By The Fire Quotes

We've searched our database for all the quotes and captions related to By The Fire. Here they are! All 100 of them:

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If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.
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J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
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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.
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J.R.R. Tolkien (The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1))
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A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.
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George R.R. Martin (A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire, #5))
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It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.
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J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
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... a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.
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George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
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Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it.
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J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
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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.
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Terry Pratchett (Jingo (Discworld, #21; City Watch, #4))
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I wish I could freeze this moment, right here, right now and live in it forever.
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Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
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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.
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George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
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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.
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J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
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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.
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Herbert Bayard Swope
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We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.
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J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
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Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love.
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William Shakespeare (Hamlet)
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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
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Nicholas Sparks
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You know, you could live a thousand lifetimes and not deserve him.
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Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
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what matters most is how well you walk through the fire
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Charles Bukowski
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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.
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George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
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Man may have discovered fire, but women discovered how to play with it.
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Candace Bushnell (Sex and the City)
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Percy wouldn't notice a joke if it danced naked in front of him wearing one of Dobby's hats.
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J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
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My nightmares are usually about losing you. I'm okay once I realize you're here.
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Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
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Fire is catching! And if we burn, you burn with us!
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Suzanne Collins (Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3))
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Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell.
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Joan Crawford
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Fear cuts deeper than swords.
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George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
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Don't talk to me." "Why not?" "Because I want to fix that in my memory for ever. Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret...
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J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
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Some old wounds never truly heal, and bleed again at the slightest word.
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George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
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A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.
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Madeleine L'Engle
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As if you were on fire from within. The moon lives in the lining of your skin.
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Pablo Neruda
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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.
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Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged)
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Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery.
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J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
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You cannot pick and choose what parts of her to love.
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Sarah J. Maas (Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3))
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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.
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Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1))
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So it's you and a syringe against the Capitol? See, this is why no one lets you make the plans.
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Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
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I realize only one person will be damaged beyond repair if Peeta dies. Me.
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Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
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It is my belief... that the truth is generally preferable to lies.
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J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
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She was the heir of ash and fire, and she would bow to no one.
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Sarah J. Maas (Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3))
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Winter is coming.
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George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
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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.
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Robert Frost
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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!
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Shel Silverstein
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Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness.
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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))
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I suppose a fire that burns that bright is not meant to last.
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Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
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The truth is what I make it. I could set this world on fire and call it rain.
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Victoria Aveyard (Red Queen (Red Queen, #1))
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When you play a game of thrones you win or you die.
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George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
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I always channel my emotions into my work. That way, I don't hurt anyone but myself.
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Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
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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.
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James Baldwin (The Fire Next Time)
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When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives.
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George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
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Trust your heart if the seas catch fire, live by love though the stars walk backward.
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E.E. Cummings
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And then I am going to rattle the stars.
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Sarah J. Maas (Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3))
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Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.
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William Shakespeare (Macbeth)
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Fire-breathing bitch-queen.
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Sarah J. Maas (Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4))
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Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it.
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George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
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If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.
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Emily Dickinson
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Death is so terribly final, while life is full of possibilities.
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George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
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The things we love destroy us every time, lad. Remember that.
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George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
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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!
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J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1))
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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.
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William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)
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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.
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Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich)
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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.
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Edith Sitwell
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The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.
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Plutarch
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Why is it that when one man builds a wall, the next man immediately needs to know what's on the other side?
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George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
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People often claim to hunger for truth, but seldom like the taste when it's served up.
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George R.R. Martin (A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2))
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Katniss, the girl who was on fire!
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Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1))
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I claim you, Rowan Whitethorn. I don't care what you say and how much you protest. I claim you as my friend.
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Sarah J. Maas (Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3))
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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.
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Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
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A great fire burns within me, but no one stops to warm themselves at it, and passers-by only see a wisp of smoke
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Vincent van Gogh
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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.
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George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
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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.
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Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
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...her dearest friends are characters in books.
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Sarah J. Maas (Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3))
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Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.
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J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
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Each of us is born with a box of matches inside us but we can't strike them all by ourselves
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Laura Esquivel (Like Water for Chocolate)
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Once you’ve accepted your flaws, no one can use them against you.
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George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
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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.
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Cassandra Clare (City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6))
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Double, double, toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble!
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William Shakespeare (Macbeth)
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We had to save you because you're the mockingjay, Katniss," says Plutarch. "While you live, the revolution lives.
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Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
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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.
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Sarah J. Maas (Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4))
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I remember awakening one morning and finding everything smeared with the color of forgotten love.
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Charles Bukowski (What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire)
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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!
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George Carlin
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She was Aelin Ashryver Galathyniusβ€”Β­and she would not be afraid.
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Sarah J. Maas (Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3))
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Technically, I am unarmed. But no one should ever underestimate the harm that fingernails can do. Especially if the target is unprepared.
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Suzanne Collins (Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3))
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So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings.
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J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit, or There and Back Again (The Lord of the Rings, #0))
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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.
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Charles Bukowski (What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire)
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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.
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George R.R. Martin (A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2))
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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.
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Eleanor Roosevelt
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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.
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George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
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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.
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Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
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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 couldn’t see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason, for anything.
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Stephenie Meyer (New Moon (The Twilight Saga, #2))
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Peeta, how come I never know when you're having a nightmare?” I say. β€œI don't know. I don't think I cry out or thrash around or anything. I just come to, paralyzed with terror,” he says. β€œYou should wake me,” 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. β€œIt's not necessary. My nightmares are usually about losing you,” he says. β€œI'm okay once I realize you're here.
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Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
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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.
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Charlotte BrontΓ« (Jane Eyre)
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Stay,” she panted. Tears leaked from her eyes. β€œStay till the end.” β€œAnd after,” he said. β€œAnd always.” β€œI want to feel safe again. I want to go home to Ravka.” β€œThen I’ll take you there. We’ll set fire to raisins or whatever you heathens do for fun.” β€œZealot,” she said weakly. β€œWitch.” β€œBarbarian.” β€œNina,” he whispered, β€œlittle red bird. Don’t go.
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Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1))
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The so-called β€˜psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn’t do so out of quote β€˜hopelessness’ or any abstract conviction that life’s 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 fire’s flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. It’s not desiring the fall; it’s terror of the flames. And yet nobody down on the sidewalk, looking up and yelling β€˜Don’t!’ and β€˜Hang on!’, can understand the jump. Not really. You’d have to have personally been trapped and felt flames to really understand a terror way beyond falling.
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David Foster Wallace
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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.
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Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
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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.
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Pablo Neruda
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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
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J.R.R. Tolkien
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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.
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Vladimir Nabokov (Lolita)
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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.
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Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
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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.
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John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
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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, β€œYes!” 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.
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Oriah Mountain Dreamer
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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.
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Pablo Neruda
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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 (The Lord of the Rings, #0))
β€œ
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 person’s 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 don’t 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€¦β€œInstead of β€œMom”, she’s gonna call me β€œPoint B.” Because that way, she knows that no matter what happens, at least she can always find her way to me. And I’m 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 β€œOh, I know that like the back of my hand.” She’s 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 isn’t coming, I’ll make sure she knows she doesn’t 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, I’ve tried. And β€œBaby,” I’ll tell her β€œdon’t keep your nose up in the air like that, I know that trick, you’re 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.” But I know that she will anyway, so instead I’ll always keep an extra supply of chocolate and rain boats nearby, β€˜cause there is no heartbreak that chocolate can’t fix. Okay, there’s a few heartbreaks chocolate can’t fix. But that’s 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 that’s how my mom taught me. That there’ll be days like this, β€œThere’ll be days like this my momma said” 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 you’ll be up to your knees in disappointment and those are the very days you have all the more reason to say β€œthank you,” β€˜cause there is nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline no matter how many times it’s sent away. You will put the β€œwind” in win some lose some, you will put the β€œstar” 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 don’t be afraid to stick your tongue out and taste it. β€œBaby,” I’ll tell her β€œremember 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.” Remember that good things come in threes and so do bad things and always apologize when you’ve done something wrong but don’t you ever apologize for the way your eyes refuse to stop shining. Your voice is small but don’t 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