β
If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
β
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
β
β
J.R.R. Tolkien (The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1))
β
A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire, #5))
β
It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
β
... a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
β
Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.
β
β
Terry Pratchett (Jingo (Discworld, #21; City Watch, #4))
β
I wish I could freeze this moment, right here, right now and live in it forever.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
β
Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
β
I can't give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time.
β
β
Herbert Bayard Swope
β
We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
β
Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Hamlet)
β
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'd hoped to give you forever
β
β
Nicholas Sparks
β
You know, you could live a thousand lifetimes and not deserve him.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
β
Bran thought about it. 'Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?'
'That is the only time a man can be brave,' his father told him.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
what matters most is how well you walk through the fire
β
β
Charles Bukowski
β
Man may have discovered fire, but women discovered how to play with it.
β
β
Candace Bushnell (Sex and the City)
β
Percy wouldn't notice a joke if it danced naked in front of him wearing one of Dobby's hats.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
β
Fire is catching! And if we burn, you burn with us!
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3))
β
My nightmares are usually about losing you. I'm okay once I realize you're here.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
β
Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell.
β
β
Joan Crawford
β
Fear cuts deeper than swords.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
Don't talk to me."
"Why not?"
"Because I want to fix that in my memory for ever. Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret...
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
β
Some old wounds never truly heal, and bleed again at the slightest word.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.
β
β
Madeleine L'Engle
β
You cannot pick and choose what parts of her to love.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3))
β
As if you were on fire from within.
The moon lives in the lining of your skin.
β
β
Pablo Neruda
β
Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is real.. it is possible.. it's yours.
β
β
Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged)
β
Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
β
Words are pale shadows of forgotten names. As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts.
β
β
Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1))
β
So it's you and a syringe against the Capitol? See, this is why no one lets you make the plans.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
β
I realize only one person will be damaged beyond repair if Peeta dies. Me.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
β
She was the heir of ash and fire, and she would bow to no one.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3))
β
It is my belief... that the truth is generally preferable to lies.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
β
Winter is coming.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire,
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
β
β
Robert Frost
β
If you are a dreamer come in
If you are a dreamer a wisher a liar
A hoper a pray-er a magic-bean-buyer
If youre a pretender com sit by my fire
For we have some flax golden tales to spin
Come in!
Come in!
β
β
Shel Silverstein
β
Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire, 5-Book Boxed Set: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, A Dance with Dragons (Song of Ice & Fire 1-5))
β
I suppose a fire that burns that bright is not meant to last.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
β
The truth is what I make it. I could set this world on fire and call it rain.
β
β
Victoria Aveyard (Red Queen (Red Queen, #1))
β
I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.
β
β
James Baldwin (The Fire Next Time (Vintage International))
β
I always channel my emotions into my work. That way, I don't hurt anyone but myself.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
β
When you play a game of thrones you win or you die.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
Trust your heart if the seas catch fire, live by love though the stars walk backward.
β
β
E.E. Cummings
β
And then I am going to rattle the stars.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3))
β
Fire-breathing bitch-queen.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4))
β
Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Macbeth)
β
Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.
β
β
Emily Dickinson
β
Death is so terribly final, while life is full of possibilities.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which as they kiss consume. The sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness
And in the taste confounds the appetite.
Therefore love moderately; long love doth so;
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)
β
The things we love destroy us every time, lad. Remember that.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
So light a fire!" Harry choked. "Yes...of course...but there's no wood!" ...
"HAVE YOU GONE MAD!" Ron bellowed. "ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT!
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1))
β
The starting point of all achievement is DESIRE. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desire brings weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat.
β
β
Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich)
β
Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.
β
β
Edith Sitwell
β
People often claim to hunger for truth, but seldom like the taste when it's served up.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2))
β
I claim you, Rowan Whitethorn. I don't care what you say and how much you protest. I claim you as my friend.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3))
β
The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.
β
β
Plutarch
β
Why is it that when one man builds a wall, the next man immediately needs to know what's on the other side?
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
Katniss, the girl who was on fire!
β
β
Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1))
β
At some point, you have to stop running and turn around and face whoever wants you dead.The hard thing is finding the courage to do it.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
β
A great fire burns within me, but no one stops to warm themselves at it, and passers-by only see a wisp of smoke
β
β
Vincent van Gogh
β
The bird, the pin, the song, the berries, the watch, the cracker, the dress that burst into flames. I am the mockingjay. The one that survived despite the Capitol's plans. The symbol of the rebellion.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
β
...her dearest friends are characters in books.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3))
β
The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
β
Once youβve accepted your flaws, no one can use them against you.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
Each of us is born with a box of matches inside us but we can't strike them all by ourselves
β
β
Laura Esquivel (Like Water for Chocolate)
β
We are all the pieces of what we remember. We hold in ourselves the hopes and fears of those who love us. As long as there is love and memory, there is no true loss.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6))
β
She was Aelin Ashryver GalathyniusβΒand she would not be afraid.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3))
β
Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble!
β
β
William Shakespeare (Macbeth)
β
She was fire, and light, and ash, and embers. She was Aelin Fireheart, and she bowed for no one and nothing, save the crown that was hers by blood and survival and triumph.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4))
β
We had to save you because you're the mockingjay, Katniss," says Plutarch. "While you live, the revolution lives.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
β
I remember awakening one morning and finding everything smeared with the color of forgotten love.
β
β
Charles Bukowski (What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire)
β
Because I am lost," she whispered onto the earth. "And I do not know the way.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3))
β
Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time!
But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money!
β
β
George Carlin
β
So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings.
β
β
J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit, or There and Back Again)
β
Technically, I am unarmed. But no one should ever underestimate the harm that fingernails can do. Especially if the target is unprepared.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3))
β
If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery--isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is.
β
β
Charles Bukowski (What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire)
β
And I have a tender spot in my heart for cripples and bastards and broken things.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
I will hurt you for this. I don't know how yet, but give me time. A day will come when you think yourself safe and happy, and suddenly your joy will turn to ashes in your mouth, and you'll know the debt is paid.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2))
β
I claim you, Aelin. To whatever end.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3))
β
Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.
β
β
Maya Angelou
β
Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames
β
β
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
β
Their hands clasped between them, he whispered into her ear, "I claim you, too, Aelin Galathynius.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3))
β
Okayyyyy,β Isabelle said in a low voice, βWhen did Brother Zachariah get hot?
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6))
β
Ladies who play with fire must remember that smoke gets in their eyes.
β
β
Mae West
β
It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know. We all know people who are so much afraid of pain that they shut themselves up like clams in a shell and, giving out nothing, receive nothing and therefore shrink until life is a mere living death.
β
β
Eleanor Roosevelt
β
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
β
β
W.B. Yeats
β
Closing my eyes doesn't help. Fire burns brighter in the darkness.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3))
β
What is honor compared to a woman's love? What is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms . . . or the memory of a brother's smile? Wind and words. Wind and words. We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
So I only say, "So what should we do with our last few days?"
"I just want to spend every possible minute of the rest of my life with you," Peeta replies.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
β
If I look back I am lost.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
I really can't think about kissing when I've got a rebellion to incite.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
β
She was beautiful, but she was beautiful in the way a forest fire was beautiful: something to be admired from a distance, not up close.
β
β
Terry Pratchett (Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch)
β
Aim higher in case you fall short.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
β
When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2))
β
His feelings for Adam were an oil spill; he'd let them overflow and now there wasn't a damn place in the ocean that wouldn't catch fire if he dropped a match.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven King (The Raven Cycle, #4))
β
Really, the combination of the scabs and the ointment looks hideous. I can't help enjoying his distress.
"Poor Finnick. Is this the first time in your life you haven't looked pretty?" I say.
"It must be. The sensation's completely new. How have you managed it all these years?" he asks.
"Just avoid mirrors. You'll forget about it," I say.
"Not if I keep looking at you," he says.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
β
Nothing burns like the cold.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
Just because itβs taken you three years to notice, Ron, doesn't mean no one else has spotted I'm a girl!
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
β
To feel the love of people whom we love is a fire that feeds our life.
β
β
Pablo Neruda
β
Before you, Bella, my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars, points of light and reason. ...And then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire; there was brilliancy, there was beauty. When you were gone, when the meteor had fallen over the horizon, everything went black. Nothing had changed, but my eyes were blinded by the light. I couldnβt see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason, for anything.
β
β
Stephenie Meyer (New Moon (The Twilight Saga, #2))
β
Time will not slow down when something unpleasant lies ahead.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
β
Gale is mine. I am his. Anything else is unthinkable.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
β
My skin has turned to porcelain, to ivory, to steel.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, #3))
β
Every man must die, Jon Snow. But first he must live.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, #3))
β
Laughter is poison to fear.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
Your hair is winter fire
January embers
My heart burns there, too.
β
β
Stephen King (It)
β
Power resides only where men believe it resides. [...] A shadow on the wall, yet shadows can kill. And ofttimes a very small man can cast a very large shadow.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2))
β
What do we say to the Lord of Death?'
'Not today.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
It is a strange thing, but when you are dreading something, and would give anything to slow down time, it has a disobliging habit of speeding up.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
β
Those who are willing to be vulnerable move among mysteries.
β
β
Theodore Roethke (Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke)
β
What would come, would come...and you would have to meet it, when it did.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
β
Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly, Rhaegar fought honorably. And Rhaegar died.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, #3))
β
Look for God, suggests my Guru. Look for God like a man with his head on fire looks for water.
β
β
Elizabeth Gilbert
β
Peeta, how come I never know when you're having a nightmare?β I say.
βI don't know. I don't think I cry out or thrash around or anything. I just come to, paralyzed with terror,β he says.
βYou should wake me,β I say, thinking about how I can interrupt his sleep two or three times on a bad night. About how long it can take to calm me down.
βIt's not necessary. My nightmares are usually about losing you,β he says. βI'm okay once I realize you're here.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
β
The brightest flame casts the darkest shadow.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2))
β
No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.
β
β
F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby)
β
A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire, #5))
β
I stabbed you. With a massive sword. You caught on fire."
His lips twitched, almost imperceptibly. "Okay, so maybe our problems aren't like other couples.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5))
β
It would not take a monster to destroy a monster - but light, light to drive out darkness.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3))
β
True friends share everything, except the past before they met.
β
β
Mary Renault (Fire from Heaven (Alexander the Great, #1))
β
I guess this is a bad time to mention I hung a dummy and painted Seneca Crane's name on it...
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
β
There are memories that time does not erase... Forever does not make loss forgettable, only bearable.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6))
β
Things get bad for all of us, almost continually, and what we do under the constant stress reveals who/what we are.
β
β
Charles Bukowski (What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire)
β
Heroes aren't always the ones who win," she said. "They're the ones who lose, sometimes. But they keep fighting, they keep coming back. They don't give up. That's what makes them heroes.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6))
β
Did Brother Zachariah just steal our cat?
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6))
β
In this part of the story I am the one who
dies, the only one, and I will die of love because I love you,
because I love you, Love, in fire and in blood.
β
β
Pablo Neruda (100 Love Sonnets)
β
Silverstream: You idiot!!! What are you doing in my territory???
Graystripe:...Drowning?
Silverstream: Can't you do that in your own territory?
Graystripe: Ah, but who would rescue me there?
β
β
Erin Hunter
β
Every flight begins with a fall.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
So that's who Finnick loves, I think. Not his string of fancy lovers in the Capitol. But a poor, mad girl back home.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
β
There are no innocents. There are, however, different degrees of responsibility.
β
β
Stieg Larsson (The Girl Who Played with Fire (Millennium #2))
β
Anyone can speak Troll. All you have to do is point and grunt.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
β
If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?
β
β
Emily Dickinson (Selected Letters)
β
To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.
β
β
Victor Hugo
β
My old grandmother always used to say, Summer friends will melt away like summer snows, but winter friends are friends forever.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire, #4))
β
This is why dreams can be such dangerous things: they smolder on like a fire does, and sometimes they consume us completely.
β
β
Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha)
β
No sight so sad as that of a naughty child," he began, "especially a naughty little girl. Do you know where the wicked go after death?"
"They go to hell," was my ready and orthodox answer.
"And what is hell? Can you tell me that?"
"A pit full of fire."
"And should you like to fall into that pit, and to be burning there for ever?"
"No, sir."
"What must you do to avoid it?"
I deliberated a moment: my answer, when it did come was objectionable: "I must keep in good health and not die.
β
β
Charlotte BrontΓ« (Jane Eyre)
β
Different roads sometimes lead to the same castle.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
It must be very fragile, if a handful of berries can bring it down.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
β
My brother has his sword, King Robert has his warhammer and I have my mind...and a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone if it is to keep its edge. That's why I read so much Jon Snow.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
The head is too wise. The heart is all fire.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven King (The Raven Cycle, #4))
β
She's mad, but she's magic. There's no lie in her fire.
β
β
Charles Bukowski
β
Just then Neville caused a slight diversion by turning into a large canary.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
β
Suicide is man's way of telling God, 'You can't fire me - I quit!
β
β
Bill Maher
β
The people you love are just weapons that will be used against you.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3))
β
Β Β In 1658, Francis Andrew Ransome stole the Alchemy Scroll from St. Julianβs college, my present employer. Ransome was a member of a transatlantic group called The Invisible College. They were alchemists, meaning they worked with matter and spirit together.
β
β
Susan Rowland (The Alchemy Fire Murder (Mary Wandwalker #2))
β
Life is not a song, sweetling.
Someday you may learn that, to your sorrow.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
Temper us in fire, and we grow stronger. When we suffer, we survive.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6))
β
Stay,β she panted. Tears leaked from her eyes. βStay till the end.β
βAnd after,β he said. βAnd always.β
βI want to feel safe again. I want to go home to Ravka.β
βThen Iβll take you there. Weβll set fire to raisins or whatever you heathens do for fun.β
βZealot,β she said weakly.
βWitch.β
βBarbarian.β
βNina,β he whispered, βlittle red bird. Donβt go.
β
β
Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1))
β
Iβm never wearing them," Ron was saying stubbornly. "Never."
"Fine," snapped Mrs. Weasley. "Go naked. And, Harry, make sure you get a picture of him. Goodness knows I could do with a laugh.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
β
Pain is strange. A cat killing a bird, a car accident, a fire.... Pain arrives, BANG, and there it is, it sits on you. It's real. And to anybody watching, you look foolish. Like you've suddenly become an idiot. There's no cure for it unless you know somebody who understands how you feel, and knows how to help.
β
β
Charles Bukowski
β
The so-called βpsychotically depressedβ person who tries to kill herself doesnβt do so out of quote βhopelessnessβ or any abstract conviction that lifeβs assets and debits do not square. And surely not because death seems suddenly appealing. The person in whom Its invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise. Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows. Their terror of falling from a great height is still just as great as it would be for you or me standing speculatively at the same window just checking out the view; i.e. the fear of falling remains a constant. The variable here is the other terror, the fireβs flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. Itβs not desiring the fall; itβs terror of the flames. And yet nobody down on the sidewalk, looking up and yelling βDonβt!β and βHang on!β, can understand the jump. Not really. Youβd have to have personally been trapped and felt flames to really understand a terror way beyond falling.
β
β
David Foster Wallace
β
We star-crossed lovers of District 12, who suffered so much and enjoyed so little the rewards of our victory, do not seek our fans' favor, grace them with our smiles, or catch their kisses. We are unforgiving.
And I love it. Getting to be myself at last.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
β
That what I need to survive is not Gale's fire, kindled with rage and hatred. I have plenty of fire myself. What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3))
β
I'm going to wake Peeta," I say.
"No, wait," says Finnick. "Let's do it together. Put our faces right in front of his."
Well, there's so little opportunity for fun left in my life, I agree. We position ourselves on either side of Peeta, lean over until our faces are inches frim his nose, and give him a shake. "Peeta. Peeta, wake up," I say in a soft, singsong voice.
His eyelids flutter open and then he jumps like we've stabbed him. "Aa!"
Finnick and I fall back in the sand, laughing our heads off. Every time we try to stop, we look at Peeta's attempt to maintain a disdainful expression and it sets us off again.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
β
You're both the fire and the water that extinguishes it. You're the narrator, the protagonist, and the sidekick. You're the storyteller and the story told. You are somebody's something, but you are also your you.
β
β
John Green (Turtles All the Way Down)
β
Sonnet XVII
I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way than this:
where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.
β
β
Pablo Neruda
β
Look at the sky: that is for you. Look at each person's face as you pass them on the street: those faces are for you. And the street itself, and the ground under the street, and the ball of fire underneath the ground: all these things are for you.
β
β
Miranda July
β
I did not make a pie,β Alec repeated, gesturing expressively with one hand, βfor three reasons. One, because I do not have any pie ingredients. Two, because I donβt actually
know how to make a pie.β
He paused, clearly waiting.
Removing his sword and leaning it against the cave wall, Jace said warily, βAnd three?β
βBecause I am not your bitch,β Alec said, clearly pleased with himself.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6))
β
The idea of being strong for someone else having never entered their heads, I find myself in the position of having to console them. Since I'm the person going in to be slaughtered, this is somewhat annoying.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
β
When You Are Old"
WHEN you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
β
β
W.B. Yeats
β
I sit beside the fire and think
Of all that I have seen
Of meadow flowers and butterflies
In summers that have been
Of yellow leaves and gossamer
In autumns that there were
With morning mist and silver sun
And wind upon my hair
I sit beside the fire and think
Of how the world will be
When winter comes without a spring
That I shall ever see
For still there are so many things
That I have never seen
In every wood in every spring
There is a different green
I sit beside the fire and think
Of people long ago
And people that will see a world
That I shall never know
But all the while I sit and think
Of times there were before
I listen for returning feet
And voices at the door
β
β
J.R.R. Tolkien
β
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita. Did she have a precursor? She did, indeed she did. In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, an initial girl-child. In a princedom by the sea. Oh when? About as many years before Lolita was born as my age was that summer. You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. Look at this tangle of thorns.
β
β
Vladimir Nabokov (Lolita)
β
Extinguish my eyes, I'll go on seeing you.
Seal my ears, I'll go on hearing you.
And without feet I can make my way to you,
without a mouth I can swear your name.
Break off my arms, I'll take hold of you
with my heart as with a hand.
Stop my heart, and my brain will start to beat.
And if you consume my brain with fire,
I'll feel you burn in every drop of my blood.
β
β
Rainer Maria Rilke
β
The animal merely makes a bed, which he warms with his body in a sheltered place; but man, having discovered fire, boxes up some air in a spacious apartment, and warms that, instead of robbing himself, makes that his bed, in which he can move about divested of more cumbrous clothing, maintain a kind of summer in the midst of winter, and by means of windows even admit the light and with a lamp lengthen out the day.
β
β
Henry David Thoreau
β
A fire broke out backstage in a theatre. The clown came out to warn the public; they thought it was a joke and applauded. He repeated it; the acclaim was even greater. I think that's just how the world will come to an end: to general applause from wits who believe it's a joke.
β
β
SΓΈren Kierkegaard (Either/Or, Part I)
β
They say a good love is one that sits you down, gives you a drink of water, and pats you on top of the head. But I say a good love is one that casts you into the wind, sets you ablaze, makes you burn through the skies and ignite the night like a phoenix; the kind that cuts you loose like a wildfire and you can't stop running simply because you keep on burning everything that you touch! I say that's a good love; one that burns and flies, and you run with it!
β
β
C. JoyBell C.
β
There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams -- not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.
β
β
F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby)
β
I have lightning and wind powers," Jason reminded him. "Piper can turn beautiful and charm people into giving her BMWs. You're no more a freak than we are. And, hey, maybe you can fly, too. Like jump off a building and yell 'Flame on!'"
Leo snorted. "If I did that, you would see a flaming kid falling to his death, and I would be yelling something a little stronger than 'Flame on!
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus, #1))
β
Well, I certainly don't," said Percy sanctimoniously. "I shudder to think what the state of my in-tray would be if I was away from work for five days."
"Yeah, someone might slip dragon dung in it again, eh, Perce?" said Fred.
"That was a sample of fertilizer from Norway!" said Percy, going very red in the face. "It was nothing personal!"
"It was," Fred whispered to Harry as they got up from the table. "We sent it.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
β
Yeah? Can you draw a skeleton riding a motorcycle with flames coming out of it? And I want a pirate hat on the skeleton. And a parrot on his shoulder. A skeleton parrot. Or maybe a ninja skeleton parrot? No, that would be overkill. But it'd be cool if the biker skeleton could be shooting some ninja throwing stars. That are on fire.
β
β
Richelle Mead (Bloodlines (Bloodlines, #1))
β
I don't want you forgetting how different our circumstaces are. If you die, and I live, there's no life for me at all back in District Twelve. You're my whole life." Peeta says. "I would never be happy again. It's different for you. I'm not saying it wouldn't be hard. But there are other people who'd make your life worth living."
"No one really needs me," he says, and there's no selfpity in his voice. It's true his family doesn't need him. They will mourn him, as will a handfull of friends. But they will get on.... I realise only one person will be damaged beyond repair if Peeta dies. Me.
"I do," I say. "I need you.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
β
Alec looked down at the shattered pieces in disbelief. βYou BROKE my PHONE.β
Jace shrugged. βGuys donβt let other guys keep calling other guys. Okay, that came out wrong. Friends donβt let friends keep calling their exes and hanging up. Seriously. You have to stop.β
Alec looked furious. βSo you broke my brand new phone? Thanks a lot.β
Jace smiled serenely and lay back on the grass. βYouβre welcome.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6))
β
You collect scars because you want proof that you are paying for whatever sins you've committed. And I know this because I've been doing the same damn thing for two hundred years. Tell me, do you think you will go to some blessed Afterworld, or do you expect a burning hell? You're hoping for hell--because how could you face them in the Afterworld? Better to suffer, to be damned for eternity and--
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3))
β
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
β
β
Dwight D. Eisenhower
β
You see, women are like fires, like flames. Some women are like candles, bright and friendly. Some are like single sparks, or embers, like fireflies for chasing on summer nights. Some are like campfires, all light and heat for a night and willing to be left after. Some women are like hearthfires, not much to look at but underneath they are all warm red coal that burns a long, long while.
β
β
Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1))
β
We shouldnβt,β protested Isabelle. βThe Clave has a plan.β
βThe Clave has the collective intelligence of a pineapple,β said Jace.
Alec blinked up at them. βJace is right.β
Isabelle turned on her brother. βWhat do you know? You werenβt even paying attention.β
βI was,β Alec said, injured. βI said Jace was right.β
βYeah, but thereβs like a 90% chance of me being right most of the time, so thatβs not proof you were listening,β said Jace. βThatβs just a good guess.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6))
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
Oh, my sweet summer child," Old Nan said quietly, "what do you know of fear?
Fear is for the winter, my little lord, when the snows fall a hundred feet
deep and the ice wind comes howling out of the north. Fear is for the long
night, when the sun hides its face for years at a time, and little children
are born and live and die all in darkness while the direwolves grow gaunt and
hungry, and the white walkers move through the woods
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
I want so many things,β he whispers. βI want your mind. Your strength. I want to be worth your time.β His fingers graze the hem of my top and he says βI want this up.β He tugs on the waist of my pants and says βI want these down.β He touches the tips of his fingers to the sides of my body and says, βI want to feel your skin on fire. I want to feel your heart racing next to mine and I want to know itβs racing because of me, because you want me. Because you never,β he says, he breathes, βnever want me to stop. I want every second. Every inch of you. I want all of it.
β
β
Tahereh Mafi (Unravel Me (Shatter Me, #2))
β
Magnus rolled onto his back and put his feet up on the arm of the sofa. βWhat do you care if Alecβs miserable?β
βWhat do I care?β Jace said, so loudly that Chairman Meow rolled off the couch and landed on the floor. βOf course I care about Alec; heβs my best friend, my parabatai. And heβs unhappy. And so are you, by the look of things. Takeout containers everywhere, you havenβt done anything to fix up the place, your cat looks dead ββ
βHeβs not dead.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6))
β
Black for hunting through the night
For death and mourning the color's white
Gold for a bride in her wedding gown
And red to call the enchantment down
White silk when our bodies burn
Blue banners when the lost return
Flame for the birth of a Nephilim
And to wash away our sins.
Gray for the knowledge best untold
Bone for those who don't grow old
Saffron lights the victory march
Green to mend our broken hearts
Silver for the demon towers
And bronze to summon wicked powers
-Shadowhunter children's rhyme
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6))
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
When you go into the ER, one of the first things they ask you to do is rate your pain on a scale of one to ten, and from there they decide which drugs to use and how quickly to use them. I'd been asked this question hundreds of times over the years, and I remember once early on when I couldn't get my breath and it felt like my chest was on fire, flames licking the inside of my ribs fighting for a way to burn out of my body, my parents took me to the ER. nurse asked me about the pain, and I couldn't even speak, so I held up nine fingers.
Later, after they'd given me something, the nurse came in and she was kind of stroking my head while she took my blood pressure and said, "You know how I know you're a fighter? You called a ten a nine."
But that wasn't quite right. I called it a nine because I was saving my ten. And here it was, the great and terrible ten, slamming me again and again as I lay still and alone in my bed staring at the ceiling, the waves tossing me against the rocks then pulling me back out to sea so they could launch me again into the jagged face of the cliff, leaving me floating faceup on the water, undrowned.
β
β
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
β
Who're you going with, then?" said Ron.
"Angelina," said Fred promptly, without a trace of embarrassment.
"What?" said Ron, taken aback. "You've already asked her?"
"Good point," said Fred. He turned his head and called across the common room, "Oi! Angelina!"
Angelina, who had been chatting with Alicia Spinnet near the fire, looked over at him.
"What?" She called back.
"Want to come to the ball with me?"
Angelina gave Fred a sort of appraising look.
"All right, then," she said, and she turned back to Alicia and carried on chatting with a bit of a grin on her face.
"There you go," said Fred to Harry and Ron, "piece of cake.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
β
It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.
It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain!I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithlessand therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty even when it's not pretty, every day,and if you can source your own life from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, βYes!β
It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.
It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
β
β
Oriah Mountain Dreamer
β
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
β
β
Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook (The Notebook, #1))
β
What are you doing?β
βWhat?β
Emrys didnβt raise his voice as he said, βTo that girl. What are you doing that makes her come in here with such emptiness in her eyes?β
βThatβs none of your concern.β
Emrys pressed his lips into a tight line. βWhat do you see when you look at her, Prince?β
He didnβt know. These days, he didnβt know a damn thing. βThatβs none of your concern, either.β
Emrys ran a hand over his weathered face. βI see her slipping away, bit by bit, because you shove her down when she so desperately needs someone to help her back up.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3))
β
Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time. Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, the only fact we have. It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death--ought to decide, indeed, to earn one's death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life. One is responsible for life: It is the small beacon in that terrifying darkness from which we come and to which we shall return.
β
β
James Baldwin (The Fire Next Time (Vintage International))
β
If You Forget Me
I want you to know
one thing.
You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.
Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.
If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.
If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.
But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.
β
β
Pablo Neruda
β
I painted stars and the moon and clouds and just endless, dark sky.β I finished the sixth, and was well on my way sawing through the seventh before I said, βI never knew why. I rarely went outside at nightβusually, I was so tired from hunting that I just wanted to sleep. But I wonder β¦ β I pulled out the seventh and final arrow. βI wonder if some part of me knew what was waiting for me. That I would never be a gentle grower of things, or someone who burned like fireβbut that I would be quiet and enduring and as faceted as the night. That I would have beauty, for those who knew where to look, and if people didnβt bother to look, but to only fear it β¦ Then I didnβt particularly care for them, anyway. I wonder if, even in my despair and hopelessness, I was never truly alone. I wonder if I was looking for this placeβlooking for you all.
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Sarah J. Maas (A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2))
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Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away ere break of day
To seek the pale enchanted gold.
The dwarves of yore made mighty spells,
While hammers fell like ringing bells
In places deep, where dark things sleep,
In hollow halls beneath the fells.
For ancient king and elvish lord
There many a gleaming golden hoard
They shaped and wrought, and light they caught
To hide in gems on hilt of sword.
On silver necklaces they strung
The flowering stars, on crowns they hung
The dragon-fire, in twisted wire
They meshed the light of moon and sun.
Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away, ere break of day,
To claim our long-forgotten gold.
Goblets they carved there for themselves
And harps of gold; where no man delves
There lay they long, and many a song
Was sung unheard by men or elves.
The pines were roaring on the height,
The wind was moaning in the night.
The fire was red, it flaming spread;
The trees like torches blazed with light.
The bells were ringing in the dale
And men looked up with faces pale;
The dragon's ire more fierce than fire
Laid low their towers and houses frail.
The mountain smoked beneath the moon;
The dwarves, they heard the tramp of doom.
They fled their hall to dying fall
Beneath his feet, beneath the moon.
Far over the misty mountains grim
To dungeons deep and caverns dim
We must away, ere break of day,
To win our harps and gold from him!
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J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit, or There and Back Again)
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Roads Go Ever On
Roads go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
And under mountains in the moon.
Roads go ever ever on,
Under cloud and under star.
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes that fire and sword have seen,
And horror in the halls of stone
Look at last on meadows green,
And trees and hills they long have known.
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet.
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with weary feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
The Road goes ever on and on
Out from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone.
Let others follow, if they can!
Let them a journey new begin.
But I at last with weary feet
Will turn towards the lighted inn,
My evening-rest and sleep to meet.
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J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings)
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Stood in firelight, sweltering. Bloodstain on chest like map of violent new continent. Felt cleansed. Felt dark planet turn under my feet and knew what cats know that makes them scream like babies in night.
Looked at sky through smoke heavy with human fat and God was not there. The cold, suffocating dark goes on forever and we are alone. Live our lives, lacking anything better to do. Devise reason later. Born from oblivion; bear children, hell-bound as ourselves, go into oblivion. There is nothing else.
Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose. This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. Itβs us. Only us. Streets stank of fire. The void breathed hard on my heart, turning its illusions to ice, shattering them. Was reborn then, free to scrawl own design on this morally blank world.
Was Rorschach.
Does that answer your Questions, Doctor?
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Alan Moore (Watchmen)
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I will love you as a thief loves a gallery and as a crow loves a murder, as a cloud loves bats and as a range loves braes. I will love you as misfortune loves orphans, as fire loves innocence and as justice loves to sit and watch while everything goes wrong. I will love you as a battlefield loves young men and as peppermints love your allergies, and I will love you as the banana peel loves the shoe of a man who was just struck by a shingle falling off a house. I will love you as a volunteer fire department loves rushing into burning buildings and as burning buildings love to chase them back out, and as a parachute loves to leave a blimp and as a blimp operator loves to chase after it.
I will love you as a dagger loves a certain personβs back, and as a certain person loves to wear dagger proof tunics, and as a dagger proof tunic loves to go to a certain dry cleaning facility, and how a certain employee of a dry cleaning facility loves to stay up late with a pair of binoculars, watching a dagger factory for hours in the hopes of catching a burglar, and as a burglar loves sneaking up behind people with binoculars, suddenly realizing that she has left her dagger at home. I will love you as a drawer loves a secret compartment, and as a secret compartment loves a secret, and as a secret loves to make a person gasp, and as a gasping person loves a glass of brandy to calm their nerves, and as a glass of brandy loves to shatter on the floor, and as the noise of glass shattering loves to make someone else gasp, and as someone else gasping loves a nearby desk to lean against, even if leaning against it presses a lever that loves to open a drawer and reveal a secret compartment. I will love you until all such compartments are discovered and opened, and until all the secrets have gone gasping into the world. I will love you until all the codes and hearts have been broken and until every anagram and egg has been unscrambled.
I will love you until every fire is extinguised and until every home is rebuilt from the handsomest and most susceptible of woods, and until every criminal is handcuffed by the laziest of policemen. I will love until M. hates snakes and J. hates grammar, and I will love you until C. realizes S. is not worthy of his love and N. realizes he is not worthy of the V. I will love you until the bird hates a nest and the worm hates an apple, and until the apple hates a tree and the tree hates a nest, and until a bird hates a tree and an apple hates a nest, although honestly I cannot imagine that last occurrence no matter how hard I try. I will love you as we grow older, which has just happened, and has happened again, and happened several days ago, continuously, and then several years before that, and will continue to happen as the spinning hands of every clock and the flipping pages of every calendar mark the passage of time, except for the clocks that people have forgotten to wind and the calendars that people have forgotten to place in a highly visible area. I will love you as we find ourselves farther and farther from one another, where we once we were so close that we could slip the curved straw, and the long, slender spoon, between our lips and fingers respectively.
I will love you until the chances of us running into one another slip from slim to zero, and until your face is fogged by distant memory, and your memory faced by distant fog, and your fog memorized by a distant face, and your distance distanced by the memorized memory of a foggy fog. I will love you no matter where you go and who you see, no matter where you avoid and who you donβt see, and no matter who sees you avoiding where you go. I will love you no matter what happens to you, and no matter how I discover what happens to you, and no matter what happens to me as I discover this, and now matter how I am discovered after what happens to me as I am discovering this.
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Lemony Snicket
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If I should have a daughterβ¦βInstead of βMomβ, sheβs gonna call me βPoint B.β Because that way, she knows that no matter what happens, at least she can always find her way to me. And Iβm going to paint the solar system on the back of her hands so that she has to learn the entire universe before she can say βOh, I know that like the back of my hand.β
Sheβs gonna learn that this life will hit you, hard, in the face, wait for you to get back up so it can kick you in the stomach. But getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air. There is hurt, here, that cannot be fixed by band-aids or poetry, so the first time she realizes that Wonder-woman isnβt coming, Iβll make sure she knows she doesnβt have to wear the cape all by herself. Because no matter how wide you stretch your fingers, your hands will always be too small to catch all the pain you want to heal. Believe me, Iβve tried.
And βBaby,β Iβll tell her βdonβt keep your nose up in the air like that, I know that trick, youβre just smelling for smoke so you can follow the trail back to a burning house so you can find the boy who lost everything in the fire to see if you can save him. Or else, find the boy who lit the fire in the first place to see if you can change him.β
But I know that she will anyway, so instead Iβll always keep an extra supply of chocolate and rain boats nearby, βcause there is no heartbreak that chocolate canβt fix. Okay, thereβs a few heartbreaks chocolate canβt fix. But thatβs what the rain boots are for, because rain will wash away everything if you let it.
I want her to see the world through the underside of a glass bottom boat, to look through a magnifying glass at the galaxies that exist on the pin point of a human mind. Because thatβs how my mom taught me. That thereβll be days like this, βThereβll be days like this my momma saidβ when you open your hands to catch and wind up with only blisters and bruises. When you step out of the phone booth and try to fly and the very people you wanna save are the ones standing on your cape. When your boots will fill with rain and youβll be up to your knees in disappointment and those are the very days you have all the more reason to say βthank you,β βcause there is nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline no matter how many times itβs sent away.
You will put the βwindβ in win some lose some, you will put the βstarβ in starting over and over, and no matter how many land mines erupt in a minute be sure your mind lands on the beauty of this funny place called life.
And yes, on a scale from one to over-trusting I am pretty damn naive but I want her to know that this world is made out of sugar. It can crumble so easily but donβt be afraid to stick your tongue out and taste it.
βBaby,β Iβll tell her βremember your mama is a worrier but your papa is a warrior and you are the girl with small hands and big eyes who never stops asking for more.β
Remember that good things come in threes and so do bad things and always apologize when youβve done something wrong but donβt you ever apologize for the way your eyes refuse to stop shining.
Your voice is small but donβt ever stop singing and when they finally hand you heartbreak, slip hatred and war under your doorstep and hand you hand-outs on street corners of cynicism and defeat, you tell them that they really ought to meet your mother.
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Sarah Kay