Damsel Quotes

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

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I have a fetish for damsels in distress.” β€œDon’t be sexist.” β€œNot at all. My services are also available to gentlemen in distress. It’s an equal opportunity fetish.
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Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
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I look up to say something but he puts his finger to my lips and whispers, β€œDon’t talk. You’ll just spoil my fantasy of rescuing an innocent damsel in distress as soon as you open your mouth.
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Susan Ee (World After (Penryn & the End of Days, #2))
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I don't damsel well. Distress, I can do. Damseling? Not so much.
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James Patterson (Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports (Maximum Ride, #3))
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This isn't a romance. You're not a damsel in distress and I'm not the handsome prince come to save you.
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C.J. Roberts (Captive in the Dark (The Dark Duet, #1))
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So are you going to be my knight in shining armor or what?' Kent does a little bow. 'You know I can't resist a damsel in distress.
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Lauren Oliver (Before I Fall)
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No, whether a woman is a concubine to fuck or a damsel to redeem, she's always just some passive object to fulfill a man's purpose.
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Chuck Palahniuk (Snuff)
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I’m not a damsel and there is no distress
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Carrie Jones (Need (Need, #1))
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I'd never been a good damsel in distress. I was a "hands-on" damsel.
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Jenny Trout (Possession (Blood Ties, #2))
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I'm done being the damsel in distress. I don't need anyone to save me.
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C.J. Roberts (Seduced in the Dark (The Dark Duet, #2))
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I have to get back there." I said to Adrian. "Into that door." He arched an eyebrow. "What, like sneaking in? How very black ops of you. And oh, you knowβ€” dangerous and foolish." "I know." I said, surprised at how calm I sounded as I admitted that. "But I have to know something, and this may be my only chance." "Then I'll go with you in case that guy comes back," he said with a sigh. "Never let it be said Adrian Ivashkov doesn't help damsels in distress.
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Richelle Mead (Bloodlines (Bloodlines, #1))
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But you're a prisoner," said Thorne. "I prefer damsel in distress," she murmured. One side of Thorne's mouth quirked up, into that perfect half smile he'd had in his graduation photo. A look that was a little bit devious, and all sorts of charming. Cress's heart stopped, but if they noticed her melting into her chair, they didn't say anything.
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Marissa Meyer (Cress (The Lunar Chronicles, #3))
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Alec and I are unafraid to express our manly love,” said Jace. β€œSometimes he carries me around like a swooning damsel.” β€œReally?” said Kit. β€œNo,” said Jace. β€œI’m very heavy, especially when fully armed. What did you want to talk to me about?” β€œActually, that,” said Kit. β€œMy weight?
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Cassandra Clare (Queen of Air and Darkness (The Dark Artifices, #3))
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You always were selfish. Your one fault. Not willing to share anything, are you?" Suddenly, Damon's lips curved up in a singularly beautiful smile. But fortunately the lovely Elena is more generous. Didn't she tell you about our little liaisons? Why? The first time we met she almost gave herself to me on the spot." "That's a lie!" "Oh, no, dear brother, I never lie about anything important. Or do I mean unimportant? Anyway, your beauteous damsel nearly swooned into my arms. I think she likes men in black." As Stefan stared at him, trying to control his breathing, Damon added, almost gently, "You're wrong about her, you know, You think she's sweet and docile like Katherine. She isn't. She's not your type at all, my saintly brother. She has a spirit and a fire in her that you wouldn't know what to do with." "And you would, I suppose." Damon uncrossed his arms and slowly smiled again. "Oh, yes.
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L.J. Smith (The Awakening / The Struggle (The Vampire Diaries, #1-2))
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She managed a smile. "You're kind of pushy, you know." He shrugged. "I have a fetish for damsels in distress." "Don't be sexist." "Not at all. My services are also available to gentlemen in distress. It's an equal opportunity fetish," he said, and with a flourish, offered his arm again.
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Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
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Damsels? You get sliced open, burned, and dashed against rocks about a thousand times or so. Then we'll see who the damsel is.
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Kendare Blake (Girl of Nightmares (Anna, #2))
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Isn't that what a gentleman does? Rescues a damsel in distress?
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Julianne Donaldson (Edenbrooke (Edenbrooke, #1))
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I'm a damsel, I'm in distress, I can handle this. Have a nice day!
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Walt Disney Company
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Mia looked over the new bruises on Tric's face, shook her head. 'My brave centurion. Riding in on his charger to save his poor damsel? Hold me, brave sir, I fear I shall swoon.
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Jay Kristoff (Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle, #1))
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Because if there was one thing Cress knew about heroes, it was that they could not resist a damsel in distress. And she was nothing if not in distress.
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Marissa Meyer (Cress (The Lunar Chronicles, #3))
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I've done nothing for the past five years but try to be the hero who protects her. The problem? Heroines don't need protecting.
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Colleen Hoover (Maybe Someday (Maybe, #1))
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I might be the only chick in the group, but that didn't make me the damsel in distress.
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Jeaniene Frost (This Side of the Grave (Night Huntress, #5))
β€œ
Single ladies, we are not Damsels in Distress…we are Divas that Impress!
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Mandy Hale (The Single Woman–Life, Love, and a Dash of Sass: Embracing Singleness with Confidence)
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Let Valten go save his own damsel in distress. I'm sure there are other maidens he can fall in love with.
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Melanie Dickerson (The Fairest Beauty (Hagenheim, #3))
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Lily lit up. β€œDo I want to come on a bro road trip with you, rushing to the aid of gorgeous damsel in distress, Jem I’d-love-to-climb-’em Carstairs?
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Cassandra Clare (The Land I Lost (Ghosts of the Shadow Market, #7))
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It [Ashfair House] was an old fashioned houseβ€”the sort of house in fact, as Strange expressed it, which a lady in a novel might like to be persecuted in.
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Susanna Clarke (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell)
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Aunt Syl must have conveniently stopped reading the childhood fairy tales when the knight left the damsel in distress to pursue a better damsel out of my bedtime routine.
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Rachel Higginson (Endless Magic (Star-Crossed, #4))
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Want to talk third wave feminism, you could cite Ariel Levy and the idea that women have internalized male oppression. Going to spring break at Fort Lauderdale, getting drunk, and flashing your breasts isn't an act of personal empowerment. It's you, so fashioned and programmed by the construct of patriarchal society that you no longer know what's best for yourself. A damsel too dumb to even know she's in distress.
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Chuck Palahniuk (Snuff)
β€œ
Don't talk. You'll just spoil my fantasy of rescuing an innocent damsel in distress as soon as you open your mouth.
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Susan Ee (World After (Penryn & the End of Days, #2))
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Well, sorry pet, I don't want to be fixed. Whatever your little schoolgirl brain told you about men is absurdly wrong. This isn't a romance. You're not a damsel-in-distress and I'm not the handsome prince come to save you.
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C.J. Roberts (Captive in the Dark (The Dark Duet, #1))
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What makes you think I'm giving you a ride?” β€œBecause I'm a damsel in distress,” she said. β€œAnd you are a knight in whatever. A really dirty car.
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Neil Gaiman (American Gods (American Gods, #1))
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The only thing true about what you just said was the storybook damsel part - and that only because you're pretty enough to be one.
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Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
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A damsel in complete distress was a burden to her protectors; one familiar with self defence, not as much.
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Grace Draven (Eidolon (Wraith Kings, #2))
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You are a scoundrel," she whispered furiously. "Yes," he agreed. "I'm thinking of starting a Society of Gentlemen Scoundrels." "You're millennia too late. It already exists and is called the patriarchy.
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India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels (Dangerous Damsels, #1))
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Brave? Or stupid?" Roger shrugged. "I've never been quite sure where brave stopped and stupid began, myself.
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Gerald Morris (The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf (The Squire's Tales, #3))
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We're all hunters in my family, you know. Deer, ducks…damsels.
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Nenia Campbell (Terrorscape (Horrorscape, #3))
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You’re not a very pleasant damsel in distress,” Park remarked. β€œAnd you’re a shitty Lassie. Timmy never had to wait this long when he fell down a well.
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Charlie Adhara (The Wolf at the Door (Big Bad Wolf, #1))
β€œ
Thorne would come for her. He was a hero. She was a damsel. That’s how the stories wentβ€”that’s how they always went.
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Marissa Meyer (Cress (The Lunar Chronicles, #3))
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I take it that he is more than just a woodcutter.” β€œNo one is just a woodcutter,” replied Terence. β€œA person's always more than his present occupation.
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Gerald Morris (The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf (The Squire's Tales, #3))
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Suddenly his expression turned to alarm. He sprinted toward us. For a moment I had an absurd vision of myself on the cover of one of Gran’s old romance novels, where the damsel wilts into the arms of one half-dressed beefy guy while another stands by,casting her longing looks. Oh, the horrible choices a girl must make! I wished I’d had a moment to clean up. I was still covered in dried river muck, twine, and grass, like I’d been tarred and feathered. Then Anubis pushed past me and gripped Walt’s shoulders. Well…that was unexpected.
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Rick Riordan (The Serpent's Shadow (The Kane Chronicles, #3))
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I accepted being a damn damsel in distress for you. You can be the hunky archangel in distress for once.
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Nalini Singh (Archangel's Heart (Guild Hunter, #9))
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Sober or blotto, this is your motto: keep muddling through.
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P.G. Wodehouse (A Damsel in Distress)
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All right, damsel. Send over those coordinates.
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Marissa Meyer (Cress (The Lunar Chronicles, #3))
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I have this recurring nightmare where I'm lost in a strange forest, and my only hope is your sense of direction. Enough to give a fellow the sweats, it is.
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Gerald Morris (The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf (The Squire's Tales, #3))
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A worshipper perceives that he is near to God because he is awake all night worshipping God. But after worship, your prayers are for health, long life, wealth, and for the damsels and slaves of the Paradise. Ponder! Did you ever pray to God, β€˜O’ God, I desire from Thee nothing but Thee’?
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Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi
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These days when you kiss a prince you often run the risk of turning him into a frog. But don't let the ogres in shining armor get you down. There is no need for distress - you don't want to be anyone's damsel anyway. Simply remind yourself that you are busy racking up those 'frequent failure points' that will eventually pay for an all expenses paid trip to Mr Right.
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Anthon St. Maarten
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It was my TBR-my TO Be Read stack. The usual subjects were there. Chick lit. Action. A Pulitzer Prize winner. A romance novel about a pirate and a damsel in a low-cut blouse (What? Even vampire enjoys a little bodice ripping now and again.)
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Chloe Neill (Hard Bitten (Chicagoland Vampires, #4))
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Raise your daughter so she is not a damsel in distress. Raise her so she can be the one saving herself. - Raising A Strong Daughter: What Fathers Should Know by Finlay Gow JD and Kailin Gow MA
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Kailin Gow
β€œ
Not all girls are made of sugar and spice and all things nice. These are girls made of dark lace and witchcraft and a little bit of vice. These are daughters made claw first and story-mad, tiger roar and wolf-bad. These are women made of terrible tempests and savage storms and the untamed unwanted. These are damsels made of flawless fearlessness made of more bravery than knights have ever seen. These are princesses made of valour and poison alike and they are here to hold court as your queens.
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Nikita Gill
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I said you lie, knave!” shouted Beaumains, drawing his sword. β€œAnd for telling such craven falsehoods, you must die!” The knight looked plaintively at Roger. β€œWhat’s wrong with this fellow?” β€œHe was dropped on his head when he was a baby,” answered Roger.
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Gerald Morris (The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf (The Squire's Tales, #3))
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Then he looked by him, and was ware of a damsel that came riding as fast as her horse might gallop upon a fair palfrey. And when she espied that Sir Lanceor was slain, then she made sorrow out of measure, and said, "O Balin ! two bodies hast thou slain and one heart, and two hearts in one body, and two souls thou hast lost.
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Thomas Malory
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God, thought Ross, it does work, and unfairly; but I want her, not any other, not the most beautiful eighteen-year-old damsel born out of a sea-shell, not the most seductive houri of any sultan's harem; I want her with her familiar gestures and her shining smile and her scarred knees, and I know she wants me in just the same way, and if there's any happiness more complete than this I don't know it and am not sure I even want it.
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Winston Graham (The Black Moon (Poldark, #5))
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She liked a very particular kind of plot: the sort where the pirate kidnaps some virgin damsel, rapes her into loving him, and then dispatches lots of seamen while she polishes his cutlass. Or where the Highland clan leader kidnaps some virginal English Rose, rapes her into loving him, and then kills entire armies Sassenachs while she stuffs his haggis. Or where the Native American warrior kidnaps a virginal white settler, rapes her into loving him, and then kills a bunch of colonists while she whets his tomahawk. I hated to get Freudian on Linda, but her reading patterns suggested some interesting insight into why she is such a bitch.
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Nicole Peeler (Tempest Rising (Jane True, #1))
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She was too much and not enough, both in the same instant. Too big and too small; too bright and too dull; too affectionate and not affectionate enough.
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Elana K. Arnold (Damsel)
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See what I mean? You fell off. You're such a damsel in distress.
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Peach-Pit
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Maybe she wasn't a damsel in distress, but it still felt nice to anchor herself to something before casting herself into the unknown.
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Olivie Blake (The Atlas Six (The Atlas, #1))
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Also, gasping is for damsels, and I'm a gangster.
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Tarryn Fisher (F*ck Love)
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I'm not really what you'd call a damsel in distress." "I hate fucking damsels. Always in such distress. Who wants a high-maintenance girl like that?
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Juliette Cross (Darkest Heart (Dominion, #1))
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I saw myself as a knight-errant...but the damsel in distress stabbed me in the back, my sword shattered on the dragon's hide, and my grail turned out to be the bottom of a whiskey bottle.
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Simon R. Green (Something from the Nightside (Nightside, #1))
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Don't make yourself so special," the dwarf said with a snort. "As if getting lost was some trick that only women knew. I've known men who could get lost in their own bedrooms. The only difference is that men with no sense of direction don't brag about it, the way women do.
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Gerald Morris (The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf (The Squire's Tales, #3))
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In the case of our fair maiden, we have overlooked two very crucial aspects to that myth. On the one hand, none of us ever really believed the sorcerer was real. We thought we could have the maiden without a fight. Honestly, most of us guys thought our biggest battle was asking her out. And second, we have not understood the tower and its relationship to her wound; the damsel is in distress. If masculinity has come under assault, femininity has been brutalized. Eve is the crown of creation, remember? She embodies the exquisite beauty and the exotic mystery of God in a way that nothing else in all creation even comes close to. And so she is the special target of the Evil One; he turns his most vicious malice against her. If he can destroy her or keep her captive, he can ruin the story.
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John Eldredge (Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul)
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Lord Marshmoreton: I wish I could get you see my point of view. George Bevan: I do see your point of view. But dimly. You see, my own takes up such a lot of the foreground
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P.G. Wodehouse (A Damsel in Distress)
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We have only three laws in our Society, Cecilia. No killing civilians. Pour the tea before the milk. And no stealing each other’s houses.
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India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels (Dangerous Damsels, #1))
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Excuse me? "I am not a damsel in distress. If I were, do you think I could do that?" I point to the two unconscious goons I had taken out." "You're not an average damsel in distress, I'll give you that.
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Jes Drew (The Time I Saved the Day (The Ninja and Hunter Series #1))
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So what if he's hot, sometimes. Like every time I look at him. Besides, annoying he may be, but he's had his shining White Knight Moment, what with the whole saving-me-and-my-best-friend-from-a-brawl-and-probable-jail-time thing. Even if I'm no damsel in distress and he's miles away from Prince Charming, such displays of gallantry, combined with his not-bad-okay-actually-pretty-good looks, make my strange lusty feelings completely justified. Practically obligatory, even.
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Hannah Harrington (Saving June)
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Need someone to rescue?” She interrupted him again, spitting her words out with all the rage, contempt, and anger she had bottled up inside. β€œI’m not a damsel in distress, and you sir, are no knight in shining double breasted, JC Penny!
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Dennis Sharpe (Wednesday)
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Lynet scowled. "I’m just so tired of young knights wearing their father’s armor and dreaming romantic dreams riding up to their death.
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Gerald Morris (The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf (The Squire's Tales, #3))
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What every man should desire is an ugly woman with a beautiful heart, not a beautiful woman with an ugly heart.
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Michael Bassey Johnson
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We are exactly that, Signor. Corsairs, robbers, pirates. I, however, am also a bibliophile, and you are impeding my visit to the library. So either assassinate me now and get it over with, or kindly step aside.
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India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels (Dangerous Damsels, #1))
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I made you beautiful,” Emory said again, again. β€œYou keep saying that,” Ama answered. β€œBut I did not ask for your beauty. I made beauty all on my own. I did not need you then.
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Elana K. Arnold (Damsel)
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that’s enough history for today. Come and learn how to kill someone with a teaspoon.
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India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels (Dangerous Damsels, #1))
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You'd better come in handy. Something tells me we won't have time to be saving damsels in distress." Anna's brows knit. "Damsels? You get sliced open, burned, and dashed against the rocks about a thousand times or so. Then we'll see who the damsel is.
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Kendare Blake (Girl of Nightmares (Anna, #2))
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Seriously, why do you read that crap?" asked the girl. Book Boy snapped his volume shut and removed his glasses from his nose. "I speak the truth! In all of these books the girls are throwing themselves at the romantic heroes- romantic heroes who are dead, ho drink human blood. Be of good cheer, my brothers, for I tell you there is hope!" One of the other guys, a large black chap, rolled his lone eye. "Okay, you're cut off. Someone get him a cookbook or something." "Or, you know, some fair damsel to seduce," the girl said, looking up from her reflection.
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Lia Habel (Dearly, Departed (Gone With the Respiration, #1))
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Nothing is easier than to admit the truth of the universal struggle to find a good parking space.
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India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels (Dangerous Damsels, #1))
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...as your father, my instinct is to protect you ... Other people will want to protect you too. But remember that you are not a damsel in distress, waiting for some prince to rescue you. Forget the prince. With your brain and your resourcefulness, you can rescue yourself.
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Brad Meltzer (Heroes for My Daughter)
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The proprietor of the grocery store on the corner was bidding a silent farewell to a tomato which even he, though a dauntless optimist, had been compelled to recognize as having outlived its utility.
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P.G. Wodehouse (A Damsel in Distress)
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Mosca said nothing. The word β€˜damsel’ rankled with her. She suddenly thought of the clawed girl from the night before, jumping the filch on an icy street. Much the same age and build as Beamabeth, and far more beleaguered. What made a girl a β€˜damsel in distress’? Were they not allowed claws? Mosca had a hunch that if all damsels had claws they would spend a lot less time β€˜in distress’.
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Frances Hardinge (Fly Trap)
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Reading is not a hobby," she said. "It is a way of life.
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India Holton (The Secret Service of Tea and Treason (Dangerous Damsels, #3))
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I needed a book in case of emergencies." "You mean like being attacked by foul-mouthed highwaymen?" "No, I mean those moments when nothing important is happening, such as during travel. After supper. Before sleeping. Or whilst one's opponent reloads their gun.
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India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels (Dangerous Damsels, #1))
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[On Female Attraction to Men in Uniform] That male military persona feeds a subconscious, passive-aggressive female desire to dominate the warrior as he is perceived an iconic example of masculinity (particularly amongst traditionally warlike cultures). The damsel in distress theme always struck me as embodying this: the hapless, innocently beautiful woman unwittingly enraptures the heroic male so completely that he would risk all to submit to her at his own peril, and quite in spite of it.
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Tiffany Madison
β€œ
Once upon a time... ...as a fair maiden lay weeping upon a cold tombstone, her heartfelt desire was suddenly made real before her: tall, broad of shoulder, attired in gleaming silver and gold, her knight in shining armor had come to rescue his damsel in distress....
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Jude Deveraux (A Knight in Shining Armor (Montgomery/Taggert Family, #13))
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There are monsters all around us They can be so hard to see hey don't have fangs, no blood-soaked claws They look like you and me. But we're not defenseless We're no damsels in distress Together we can fend off the attack All we gotta do is watch our backs. Your body is beautiful how it is Who you love is nobody's business We all contemplate life and death It's the poet who gives these thoughts breath. The monster is strong, don't be mistaken It thrives on fear-keeps us isolated But together we can fend off its attack All we gotta do is watch our backs. In your darkest hour When the fight's made you weary When you think you've lost your power When you can't see clearly When you're ready to surrender Give in to the black look over your shoulder I've got your back.
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Gayle Forman (Sisters in Sanity)
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She took the spyglass from a nearby shelf and held it to her eye. The world was a vast black emptiness, echoing like the mordant spaces between soul-wrought words... Ned leaned across and removed the lens cap, and poetry became science again.
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India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels (Dangerous Damsels, #1))
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The next day, to the joy of all of Arthur's court, Sir Gareth was wed to the fair Lady Lyonesse of Cornwall. All who beheld the couple declared that ne'er had so handsome a knight wed so beautiful a maiden. At the same time, Sir Gaheris was wedded to the Lady Lynet, younger sister to the Lady Lyonesse. They looked alright too.
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Gerald Morris (The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf (The Squire's Tales, #3))
β€œ
Hey, Arnold," he said. I looked up 'in love with a white girl' on Google and found and article about that white girl named Cynthia who disappeared in Mexico last summer. You remember how her face was all over the papers and everybody said it was such a sad thing?" "I kinda remember," I said. "Well this article said that over two hundred Mexican girls have disappeared in the last three years in that same part of the country. And nobody says much about that. And that's racist. The guy who wrote the article says people care more about beautiful white girls than they do about everybody else on the planet. White girls are privileged. They're damsels in distress." So what does that mean?" I asked. "I think it means you're just a racist asshole like everybody else.
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Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian)
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Even the fantasies that had consoled and comforted her for so many years aboard the satellite were growing feeble. She was not a warrior, brave and strong and ready to defend justice. She was not the most beautiful girl in the land, able to evoke empathy and respect from even the most hard-hearted villain. She was not even a damsel knowing that a hero would someday rescue her.
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Marissa Meyer (Cress (The Lunar Chronicles, #3))
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Because of their DNA, most men loved a damsel in distress. Every time a man sees a pretty lass in trouble, even the boorish slob-of-a-man transforms into a chivalrous knight-in-shining-armour. This was why most women (no matter how strong, competent or resourceful) were forced to act shy, demure and helpless so that their men could feel like strong grizzly bears or ferocious mountain lions.
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Mallika Nawal (I'm a Woman & I'm on SALE (I'm a Woman, #1))
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Many had predicted that Robert would devote himself to Mrs. Pontellier when he arrived. Since the age of fifteen, which was eleven years before, Robert each summer at Grand Isle had constituted himself the devoted attendant of some fair dame or damsel. Sometimes it was a young girl, again a widow; but as often as not it was some interesting married woman.
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Kate Chopin (The Awakening)
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The main hallway of the Sternwood place was two stories high. Over the entrance doors, which would have let in a troop of Indian elephants, there was a broad stained-glass panel showing a knight in dark armor rescuing a lady who was tied to a tree and didn’t have any clothes on but some very long and convenient hair. The knight had pushed the vizor of his helmet back to be sociable, and he was fiddling with the knots on the ropes that tied the lady to the tree and not getting anywhere. I stood there and thought that if I lived in the house, I would sooner or later have to climb up there and help him. He didn’t seem to be really trying.
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Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe, #1))
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Dusk was the most colorful hour, with the horizon set on fire by the breath of the yawning sun.
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Elana K. Arnold (Damsel)
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Do not look so concerned on my behalf, Captain. It is a common enough statement. For example, I myself love that house there with the wooden shutters. I love tea. I love you, and your smile, and the way you sigh in your sleep. See, common. Unconcerning. We are still enemies.
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India Holton (The League of Gentlewomen Witches (Dangerous Damsels, #2))
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It is violence that best overcomes hate, vengeance that most certainly heals injury, and a good cup of tea that soothes the most anguished soul”; thus ran the motto of the Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels.
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India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels (Dangerous Damsels, #1))
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If someone rescues you, they own you. Not because you owe themβ€”you can sort that, with enough good favors or bottles of booze dressed up in ribbons. They own you because you’re not the lead in your story any more. You’re the poor struggling loser/helpless damsel/plucky sidekick who was saved from danger/dishonor/humiliation by the brilliant brave compassionate hero/heroine, and they get to decide which, because you’re not the one running this story, not any more.
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Tana French (The Trespasser (Dublin Murder Squad, #6))
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You see all the other fellows were so active and earnest and all that sort of thing- always rampaging, and skirmishing, and scouring the desert sands, and pacing the margin of the sea, and chasing knights all over the place, and devouring damsels, and going on generally- whereas I liked to get my meals regular and then to prop my back against a bit of rock and snooze a bit, and wake up and think of things going on and how they kept going on just the same, you know!
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Kenneth Grahame (The Reluctant Dragon)
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Once she exclaimed, "But I always thought that sorceresses were evil!" "What do you mean 'evil'?" Lynet has never considered the question. "You know," she said, after a moment, "unfriendly to people." "People!" repeated Morgana derisively. "As if humans were all that mattered. Just once I'd like to see people judged by how friendly they are to sorceresses.
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Gerald Morris (The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf (The Squire's Tales, #3))
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And that is the way it has always been," the queen mother said again. "And if something is the way it has always been, who are we to wish it otherwise? Who are we to want anything at all? Who are we to desire?" "I desire," Ama said.
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Elana K. Arnold (Damsel)
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What George was thinking was that the late king Herod had been unjustly blamed for a policy which had been both statesmanlike and in the interests of the public. He was blaming the mawkish sentimentality of the modern legal system which ranks the evisceration and secret burial of small boys as a crime.
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P.G. Wodehouse (A Damsel in Distress)
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But what's left on earth that I haven't tried?" Prince LΓ­r demanded. "I have swum four rivers, each in full flood and none less than a mile wide. I have climbed seven mountains never before climbed, slept three nights in the Marsh of the Hanged Men, and walked alive out of that forest where the flowers burn your eyes and the nightingales sing poison. I have ended my betrothal to the princess I had agreed to marry β€” and if you don't think that was a heroic deed, you don't know her mother. I have vanquished exactly fifteen black knights waiting by fifteen fords in their black pavilions, challenging all who come to cross. And I've long since lost count of the witches in the thorny woods, the giants, the demons disguised as damsels; the glass hills, fatal riddles, and terrible tasks; the magic apples, rings, lamps, potions, swords, cloaks, boots, neckties, and nightcaps. Not to mention the winged horses, the basilisks and sea serpents, and all the rest of the livestock." He raised his head, and the dark blue eyes were confused and sad. "And all for nothing," he said. "I cannot touch her, whatever I do. For her sake, I have become a hero β€” I, sleepy LΓ­r, my father's sport and shame β€” but I might as well have remained the dull fool I was. My great deeds mean nothing to her.
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Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn (The Last Unicorn, #1))
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Okay you guys need the dope on the real story of the princess and the frog...So once upon a time a beautiful independent confident princess came upon a frog sitting by a pond. The frog said to the princess 'I was once a handsome prince until an evil Witch put a spell on me.'...So the smart-assed frog said 'If you will just kiss me I will turn back into a prince. And then you'll marry me move into the castle with my mother and you can cook for me and clean my clothes have my children and live happy ever after while I go rescue a damsel in distress'...Later that night the princess laughed as she sat down to dinner. 'I don't think so ' she said and dug hungrily into her plate of frog's legs. And she lived happily ever after.
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Phyllis Curott (The Love Spell: An Erotic Memoir of Spiritual Awakening)
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Well I'm not going to hope that you get hurt, but if you do, remember that you're my damsel in distress, and no one is allowed to carry you." "I don't remember signing a contract." "All the more reason to promise me now." "What if you're not around when I get hurt?" "Send word, I`ll come running." "How big an injury does it have to be? Because sometimes I do this thing when I stand up too quickly and my ankle kind of twists a little---" "Sounds serious. You don't want to put any weight on that. I`d better carry you the next time that happens." "What if I skin my knee?" "I`ll carry you." "Charley horse?" "I`ll carry you." "Chipped toenail?" "Not worth taking a risk. I`ll carry you.” I grin at him [...] I have to admit -- he's funnier and smarter than I've given him credit for.
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Claire LaZebnik (The Trouble with Flirting)
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You know, all poetry may be a cry of generalised love, for this, or that, or the universe - which must be loved in its particularity, not its generality, but for its universal life in every minute particular. I have always supposed it to be a cry of ;unsatisfied love; - and so it may be indeed - for satisfaction may surfeit it and so it may die. I know many poets who write only when in an exalted state of mind which they compare to ;being in love;,when they do not simply state, that they are in love, that they seek love - for this fresh damsel - or that lively young woman - in order to find a fresh metaphor, or a new bright vision of things in themselves. And to tell you the truth, I have always believed I could diagnose this state of ;being in love; which they regard as ;most particular;, as inspired by item, one pair of black eyes or indifferent blue, ;item;, one graceful attitude of body or mind, ;item;, one female history of some twenty-two years from, shall we say 1821-1844 – I have always believed this ;in love; to be of something of the most abstract masking itself under the particular forms of both lover and beloved. And Poet who assumes and informs both.
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A.S. Byatt (Possession)