β
When you have lost hope, you have lost everything. And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
Thatβs the worst way to miss somebody. When theyβre right beside you and you miss them anyway.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
It's the little mistakes that lead to big mistakes.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
The price of a memory, is the memory of the sorrow it brings.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
We don't have to be defined by the things we did or didn't do in our past. Some people allow themselves to be controlled by regret. Maybe it's a regret, maybe it's not. It's merely something that happened. Get over it.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
The only limits for tomorrow are the doubts we have today.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Power of Six (Lorien Legacies, #2))
β
And even if we were hunting vampires, what the hell is the Silly Putty for?
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
Those things that are the most obvious are the very things we've most likely to overlook.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
No. Don't give up hope just yet. It's the last thing to go. When you have lost hope, you have lost everything. And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
You know the saying: he who doesn't understand history is doomed to repeat it. And when it's repeated, the stakes are doubled.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
The key to change is letting go of the fear.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Power of Six (Lorien Legacies, #2))
β
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door β
Only this, and nothing more."
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; β vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow β sorrow for the lost Lenore β
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore β
Nameless here for evermore.
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me β filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,
Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door β
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; β
This it is, and nothing more."
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you"β here I opened wide the door; β
Darkness there, and nothing more.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?"
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!" β
Merely this, and nothing more.
Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice:
Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore β
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; β
'Tis the wind and nothing more."
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore;
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door β
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door β
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore.
Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore β
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
Much I marveled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaningβ little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blest with seeing bird above his chamber door β
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as "Nevermore.
β
β
Edgar Allan Poe (The Raven)
β
If you ever know a man who tries to drown his sorrows, kindly inform him his sorrows know how to swim.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Power of Six (Lorien Legacies, #2))
β
Never lose faith in yourself, and never lose hope; remember, even when this world throws its worst and then turns its back, there is still always hope.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Power of Six (Lorien Legacies, #2))
β
A place is only as good as the people in it.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
Best way to deal with fear is to confront it.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
In the beginning we were a group of nine.
Three are gone, dead.
There are six of us left.
They are hunting us, and they won't stop until they've killed us all.
I am Number Four.
I know that I am next.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
I'm looking at you. Why are you always trying to hide how pretty you are?
β
β
Cynthia Hand (Unearthly (Unearthly, #1))
β
I am an alien, I have extraordinary powers, with more to come, and I can do things that no human would dream of, but I still look like a fool.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
One of the gifts our planet gave us is to love completely. Without jealousy or insecurity or fear. Without pettiness. Without anger.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
I'll come back to you," I say. "I promise you, if it's the last thing I do, I'll come back to you."
Her face is buried in my neck. She nods.
"I'll count the minutes until you do." she says.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore β
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
ββTis some visitor,β I muttered, βtapping at my chamber door β
Only this and nothing more.
β
β
Edgar Allan Poe (The Raven)
β
Where are you originally from?β
βThe planet Lorien, three hundred million miles away.β
βMust have been a long trip, John Smith.β
βTook almost a year. Next time Iβm bringing a book.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Power of Six (Lorien Legacies, #2))
β
I'll come back to you," I say, "If it's the last thing I do, I'll come back to you.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
I was born knowing how to do three things - how to breathe, how to dream, and how to love you.
β
β
Alexandra Bracken (Lore)
β
All I can think about is what she must be doing, and how I wish she were still here.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
You've maddened me for you...have changed everything. So, I'm going to f*ck you long and hard, beauty, because if I'm to be enslaved by you-I want to be your master as well.
β
β
Kresley Cole (Pleasure of a Dark Prince (Immortals After Dark, #8))
β
I know what I'm capable of; I am a soldier now, a warrior. I am someone to fear, not hunt.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Rise of Nine (Lorien Legacies, #3))
β
A wise man once told me that only by leaving someone good can you meet someone better.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Rise of Nine (Lorien Legacies, #3))
β
My experiences have taught me that things rarely improve with a simple change of scenery.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Power of Six (Lorien Legacies, #2))
β
He who doesn't understand history is doomed to repeat it.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
She'd never seen a monster like that before, had never heard of one in all the Lore. When she grappled with the question of what it was, her sharply honed scientifical mind deduced one answer: manbearpig.
β
β
Kresley Cole (Demon from the Dark (Immortals After Dark, #9))
β
My heart is breaking," she says. "I want to be strong for you right now but the thought of you leaving is killing me inside.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
I don't like bullies. No one has a right to take or to hurt just because they can.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Rise of Nine (Lorien Legacies, #3))
β
Sometimes the braver thing is to accept help when you've been made to believe you shouldn't need it.
β
β
Alexandra Bracken (Lore)
β
Never underestimate human stupidity.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Fallen Legacies (Lorien Legacies: The Lost Files, #3))
β
I donβt know; I still like the name Six. Maren
Elizabeth was when I was a different person, and right now Six just feels right. It can be short for something if someone asks.β
Sam looks over. βFor what? Sixty?
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Power of Six (Lorien Legacies, #2))
β
Bad day?"
"Every day is a bad day here."
"Eh, this place isnt't so terrible."
"How are you always cheerful?"
"Alcohol," he says with a sideways grin.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Power of Six (Lorien Legacies, #2))
β
There were hugs. There were words said by each of them. I don't remember what they were. Nothing haunts me more.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
Straightaway, she'd called to the guard, "Oh, boys?" She'd sauntered to the glass in only her black lace bra and panties. "I need some assistance," When they slowed, agog, she'd purred, "Can one of you help me find my orgasm?
β
β
Kresley Cole (Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Immortals After Dark, #10))
β
I work my hardest and she still kicks the crap out of me.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Power of Six (Lorien Legacies, #2))
β
Power does not transform you, heβd said. It only reveals you.
β
β
Alexandra Bracken (Lore)
β
I smile at her. "You're an angel."
"Nah," she says.
"I'm just a girl crazy in love.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
I don't know where you have to go or what you have to do, but I'll wait for you, John. Every bit of my heart belongs to you, whether you ask for it or not.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
Sam picks the stone up and clenches his entire body in deep concentration. Nothing happens. " Oh come on," he says to the stone. " I promise to use it for the power of good. No girls' locker rooms, I swear.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Power of Six (Lorien Legacies, #2))
β
Nothing is written," said the Phoenix. "You humans always think you're destinied for greatness. Destiny is a myth. Destiny is the only myth. The gods choose nothing. You chose. You chose to take the exam. You chose to come to Sinegard. You chose to pledge Lore, you chose to study the paths of the gods, and you chose to follow your commander's demands over your master's warnings. At every critical juncture you were given an option; you were given a way out. Yet you picked precisely the roads that led you here. You are at this temple, kneeling before me, only because you wanted to be.
β
β
R.F. Kuang (The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1))
β
Even when the world throws it worst and then turns in its back, there is still always hope
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Power of Six (Lorien Legacies, #2))
β
Why couldn't you turn into a fireball when we were on the same team!
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Rise of Nine (Lorien Legacies, #3))
β
Scars are tallies of the battles youβve survived.
β
β
Alexandra Bracken (Lore)
β
Aidan from the past: He took her hands in his bloodied, callused ones. βAccept me?β His eyes glowed, his lashes spiked from rain.
Declan in the present: He gripped her nape. βI fuckin love you, Regin!β Rain spiked his lashes as he gazed down at her, commanding her, βLove me back!
β
β
Kresley Cole (Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Immortals After Dark, #10))
β
You kick ass Sam. And don't forget it
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Power of Six (Lorien Legacies, #2))
β
You guys are ridiculous," he says, retreating back to the kitchen.
"Your flirting just scared the hell out of me."
"Scared the hell out of me too.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Power of Six (Lorien Legacies, #2))
β
And if you donβt think I can hold my own against all those eighteenth-century mortals you were out tagging, then youβre a fool, Casanova.β ... βOh, yes, I know all about you.β
He went still. βWhat are you talking about?β
βI was alive back then. And all the Lore heard about the ruthless warlord brothers from Estonia. The general, the scholar, the enigma, and . . . the manwhore.
β
β
Kresley Cole (Deep Kiss of Winter (Includes: Immortals After Dark, #7; Alien Huntress, #3.5))
β
Whenever other Lore creatures like the nymphs and satyrs turned their noses up at the βhex-hacks,β Carrow would raise both her hands in the rock-on horns gesture and shout, βDouble, double, toil and trouble, muthafuckas! You just got cursed!β
Then she actually would curse them.
β
β
Kresley Cole (Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night (Immortals After Dark, #3))
β
No more, no less. I'm an idiot. I really need to let this crush go.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Rise of Nine (Lorien Legacies, #3))
β
You lie long enough and you start to get used to it.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
A person alone could be controlled, but a person loved by others would always be under their protection.
β
β
Alexandra Bracken (Lore)
β
Can you not see," I said, "that fairy tales in their essence are quite solid and straightforward; but that this everlasting fiction about modern life is in its nature essentially incredible? Folk-lore means that the soul is sane, but that the universe is wild and full of marvels. Realism means that the world is dull and full of routine, but that the soul is sick and screaming. The problem of the fairy tale isβwhat will a healthy man do with a fantastic world? The problem of the modern novel isβwhat will a madman do with a dull world? In the fairy tales the cosmos goes mad; but the hero does not go mad. In the modern novels the hero is mad before the book begins, and suffers from the harsh steadiness and cruel sanity of the cosmos.
β
β
G.K. Chesterton
β
The Mogadorian caught Number One in Malaysia,
Number Two in England,
And Number Three in Kenya.
I am Number Four.
I am next..."
- I AM NUMBER FOUR
β
β
Pittacus Lore
β
Being in love is a very strange thing. Your thoughts constantly drift towards this other person, no matter what youβre doing. You could be reaching for a glass in the cupboard or brushing your teeth or listening to someone tell a story, and your mind will just start drifting towards their face, their hair, the way they smell, wondering what theyβll wear, and what theyβll say the next time they see you. And on top of the constant dream state youβre in, your stomach feels like itβs connected to a bungee cord, and it bounces and bounces around for hours until it finally lodges itself next to your heart.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Power of Six (Lorien Legacies, #2))
β
He says we need to live in the real world, where war and death are a reality, not pretend.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
Tayla cursed under her breath. "I was just explaining to Eidolon that Sin is a Smurfette."
Wraith swung his big body around to study Sin with blue eyes that were very different from Shade's, E's. and Lore's. Sin's, too. "Nah. Smurfette is way hotter."
"What the fuck is a Smurfette?" Eidolon was seriously getting annoyed now.
"There's this cartoon called The Smurfs," Tayla explained, slowly, as though Eidolon were the child here.
"They're these little blue people, and they're all male. But one day a female shows up. She shouldn't exist, but she does."
Eidolon considered that for a second. "How did she get there?"
"An evil wizard named Gargamel made her," Tayla said. "In a lab or something."
"So you're suggesting that an evil wizard made Sin?"
"Of course not, silly. I'm just saying she's a Smurfette. A lone female amongst males."
Eidolon frowned. "Did the Smurfette mate with the males?"
"Dude." Wraith grimaced. "It's a cartoon.
β
β
Larissa Ione (Ecstasy Unveiled (Demonica, #4))
β
Fear is a foreign land I shall never visit and a language that will never cross my tongue.
β
β
Alexandra Bracken (Lore)
β
I don't know why I still feel this pit in my stomach whenever I get a moment to think. I know what the pit is, too; I feel lonely. But I'm not alone, I keep telling myself.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Rise of Nine (Lorien Legacies, #3))
β
I swear, Six is going to kill us, or worse, maybe she's about to be killed by a swarm of Mogs and we're here lying in the grass about to go through a scene from Romeo and Juliet.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Power of Six (Lorien Legacies, #2))
β
Red Bull is for pussies!
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
We will not conquer our obstacles by running away from them. Speed does not matter, just that we do not stop.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Rise of Nine (Lorien Legacies, #3))
β
He's like six hundred years younger than you are. I refuse to be the moral compass of our cell! Most weekends I have an intoxispell bong attached to my mouth like a respirator. I love scatological humor, and I list 'pranks involving nuclear waste' and 'making demons eat things' as my hobbies.
β
β
Kresley Cole (Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Immortals After Dark, #10))
β
A feather fallen from a wing is not lost, Gil had told her, but free.
β
β
Alexandra Bracken (Lore)
β
A place is only as good as the people you know in it. It's the people that make the place.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
Don't get pissy with me leech." With a glare, Carrow pressed her print to his torque. "Even tapped out, I can still do a love spell to make you fall in love--with the sun.
β
β
Kresley Cole (Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Immortals After Dark, #10))
β
When we can't change the past, the only thing left is to move forward.
β
β
Alexandra Bracken (Lore)
β
It felt bizarre to be ignored in general, much less by an embodiment of Aidan--who used to stare at her so hard that he'd run into trees.
β
β
Kresley Cole (Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Immortals After Dark, #10))
β
Maybe the only good thing about death is that you never have to relive it. You never have to remember the pain.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Fallen Legacies (Lorien Legacies: The Lost Files, #3))
β
Some people get so used to looking out at life from the edge of their cage that they stop seeing the bars.
β
β
Alexandra Bracken (Lore)
β
You canβt judge a man solely on his actions. Sometimes actions are nothing more than re actions.β - Loring Blackman
β
β
Tiffanie DeBartolo (How to Kill a Rock Star)
β
During the fire:
'Some of the drunker ones don't move. Some of them laugh. One person says, "Where's the marshmallows?" Mark slaps him across the face. "GET OUT!" he screams.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
Wow, Johnny. I send you out for reinforcements and you come back with an old man, a nerd and this little hobbit guy. Great job.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (The Fall of Five (Lorien Legacies, #4))
β
When she scooped up her clothes, opened his door, then snapped her fingers for a guard down the hall, Wroth watched like a bystander.
βPssst. Minion. I need these laundered. Very little starch. Donβt just stand there gawking or youβll anger my good frenemy General Wroth. Weβre like this.β
He couldnβt see her but knew she was twining two fingers together.
β
β
Kresley Cole (The Warlord Wants Forever (Immortals After Dark, #0.5))
β
You're still... Declan?"--
--Voice hoarse, he said, "Aye, it's me. I will never be your perfect Viking, Regin! I've made unforgivable mistakes. I've no family or friends, and my men hold no love for me. I'm scarred inside and out. And I'm bloody askin' for you anyway!
β
β
Kresley Cole (Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Immortals After Dark, #10))
β
I can't take not knowing what the next day will bring- the uncertainty is sawing me in two. The room is dark. A flickering candle burns on the window ledge a few feet away. I take a deep breath, which is to say, as deep a breath as I can take.
"Are you okay?" Sarah asks.
I wrap my arms around her. "I miss you," I say.
"You miss me? But I'm right here."
"That's the worst way to miss somebody. When they' re right beside you and you miss them anyway.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
Finally the vampire released him with another groan, sitting back on his haunches. "Your blood is steeped in power." Running his tongue over a fang, he said, "Among other things. I believe I might be high. But I like it.
β
β
Kresley Cole (Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Immortals After Dark, #10))
β
There is a crucifix, a few cloves of garlic, a wooden stake, a hammer, a blob of Silly Putty, and a pocketknife. βYou do realize these people arenβt vampires, right?β I say when Sam walks back in. βYeah, but you never know. Theyβre probably crazy, like you said.β βAnd even if we were hunting vampires, what the hell is the Silly Putty for?β He shrugs. βJust want to be prepared.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
I once spoke to someone who had survived the genocide in Rwanda, and she said to me that there was now nobody left on the face of the earth, either friend or relative, who knew who she was. No one who remembered her girlhood and her early mischief and family lore; no sibling or boon companion who could tease her about that first romance; no lover or pal with whom to reminisce. All her birthdays, exam results, illnesses, friendships, kinshipsβgone. She went on living, but with a tabula rasa as her diary and calendar and notebook. I think of this every time I hear of the callow ambition to 'make a new start' or to be 'born again': Do those who talk this way truly wish for the slate to be wiped? Genocide means not just mass killing, to the level of extermination, but mass obliteration to the verge of extinction. You wish to have one more reflection on what it is to have been made the object of a 'clean' sweep? Try Vladimir Nabokov's microcosmic miniature story 'Signs and Symbols,' which is about angst and misery in general but also succeeds in placing it in what might be termed a starkly individual perspective. The album of the distraught family contains a faded study of Aunt Rosa, a fussy, angular, wild-eyed old lady, who had lived in a tremulous world of bad news, bankruptcies, train accidents, cancerous growthsβuntil the Germans put her to death, together with all the people she had worried about.
β
β
Christopher Hitchens (Hitch 22: A Memoir)
β
I'm so sorry, Henri," I whisper in his ear. I close my eyes. "I love you. I wouldn't have missed a second of it, either. Not for anything," I whisper. "I'm going to take you back yet. Somehow I am going to get you back to Lorien. We always joked about it but you were my father, the best father I could have ever asked for. I'll never forget you, not for a minute for as long as I live. I love you, Henri. I always did.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
His tone dripping condescension, Lothaire crooned, βAh children, itβs not yet story time.β He closed his eyes and turned away, saying over his shoulder, βTo anyone who contemplates even nearing me while I sleep: I will garrote you with your own viscera.
β
β
Kresley Cole (Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Immortals After Dark, #10))
β
Just hear me out. While you were napping, I was busy chatting up our allies. Didn't you know--your woman's a golden-tongued ambassador! My sisters always said I graduated from the shock-and-awe school of diplomacy, but joke 'em if they can't take a fuck, right?
β
β
Kresley Cole (Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Immortals After Dark, #10))
β
Itβs not always the truth that survives, but the stories we wish to believe. The legends lie. They smooth over imperfections to tell a good tale, or to instruct us how we should behave, or to assign glory to victors and shame those who falter. Perhaps there were some in Sparta who embodied those myths. Perhaps. But how we are remembered is less important than what we do now.
β
β
Alexandra Bracken (Lore)
β
Hope?β he says. βThere is always hope, John. New developments have yet to present themselves. Not all the information is in. No. Donβt give up hope just yet. Itβs the last thing to go. When you have lost hope, you have lost everything. And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
Seconds passed, then ... La Dorada skulked into view. She was half-mummified, but sodden. Gooey.
Regin let out a low whistle. "The Mummy Returns meets Dingoes Ate My Face."--
--La Dorada swung her head around, peering at Regin with her one eye. "Okay. That's freaky. Lookit, Gollum, if you spring me, I'll help you find your precious.
β
β
Kresley Cole (Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Immortals After Dark, #10))
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Valkyrie, I will get answers from you one way or another. Either through this painful exercise in futility, as you believe, or through a civilized conversation."
"You call this civilized?" She strained against her cuffs, leaning in to whisper, "Psst, Chase. The sexual tension between us is grueling.
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Kresley Cole (Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Immortals After Dark, #10))
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He can learn things about me through your blood. Can learn about my sister!" She briefly covered her mouth. "He can see everything we've done! I don't want that leech to know what we do in private."
Lothaire strolled up, making a scoffing sound. "As if I don't watch you two live from a distance.
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Kresley Cole (Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Immortals After Dark, #10))
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She murmured, "You're unfinished."
"Aye, precisely."
"I need to go."
When she moved to get up, he shoved her against his side and slapped her arse to keep her there. "You stay with me."
She snapped, "What do you want from me, Chase?"
He drew his head back in confusion. "I want everything. You're mine, Regin.
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Kresley Cole (Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Immortals After Dark, #10))
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What'd you want to talk about?"
"Just to commend you on your revenge last night. It must have been fiendish. Of course, I can only imagine since there wasn't a mark on Chase this morning, only residual bliss."
"He heals fast! I whaled on his face. Must've been thirty hits."
Natalya's lips quirked. "You're glowing like a Lite-Brite."
"Shut it, fairy.
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Kresley Cole (Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Immortals After Dark, #10))
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This is the thing: If you have the option to not think about or even consider history, whether you learned it right or not, or whether it even deserves consideration, thatβs how you know youβre on board the ship that serves hors dβoeuvres and fluffs your pillows, while others are out at sea, swimming or drowning, or clinging to little inflatable rafts that they have to take turns keeping inflated, people short of breath, whoβve never even heard of the words hors dβoeuvres or fluff. Then someone from up on the yacht says, "It's too bad those people down there are lazy, and not as smart and able as we are up here, we who have built these strong, large, stylish boats ourselves, we who float the seven seas like kings." And then someone else on board says something like, "But your father gave you this yacht, and these are his servants who brought the hors d'oeuvres." At which point that person gets tossed overboard by a group of hired thugs who'd been hired by the father who owned the yacht, hired for the express purpose of removing any and all agitators on the yacht to keep them from making unnecessary waves, or even referencing the father or the yacht itself. Meanwhile, the man thrown overboard begs for his life, and the people on the small inflatable rafts can't get to him soon enough, or they don't even try, and the yacht's speed and weight cause an undertow. Then in whispers, while the agitator gets sucked under the yacht, private agreements are made, precautions are measured out, and everyone quietly agrees to keep on quietly agreeing to the implied rule of law and to not think about what just happened. Soon, the father, who put these things in place, is only spoken of in the form of lore, stories told to children at night, under the stars, at which point there are suddenly several fathers, noble, wise forefathers. And the boat sails on unfettered.
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Tommy Orange (There There)
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In prehistoric times, early man was bowled over by natural events: rain, thunder, lightning, the violent shaking and moving of the ground, mountains spewing deathly hot lava, the glow of the moon, the burning heat of the sun, the twinkling of the stars. Our human brain searched for an answer, and the conclusion was that it all must be caused by something greater than ourselves - this, of course, sprouted the earliest seeds of religion. This theory is certainly reflected in faery lore. In the beautiful sloping hills of Connemara in Ireland, for example, faeries were believed to have been just as beautiful, peaceful, and pleasant as the world around them. But in the Scottish Highlands, with their dark, brooding mountains and eerie highland lakes, villagers warned of deadly water-kelpies and spirit characters that packed a bit more punch.
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Signe Pike (Faery Tale: One Woman's Search for Enchantment in a Modern World)
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If we could believe that he [Jesus] really countenanced the follies, the falsehoods, and the charlatanism which his biographers [Gospels] father on him, and admit the misconstructions, interpolations, and theorizations of the fathers of the early, and the fanatics of the latter ages, the conclusion would be irresistible by every sound mind that he was an impostor... We find in the writings of his biographers matter of two distinct descriptions. First, a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms and fabrications... That sect [Jews] had presented for the object of their worship, a being of terrific character, cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust... Jesus had to walk on the perilous confines of reason and religion: and a step to right or left might place him within the gripe of the priests of the superstition, a blood thirsty race, as cruel and remorseless as the being whom they represented as the family God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel. They were constantly laying snares, too, to entangle him in the web of the law... That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by the writings of men more learned than myself in that lore.
[Letter to William Short, 4 August, 1820]
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Thomas Jefferson (Letters of Thomas Jefferson)
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Images flicker, each one bringing its own sorrow or its own smile. Sometimes both. At the very worst, an impenetrable and sightless black and at best, a happiness so bright that it hurts the eyes to see, coming and going on some unseen projector perpetually turned by an invisible hand. One, then another. The hollow click of the shutter. Now stop. Freeze this frame. Pluck it down and hold it close and be damned by what you see. Henri always said: the price of a memory is the memory if the sorrow it brings.
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Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
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..., It'd taken her several seconds to react to the sight of them together. She'd been almost hypnotized by the scene as Lothaire drank. Chase's masculine face had been tense, his gray eyes focused on the ground. Lothaire's face had been starkly beautiful, his pale blond hair brushing Chase's shoulder.
Light and dark. One terrible, one tragic.
And Lothaire had been... hard. "Oh, gods!" She cried as she ran back along the trail. Hot poker for my eyes! Hot poker!
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Kresley Cole (Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Immortals After Dark, #10))
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Dear Collector: We hate you. Sex loses all its power and magic when it becomes explicit, mechanical, overdone, when it
becomes a mechanistic obsession. It becomes a bore. You have taught us more than anyone I know how wrong it is not to mix it with emotion, hunger, desire, lust, whims, caprices, personal ties, deeper relationships that change its color, flavor, rhythms, intensities.
"You do not know what you are missing by your micro-scopic examination of sexual activity to the exclusion of aspects which are the fuel that ignites it. Intellectual, imaginative, romantic, emotional. This is what gives sex its surprising textures, its subtle transformations, its aphrodisiac elements. You are shrinking your world of sensations. You are withering it, starving it, draining its blood.
If you nourished your sexual life with all the excitements and adventures which love injects into sensuality, you would be the most potent man in the world. The source of sexual power is curiosity, passion. You are watching its little flame die of asphyxiation. Sex does not thrive on monotony. Without feeling, inventions, moods, no surprises in bed. Sex must be mixed with
tears, laughter, words, promises, scenes, jealousy, envy, all the spices of fear, foreign travel, new faces, novels, stories, dreams, fantasies, music, dancing, opium, wine. How much do you lose by this periscope at the tip of your sex, when you could enjoy a harem of distinct and never-repeated wonders? No two hairs alike, but you will not let us waste words on a description of hair; no two odors, but if we expand on this you cry Cut the poetry. No two skins with the same texture, and never the same light, temperature, shadows, never the same gesture; for a lover, when he is aroused by true love, can run the gamut of centuries of love lore. What a range,
what changes of age, what variations of maturity and innocence, perversity and art . . . We have sat around for hours and wondered how you look. If you have closed your senses upon silk, light, color, odor, character, temperament, you must be by now completely shriveled up. There are so many minor senses, all running like tributaries into the mainstream of sex, nourishing it. Only the united beat of sex and heart together can create ecstasy.
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AnaΓ―s Nin (Delta of Venus)