. When do you let your guard down? Who do you let in? And I knew at that moment, as I sat beside my mother, bathing in the warm spring light, that those were the questions a good spy never stops asking
Ally Carter (Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls, #2))
Kat," Hale groaned, then fell back onto the pillows. "Funny, I didn't hear a doorbell." "I let myself in; hope that's okay." Hale smiled. "Or the alarm." She stepped inside, tossed a pocket-size bag of tools onto the bed. "You're due for an upgrade." Hale propped himself against the antique headboard and squinted up at her. "She returns." He crossed his arms across his bare chest. "You know, I could be naked in here.
Ally Carter (Heist Society (Heist Society, #1))
Archer?” I asked, raising my eyebrows. Hey, you might be able to take away my magical powers, but the power of sarcasm was still at my disposal. “Is your last name Newport or Vanderbilt? Maybe followed by some numbers? Ooh!” I said, widening my eyes, “or maybe even Esquire!” I’d hoped to hurt his feelings or, at the very least, make him angry, but he just kept smiling at me. “Actually, it’s Archer Cross, and I’m the first one. Now what about you?” He squinted. “Let’s see . . . brown hair, freckles, whole girl-next-door vibe going on . . . Allie? Lacie? Definitely something cutesy ending in ie.” You know those times when your mouth moves but no sound actually comes out? Yeah, that’s pretty much what happened. And then, of course, my mom took that opportunity to end her conversation with Justin’s parents and call out, “Sophie! Wait up.” “I knew it.” Archer laughed. “See you, Sophie,” he called over his shoulder as he disappeared into the house.
Rachel Hawkins (Hex Hall (Hex Hall, #1))
Women of the Gallagher Academy, who comes here?" she asked. Just then, every girl at every table (even the newbies) stood and said in unison, "We are the sisters of Gillian." "Why do you come?" my mother asked. "To learn her skills. Honor her sword. And keep her secrets." "To what end do you work?" "To the cause of justice and light." "How long will you strive?" "For all the days of our lives," we finished and I felt a little like a character in one of my grandma's soap operas.
Ally Carter (I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls, #1))
So far Kat has been through all the Wa's she could think of, but Hale hadn't admitted to being Walter or Ward or Washington. He'd firmly denied both Warren and Waverly. Watson had prompted him to do a very bad Sherlock Holmes impersonation throughout a good portion of a train ride to Edinburgh, Scotland. And Wayne seemed so wrong she hadn't even tried. Hale was Hale. And not knowing what the W's stood for had become a constant reminder to Kat that, in life, there are some things that can be given but never stolen. Of course, that didn't stop her from trying.
Ally Carter (Heist Society (Heist Society, #1))
They are giving us pieces of a real life instead of the whole thing. They have perfected the art of giving us just enought freedom; just enough that when we are ready to snap, a little bone is offered and we roll over, belly up, comfortable and placated like a dog... - Cassia
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
Haven't I? - he thought. Haven't I thought of it since the first time I saw you? Haven't I thought of nothing else for two years? ...He sat motionless, looking at her. He heard the words he had never allowed himself to form, the words he had felt, known, yet had not faced, had hoped to destroy by never letting them be said within his own mind. Now it was as sudden and shocking as if he were saying it to her ...Since the first time I saw you ...Nothing but your body, that mouth of yours, and the way your eyes would look at me, if ...Through every sentence I ever said to you, through every conference you thought so safe, through the importance of all the issues we discussed ...You trusted me, didn't you? To recognize your greatness? To think of you as you deserved - as if you were a man? ...Don't you suppose I know how much I've betrayed? The only bright encounter of my life - the only person I respected - the best business man I know - my ally - my partner in a desperate battle ...The lowest of all desires - as my answer to the highest I've met ...Do you know what I am? I thought of it, because it should have been unthinkable. For that degrading need, which would never touch you, I have never wanted anyone but you ...I hadn't known what it was like, to want it, until I saw you for the first time. I had thought : Not I, I couldn't be broken by it ...Since then ...For two years ...With not a moments respite ...Do you know what it's like, to want it? Would you wish to hear what I thought when I looked at you ...When I lay awake at night ...When I hear your voice over a telephone wire ...When I worked, but could not drive it away? ...To bring you down to things you cant conceive - and to know that it's I who have done it. To reduce you to a body, to teach you an animal's pleasure, to see you need it, to see you asking me for it, to see your wonderful spirit dependent on the upon the obscenity of your need. To watch you as you are, as you face the world with your clean, proud strength - then to see you, in my bed, submitting to any infamous whim I may devise, to any act which I'll preform for the sole purpose of watching your dishonor and to which you'll submit for the sake of an unspeakable sensation ...I want you - and may I be damned for it!
Ayn Rand
I heard someone's playing hooky,' Zach told me. He smiled. Standing there, it felt almost like nothing bad had ever happened- or would ever happen again 'There's a boy in my life,' I told him. 'He's a very bad influence.' Then Zach nodded. 'Bad boys have a way of doing that. But they're worth it.
Ally Carter (Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Gallagher Girls, #3))
Love has different shades. Like the way I loved Cassia when I thought she'd never love me. The way I loved her on the Hill. The way I love her now that she came into the canyon for me. It's different. Deeper. I thought I loved her and wanted her before, but as we walk through the canyon together I realize this could be more than a new shade. A whole new color.
Ally Condie (Crossed (Matched, #2))
If you ever put a student at this school in danger again-' 'Oh, I thought you Gallagher Girls were immune to danger.' Despite the hundred girls the filled the foyer, no one moved or gasped or tried to defend our honor. We stood silently, waiting for our headmistress to say, 'Oh, we are quite used to being underestimated, Agent Townsend. In fact, we welcome it.
Ally Carter (Only the Good Spy Young (Gallagher Girls, #4))
Zach walked away, but I stood there for a long time, wondering if I should go to my mother; if I should go to my friends; but instead I slipped into the corridors I hadn't used in months, pushed my way through cobwebs and darkness, trying to walk away from the tears that burned hot down my cheeks, because maybe I didn't want to admit weakness; maybe I wanted to wallow in my solitude and grief. Or maybe crying is like everything else we do—it's best if you don't get caught.
Ally Carter (Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls, #2))
I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of the land... I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels. Never was there a clearer case of 'stealing the livery of the court of heaven to serve the devil in.' I am filled with unutterable loathing when I contemplate the religious pomp and show, together with the horrible inconsistencies, which every where surround me. We have men-stealers for ministers, women-whippers for missionaries, and cradle-plunderers for church members. The man who wields the blood-clotted cowskin during the week fills the pulpit on Sunday, and claims to be a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus. . . . The slave auctioneer’s bell and the church-going bell chime in with each other, and the bitter cries of the heart-broken slave are drowned in the religious shouts of his pious master. Revivals of religion and revivals in the slave-trade go hand in hand together. The slave prison and the church stand near each other. The clanking of fetters and the rattling of chains in the prison, and the pious psalm and solemn prayer in the church, may be heard at the same time. The dealers in the bodies of men erect their stand in the presence of the pulpit, and they mutually help each other. The dealer gives his blood-stained gold to support the pulpit, and the pulpit, in return, covers his infernal business with the garb of Christianity. Here we have religion and robbery the allies of each other—devils dressed in angels’ robes, and hell presenting the semblance of paradise.
Frederick Douglass (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass)
Introverts need to trust their gut and share their ideas as powerfully as they can. This does not mean aping extroverts; ideas can be shared quietly, they can be communicated in writing, they can be packaged into highly produced lectures, they can be advanced by allies. The trick for introverts is to honor their own styles instead of allowing themselves to be swept up by prevailing norms.
Susan Cain (Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking)
He's better-looking then the last vagabond I had to take in," Eddie said, standing and carrying empty bowls to the sink. "I'll give him that." The insult slid off of Bobby like water. "So, you know, kid, according to thief culture, if you're going to court Kat, you now owe me two dozen goats." "It's a dozen," Eddie corrected. "Yeah, but Kat's worth two," Hamish said with a wink. Through it all, Hale said nothing. Then, finally, he smiled. "I'm afraid I'm all out of goats at the moment, but I've got some ruby cuff links you can have." "No." Bobby shook his head. "It's goats or nothing." "Sorry, Kat." Hale shrugged, disappointed. "It was fun while it lasted." "Don't look at me." Kat threw up her hands. "I'm officially ignoring all of you.
Ally Carter (Perfect Scoundrels (Heist Society, #3))
The April forced ‘Resettlement’ of the villages of Long Phuoc, and Long Tan inflamed the already seething hatred of foreigners by the local Vietnamese people. They had only recently removed the French yoke after almost a century of cruel and repressive French rule. Now here were the Americans and their allies who in the Vietnamese eyes were continuing to do as the French had done before them. Into this sort of environment of hate, the Australian soldiers were sent to complete what the Americans had started.
Michael G. Kramer (A Gracious Enemy)
I love you." lightning. Once it has forked, hot-white, from sky to earth, there is no going back. It's time. I feel it, I know it. My eyes on him, his on me, and both of us breathing, watching, tired of of waiting. Ky close his eyes, but mine are still open. what will it feel like, his lips on mine? Like a secret told, a promise kept? Like that line in the poem-a shower of all my days- silvery rain falling all around me, where the lighting meets the earth? The whistle blows below us and the moment breaks. We are safe. For now.
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
How are we doing, Simon?" she whispered into the small microphone in her collar. "Just about..." Simon started slowly. And then he stopped. "Wow." "What?" she asked, panic in her voice. "Nothing," he said too quickly. "What?" she asked again. "Well...it's just that...your boobs look even bigger on TV." Kat took that opportunity to turn and glare at the nearest security camera. In his bathroom stall thirty feet away, Simon nearly fell off the toilet.
Ally Carter (Heist Society (Heist Society, #1))
What did she say?” asked Matthias. Nina coughed and took his arm, leading him away. “She said you’re a very nice fellow, and a credit to the Fjerdan race. Ooh, look, blini! I haven’t had proper blini in forever.” “That word she used: babink,” he said. “You’ve called me that before. What does it mean?” Nina directed her attention to a stack of paper-thin buttered pancakes. “It means sweetie pie.” “Nina—” “Barbarian.” “I was just asking, there’s no need to name-call.” “No, babink means barbarian.” Matthias’ gaze snapped back to the old woman, his glower returning to full force. Nina grabbed his arm. It was like trying to hold on to a boulder. “She wasn’t insulting you! I swear!” “Barbarian isn’t an insult?” he asked, voice rising. “No. Well, yes. But not in this context. She wanted to know if you’d like to play Princess and Barbarian.” “It’s a game?” “Not exactly.” “Then what is it?” Nina couldn’t believe she was actually going to attempt to explain this. As they continued up the street, she said, “In Ravka, there’s a popular series of stories about, um, a brave Fjerdan warrior—” “Really?” Matthias asked. “He’s the hero?” “In a manner of speaking. He kidnaps a Ravkan princess—” “That would never happen.” “In the story it does, and”—she cleared her throat—“they spend a long time getting to know each other. In his cave.” “He lives in a cave?” “It’s a very nice cave. Furs. Jeweled cups. Mead.” “Ah,” he said approvingly. “A treasure hoard like Ansgar the Mighty. They become allies, then?” Nina picked up a pair of embroidered gloves from another stand. “Do you like these? Maybe we could get Kaz to wear something with flowers. Liven up his look.” “How does the story end? Do they fight battles?” Nina tossed the gloves back on the pile in defeat. “They get to know each other intimately.” Matthias’ jaw dropped. “In the cave?” “You see, he’s very brooding, very manly,” Nina hurried on. “But he falls in love with the Ravkan princess and that allows her to civilize him—” “To civilize him?” “Yes, but that’s not until the third book.” “There are three?” “Matthias, do you need to sit down?” “This culture is disgusting. The idea that a Ravkan could civilize a Fjerdan—” “Calm down, Matthias.” “Perhaps I’ll write a story about insatiable Ravkans who like to get drunk and take their clothes off and make unseemly advances toward hapless Fjerdans.” “Now that sounds like a party.” Matthias shook his head, but she could see a smile tugging at his lips. She decided to push the advantage. “We could play,” she murmured, quietly enough so that no one around them could hear. “We most certainly could not.” “At one point he bathes her.” Matthias’ steps faltered. “Why would he—” “She’s tied up, so he has to.” “Be silent.” “Already giving orders. That’s very barbarian of you. Or we could mix it up. I’ll be the barbarian and you can be the princess. But you’ll have to do a lot more sighing and trembling and biting your lip.” “How about I bite your lip?” “Now you’re getting the hang of it, Helvar.
Leigh Bardugo (Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows, #2))
Thickly forested regions of Phuoc Tuy including the Rung Sat swamps and farms considered to be controlled by the Vietcong, were regularly sprayed by defoliants including “Agent Orange” using aircraft. This was both an inhumane and unsuccessful strategy which only destroyed enough food to feed 245,000 Vietnamese people for a year resulting in a propaganda gift to the Vietcong. (Ham, 2007). Given that defoliation did not uncover the enemy, who kept on fighting from jungle, caves and tunnels, the whole defoliation programme must be considered a failure. Given also, that birth defects and other health problems associated with defoliants can be directly blamed upon “Agent Orange”, it stands to reason that the allies in the Second Indochina War who sprayed it upon villages and farms can in fact be said to be, “Guilty of War Crimes!
Michael G. Kramer (A Gracious Enemy)
The worst thing is not that the world is unfree, but that people have unlearned their liberty. The more indifferent people are to politics, to the interests of others, the more obsessed they become with their own faces. The individualism of our time. Not being able to fall asleep and not allowing oneself to move: the marital bed. If high culture is coming to an end, it is also the end of you and your paradoxical ideas, because paradox as such belongs to high culture and not to childish prattle. You remind me of the young men who supported the Nazis or communists not out of cowardice or out of opportunism but out of an excess of intelligence. For nothing requires a greater effort of thought than arguments to justify the rule of nonthought… You are the brilliant ally of your own gravediggers. In the world of highways, a beautiful landscape means: an island of beauty connected by a long line with other islands of beauty. How to live in a world with which you disagree? How to live with people when you neither share their suffering nor their joys? When you know that you don’t belong among them?... our century refuses to acknowledge anyone’s right to disagree with the world…All that remains of such a place is the memory, the ideal of a cloister, the dream of a cloister… Humor can only exist when people are still capable of recognizing some border between the important and the unimportant. And nowadays this border has become unrecognizable. The majority of people lead their existence within a small idyllic circle bounded by their family, their home, and their work... They live in a secure realm somewhere between good and evil. They are sincerely horrified by the sight of a killer. And yet all you have to do is remove them from this peaceful circle and they, too, turn into murderers, without quite knowing how it happened. The longing for order is at the same time a longing for death, because life is an incessant disruption of order. Or to put it the other way around: the desire for order is a virtuous pretext, an excuse for virulent misanthropy. A long time a go a certain Cynic philosopher proudly paraded around Athens in a moth-eaten coat, hoping that everyone would admire his contempt for convention. When Socrates met him, he said: Through the hole in your coat I see your vanity. Your dirt, too, dear sir, is self-indulgent and your self-indulgence is dirty. You are always living below the level of true existence, you bitter weed, you anthropomorphized vat of vinegar! You’re full of acid, which bubbles inside you like an alchemist’s brew. Your highest wish is to be able to see all around you the same ugliness as you carry inside yourself. That’s the only way you can feel for a few moments some kind of peace between yourself and the world. That’s because the world, which is beautiful, seems horrible to you, torments you and excludes you. If the novel is successful, it must necessarily be wiser than its author. This is why many excellent French intellectuals write mediocre novels. They are always more intelligent than their books. By a certain age, coincidences lose their magic, no longer surprise, become run-of-the-mill. Any new possibility that existence acquires, even the least likely, transforms everything about existence.
Milan Kundera
BEFRIENDING THE BODY Trauma victims cannot recover until they become familiar with and befriend the sensations in their bodies. Being frightened means that you live in a body that is always on guard. Angry people live in angry bodies. The bodies of child-abuse victims are tense and defensive until they find a way to relax and feel safe. In order to change, people need to become aware of their sensations and the way that their bodies interact with the world around them. Physical self-awareness is the first step in releasing the tyranny of the past. In my practice I begin the process by helping my patients to first notice and then describe the feelings in their bodies—not emotions such as anger or anxiety or fear but the physical sensations beneath the emotions: pressure, heat, muscular tension, tingling, caving in, feeling hollow, and so on. I also work on identifying the sensations associated with relaxation or pleasure. I help them become aware of their breath, their gestures and movements. All too often, however, drugs such as Abilify, Zyprexa, and Seroquel, are prescribed instead of teaching people the skills to deal with such distressing physical reactions. Of course, medications only blunt sensations and do nothing to resolve them or transform them from toxic agents into allies. The mind needs to be reeducated to feel physical sensations, and the body needs to be helped to tolerate and enjoy the comforts of touch. Individuals who lack emotional awareness are able, with practice, to connect their physical sensations to psychological events. Then they can slowly reconnect with themselves.
Bessel van der Kolk (The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma)
Dearest creature in creation, Study English pronunciation. I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse. I will keep you, Suzy, busy, Make your head with heat grow dizzy. Tear in eye, your dress will tear. So shall I! Oh hear my prayer. Just compare heart, beard, and heard, Dies and diet, lord and word, Sword and sward, retain and Britain. (Mind the latter, how it’s written.) Now I surely will not plague you With such words as plaque and ague. But be careful how you speak: Say break and steak, but bleak and streak; Cloven, oven, how and low, Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe. Hear me say, devoid of trickery, Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore, Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles, Exiles, similes, and reviles; Scholar, vicar, and cigar, Solar, mica, war and far; One, anemone, Balmoral, Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel; Gertrude, German, wind and mind, Scene, Melpomene, mankind. Billet does not rhyme with ballet, Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet. Blood and flood are not like food, Nor is mould like should and would. Viscous, viscount, load and broad, Toward, to forward, to reward. And your pronunciation’s OK When you correctly say croquet, Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve, Friend and fiend, alive and live. Ivy, privy, famous; clamour And enamour rhyme with hammer. River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb, Doll and roll and some and home. Stranger does not rhyme with anger, Neither does devour with clangour. Souls but foul, haunt but aunt, Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant, Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger, And then singer, ginger, linger, Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge, Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age. Query does not rhyme with very, Nor does fury sound like bury. Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth. Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath. Though the differences seem little, We say actual but victual. Refer does not rhyme with deafer. Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer. Mint, pint, senate and sedate; Dull, bull, and George ate late. Scenic, Arabic, Pacific, Science, conscience, scientific. Liberty, library, heave and heaven, Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven. We say hallowed, but allowed, People, leopard, towed, but vowed. Mark the differences, moreover, Between mover, cover, clover; Leeches, breeches, wise, precise, Chalice, but police and lice; Camel, constable, unstable, Principle, disciple, label. Petal, panel, and canal, Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal. Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair, Senator, spectator, mayor. Tour, but our and succour, four. Gas, alas, and Arkansas. Sea, idea, Korea, area, Psalm, Maria, but malaria. Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean. Doctrine, turpentine, marine. Compare alien with Italian, Dandelion and battalion. Sally with ally, yea, ye, Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key. Say aver, but ever, fever, Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver. Heron, granary, canary. Crevice and device and aerie. Face, but preface, not efface. Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass. Large, but target, gin, give, verging, Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging. Ear, but earn and wear and tear Do not rhyme with here but ere. Seven is right, but so is even, Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen, Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk, Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work. Pronunciation (think of Psyche!) Is a paling stout and spikey? Won’t it make you lose your wits, Writing groats and saying grits? It’s a dark abyss or tunnel: Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale, Islington and Isle of Wight, Housewife, verdict and indict. Finally, which rhymes with enough, Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough? Hiccough has the sound of cup. My advice is to give up!!!
Gerard Nolst Trenité (Drop your Foreign Accent)
As well, they used their B-52 bombers to drop thousands of tons of bombs which included napalm and cluster bombs. In a particularly vile attack, they used poisonous chemicals on our base regions of Xuyen Moc, the Minh Dam and the Nui Thi Vai mountains. They sprayed their defoliants over jungle, and productive farmland alike. They even bull-dozed bare, both sides along the communication routes and more than a kilometre into the jungle adjacent to our base areas. This caused the Ba Ria-Long Khanh Province Unit to send out a directive to D445 and D440 Battalions that as of 01/November/1969, the rations of both battalions would be set at 27 litres of rice per man per month when on operations. And 25 litres when in base or training. So it was that as the American forces withdrew, their arms and lavish base facilities were transferred across to the RVN. The the forces of the South Vietnamese Government were with thereby more resources but this also created any severe maintenance, logistic and training problems. The Australian Army felt that a complete Australian withdrawal was desirable with the departure of the Task Force (1ATF), but the conservative government of Australia thought that there were political advantages in keeping a small force in south Vietnam. Before his election, in 1964, Johnston used a line which promised peace, but also had a policy of war. The very same tactic was used by Nixon. Nixon had as early as 1950 called for direction intervention by American Forces which were to be on the side of the French colonialists. The defoliants were sprayed upon several millions of hectares, and it can best be described as virtual biocide. According to the figure from the Americans themselves, between the years of 1965 to 1973, ten million Vietnamese people were forced to leave their villages ad move to cities because of what the Americans and their allies had done. The Americans intensified the bombing of whole regions of Laos which were controlled by Lao patriotic forces. They used up to six hundred sorties per day with many types of aircraft including B52s. On 07/January/1979, the Vietnamese Army using Russian built T-54 and T-59 tanks, assisted by some Cambodian patriots liberated Phnom Penh while the Pol Pot Government and its agencies fled into the jungle. A new government under Hun Sen was installed and the Khmer Rouge’s navy was sunk nine days later in a battle with the Vietnamese Navy which resulted in twenty-two Kampuchean ships being sunk.
Michael G. Kramer (A Gracious Enemy)