Mercy Quotes

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

β€œ
Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.
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J.R.R. Tolkien (The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1))
β€œ
I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.
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Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
β€œ
If you want to find out what a man is to the bottom, give him power. Any man can stand adversity β€” only a great man can stand prosperity. It is the glory of Abraham Lincoln that he never abused power only on the side of mercy
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Robert G. Ingersoll
β€œ
Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.
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Carl Sagan (Cosmos)
β€œ
The books - the generous friends who met me without suspicion - the merciful masters who never used me ill!
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Wilkie Collins (Armadale)
β€œ
You know it's never fifty-fifty in a marriage. It's always seventy-thirty, or sixty-forty. Someone falls in love first. Someone puts someone else up on a pedestal. Someone works very hard to keep things rolling smoothly; someone else sails along for the ride.
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Jodi Picoult (Mercy)
β€œ
Some people are like Slinkies. They aren't really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to my face when I push them down a flight of stairs.
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Patricia Briggs (Iron Kissed (Mercy Thompson, #3))
β€œ
Suffering is a gift. In it is hidden mercy.
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Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
β€œ
My friends call me Wrath,” says Raffe. β€œMy enemies call me Please Have Mercy. What’s your name, soldier boy?
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Susan Ee (Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days, #1))
β€œ
You're beautiful and sad," I said finally, not looking at him when I did. "Just like your eyes. You're like a song that I heard when I was a little kid but forgot I knew until I heard it again." For a long moment there was only the whirring sound of the tires on the road, and then Sam said softly, "Thank you.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
β€œ
Be like the sun for grace and mercy. Be like the night to cover others' faults. Be like running water for generosity. Be like death for rage and anger. Be like the Earth for modesty. Appear as you are. Be as you appear.
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Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
β€œ
...she made her home in between the pages of books.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Linger (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #2))
β€œ
It is possible to be in love with you just because of who you are.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
β€œ
Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.
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Maya Angelou
β€œ
Somewhere inside me is a merciful, forgiving person. Somewhere there is a girl who tries to understand what people are going through, who accepts that people do evil things and that desperation leads them to darker places than they ever imagined. I swear she exists, and she hurts for the repentant boy I see in front of me. But if I saw her, I wouldn't recognize her.
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Veronica Roth (Divergent (Divergent, #1))
β€œ
I said uselessly, "Sam, don't go." Sam cupped my face in his hands and looked me in the eyes. His eyes were yellow, sad, wolf, mine. "These stay the same. Remember that when you look at me. Remember it's me. Please.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
β€œ
Books are more real when you read them outside.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
β€œ
What do you eat?" "Baby bunnies." She narrowed her eyes, so I grinned and said, "Adult bunnies, too. I'm an equal-opportunity bunny-eater.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
β€œ
I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unnerving ease. It begins in your mind, always ... so you must fight hard to express it. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don't, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.
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Yann Martel (Life of Pi)
β€œ
Grace,” I said, very softly. β€œSay something.” Sam,” she said, and I crushed her to me.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
β€œ
Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
β€œ
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of the infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.
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H.P. Lovecraft (The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories)
β€œ
MS. THOMPSON, it said in heavy block letters, PLEASE KEEP YOUR FELINE OFF MY PROPERTY. IF I SEE IT AGAIN, I WILL EAT IT.
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Patricia Briggs (Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, #1))
β€œ
I don't like it when I outweigh my men.
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Patricia Briggs (Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, #1))
β€œ
As the hours crept by, the afternoon sunlight bleached all the books on the shelves to pale, gilded versions of themselves and warmed the paper and ink inside the covers so that the smell of unread words hung in the air.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
β€œ
I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
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Abraham Lincoln
β€œ
Hence I have no mercy or compassion in me for a society that will crush people, and then penalize them for not being able to stand up under the weight.
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Malcolm X (The Autobiography of Malcolm X)
β€œ
How could you go about choosing something that would hold the half of your heart you had to bury?
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Jodi Picoult (Mercy)
β€œ
Some days seem to fit together like a stained glass window. A hundred little pieces of different color and mood that, when combined, create a complete picture.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
β€œ
I fell for her in summer, my lovely summer girl, From summer she is made, my lovely summer girl, I’d love to spend a winter with my lovely summer girl, But I’m never warm enough for my lovely summer girl, It’s summer when she smiles, I’m laughing like a child, It’s the summer of our lives; we’ll contain it for a while She holds the heat, the breeze of summer in the circle of her hand I’d be happy with this summer if it’s all we ever had.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
β€œ
Am I not merciful?
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Jay Kristoff (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β€œ
I stood on my toes and stole a soft kiss from his lips. "Surprise attack," I said. Sam leaned down and kissed me back, his mouth lingering on mine, teeth grazing my lower lip, making me shiver. "Surprise attack back." "Sneaky," I said, my voice breathier than I intended.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
β€œ
All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable." REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE. "Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Littleβ€”" YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES. "So we can believe the big ones?" YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING. "They're not the same at all!" YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YETβ€”Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED. "Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the pointβ€”" MY POINT EXACTLY.
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Terry Pratchett (Hogfather)
β€œ
I won't let this be my good-bye. I've folded one thousand paper crane memories of me and Grace, and I've made my wish. I will find a cure. And then I will find Grace.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Linger (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #2))
β€œ
right in this moment, I canΒ΄t even remember what unhappy feels like.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
β€œ
Never again. Never again would she be weak. Never again would she be at someone’s mercy. Never again would she fail. Never again, never again, never again.
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Sarah J. Maas (A ​Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #4))
β€œ
Why is it that all cars are women?" he asked. "Because they're fussy and demanding," answered Zee. "Because if they were men, they'd sit around and complain instead of getting the job done," I told him.
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Patricia Briggs (Silver Borne (Mercy Thompson, #5))
β€œ
I decided to find you, throw myself at your feet, and beg you to have mercy on me. Honestly, I’ll accept whatever you choose, Kelsey. Just don’t ask me to live apart from you again. Because...I can’t.
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Colleen Houck (Tiger's Quest (The Tiger Saga, #2))
β€œ
For children are innocent and love justice, while most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy.
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G.K. Chesterton
β€œ
I'd rather die than live with no mercy, no honor, no soul.
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Sabaa Tahir (An Ember in the Ashes (An Ember in the Ashes, #1))
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People shouldn't have to earn kindness. They should have to earn cruelty.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Forever (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #3))
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Never trust a mechanic who drives new cars. They're either charging too much money for their work, or they can't keep an old car running - maybe both.
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Patricia Briggs (Blood Bound (Mercy Thompson, #2))
β€œ
This is a love story. I never knew there were so many kinds of love or that love could make people do so many different things. I never knew there were so many different ways to say goodbye.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Linger (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #2))
β€œ
His lips tasted cool and sharp, peppermint, winter, but his hands, soft on the back of my neck, promised long days and summer and forever.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
β€œ
One thousand ways to say good-bye One thousands ways to cry One thousand ways to hang your hat before you go outside I say good-bye good-bye good-bye I shout it out so loud Cause the next time that I find my voice I might not remember how.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Linger (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #2))
β€œ
All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope
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Winston S. Churchill
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If I am mad, it is mercy! May the gods pity the man who in his callousness can remain sane to the hideous end!
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H.P. Lovecraft (The Temple)
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I'd found heaven and grabbed it as tightly as I could, but it was unraveling, an insubstantial thread sliding between my fingers, too fine to hold.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
β€œ
I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live. (Psalms 116:1-2 NIV)
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Anonymous (Holy Bible: New International Version)
β€œ
May God have mercy for my enemies because I won't.
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George S. Patton Jr.
β€œ
Dogs do not have many advantages over people, but one of them is extremely important: euthanasia is not forbidden by law in their case; animals have the right to a merciful death.
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Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being)
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..and me holding this moment that was as fragile as a bird in my hands
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
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It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.
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Voltaire (Zadig et autres contes)
β€œ
One of the oddest things about being grown-up was looking back at something you thought you knew and finding out the truth of it was completely different from what you had always believed.
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Patricia Briggs (Bone Crossed (Mercy Thompson, #4))
β€œ
I just looked at her, feeling utterly empty. I didn’t know what I was supposed to say to her. My life is in that bed. Please let me stay.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Linger (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #2))
β€œ
Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.
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Anne Lamott (Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith)
β€œ
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents... some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new Dark Age.
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H.P. Lovecraft
β€œ
That’s a pretty lame superhero name,” I told him. β€œScooby-Doo is already taken,” he said with dignity. β€œAnything else sounds lame in comparison.
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Patricia Briggs (Bone Crossed (Mercy Thompson, #4))
β€œ
The world will give you that once in awhile, a brief timeout; the boxing bell rings and you go to your corner, where somebody dabs mercy on your beat-up life.
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Sue Monk Kidd (The Secret Life of Bees)
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Mercy, she had discovered, made mad alchemy: a drop of it could dilute a lake of hate.
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Laini Taylor (Days of Blood & Starlight (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #2))
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The unthankful heart discovers no mercies; but the thankful heart will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings.
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Henry Ward Beecher
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Hope hurt more than the cold.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
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You want to talk? Fine. Talk. Tell me something you've never told anybody else.' I thought for a moment. 'Turtles have the second-largest brains of any animal on the planet.' It took Isabel only a second to process this. 'No, they don't.' 'I know that's why I've never told anybody that before.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Linger (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #2))
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There is no better taste than this: someone else’s laughter in your mouth.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Forever (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #3))
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Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy.
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Wendell Berry
β€œ
It is only shallow people who require years to get rid of an emotion. A man who is master of himself can end a sorrow as easily as he can invent a pleasure. I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.
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Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
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Sam laughed, a funny, self-deprecating laugh. "You did read a lot. And spent too much time just inside the kitchen window, where I couldn't see you very well." "And not enough time mostly naked in front of my bedroom window?" I teased. Sam turned bright red. "That," he said, "is so not the point of this conversation.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
β€œ
People don't have any mercy. They tear you limb from limb, in the name of love. Then, when you're dead, when they've killed you by what they made you go through, they say you didn't have any character. They weep big, bitter tears - not for you. For themselves, because they've lost their toy.
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James Baldwin (Another Country)
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Sam: β€œYouβ€”you greatly overestimate my self-control.” Grace: β€œI’m not looking for self-control.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
β€œ
Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.
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Bryan Stevenson (Just Mercy)
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How long?" His smile was amazingly sweet. "The longest." For ever?" Sam's lips smiled, but above his grin, his yellow eyes turned sad, as if he knew it was a lie. "Longer.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
β€œ
So, Grace, how's school?" I asked myself. Dad nodded, eyes on the baby koala now struggling in the guest's arms. "Oh, it's fine," I continued, and Dad made a mumbling noise of agreement. I added, "Nothing special, aside from the load of pandas they brought in, and the teachers abandoning us to cannibalistic savages-" I paused to see if I'd caught his attention yet, then pressed on. "The whole building caught fire, then I failed drama, and then sex, sex, sex." Dad's eyes abruptly focused, and he turned to me and frowned. "What did you say they were teaching you in school?
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
β€œ
Three months ago, if you asked me, I would have told you that if you really loved someone, you’d let them go. But now I look at you, and I dreamed about Maggie, and I see that I’ve been wrong. If you really love someone, Allie, I think you have to take them back.
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Jodi Picoult (Mercy)
β€œ
You two are too cute,” the counter girl said, setting two cups piled with whipped cream on the counter. She had a sort of lopsided, open smile that made me think she laughed a lot. β€œSeriously. How long have you been going out?” Sam let go of my hands to get his wallet and took out some bills. β€œSix years.” I wrinkled my nose to cover a laugh. Of course he would count the time that we’d been two entirely different species. Whoa.” Counter girl nodded appreciatively. β€œThat’s pretty amazing for a couple your age." Sam handed me my hot chocolate and didn’t answer. But his yellow eyes gazed at me possessivelyβ€”I wondered if he realized that the way he looked at me was far more intimate than copping a feel could ever be. I crouched to look at the almond bark on the bottom shelf in the counter. I wasn’t quite bold enough to look at either of them when I admitted, β€œWell, it was love at first sight.” The girl sighed. β€œThat is just so romantic. Do me a favor, and don’t you two ever change. The world needs more love at first sight.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
β€œ
Sam,' the girl said. 'Sam.' She was the past present and future. I wanted to answer , but I was broken.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
β€œ
The old gods may be great, but they are neither kind nor merciful. They are fickle, unsteady as moonlight on water, or shadows in a storm. If you insist on calling them, take heed: be careful what you ask for, be willing to pay the price. And no matter how desperate or dire, never pray to the gods that answer after dark.
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Victoria E. Schwab (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue)
β€œ
Why be the sheep when you can be the wolf?
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R.L. LaFevers (Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin, #1))
β€œ
People don't change who they are. They only change what they do with it.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Forever (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #3))
β€œ
The willingness to forgive is a sign of spiritual and emotional maturity. It is one of the great virtues to which we all should aspire. Imagine a world filled with individuals willing both to apologize and to accept an apology. Is there any problem that could not be solved among people who possessed the humility and largeness of spirit and soul to do either -- or both -- when needed?
”
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Gordon B. Hinckley (Standing for Something: 10 Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes)
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Love thy enemies, it says in the scriptures. My foster mother always added, "At the very least, you will be polite to them.
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Patricia Briggs (Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, #1))
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I have tried to dismantle you, Gideon Nav! The Ninth House poisoned you, we trod you underfootβ€”I took you to this killing field as my slaveβ€”you refuse to die, and you pity me! Strike me down. You’ve won. I’ve lived my whole wretched life at your mercy, yours alone, and God knows I deserve to die at your hand. You are my only friend. I am undone without you.
”
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Tamsyn Muir (Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1))
β€œ
Mine," he said. Adam's eyes narrowed. "I don't think so. She is mine." It would have been flattering, I thought, except that at least one of them was talking about dinner and I wasn't certain about the other.
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Patricia Briggs (Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, #1))
β€œ
It's funny: I always imagined when I was a kid that adults had some kind of inner toolbox full of shiny tools: the saw of discernment, the hammer of wisdom, the sandpaper of patience. But then when I grew up I found that life handed you these rusty bent old tools - friendships, prayer, conscience, honesty - and said 'do the best you can with these, they will have to do'. And mostly, against all odds, they do.
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Anne Lamott (Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith)
β€œ
You're fucked. You thought you were going to be someone, but now it's obvious you're nobody. You haven't got as much talent as you thought you had, and there was no Plan B, and you got no skills and no education, and now you're looking at forty or fifty years of nothing. Less than nothing, probably. That's pretty heavy. That's worse than having the brain thing, because what you got now will take a lot longer to kill you. You've got the choice of a slow, painful death, or a quick, merciful one.
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”
Nick Hornby (A Long Way Down)
β€œ
Sam:"Okay, what words would you use then?" I leaned back in the seat, thinking, as Sam looked at me doubtfully. He was right to look doubtful. My head didn't work with words very well- at least not in this abstract, descriptive sort of way. Grace:"Sensitive" I tried. Sam translated: "Squishy" Grace:"Creative" Sam:"Dangerously emo" Grace:"Thoughtful" Sam:"Feng shui." I laughed so hard I snorted. Grace:"How did you get feng shui out of thoughtful?" Sam:"You know, because in feng shui, you arrange funiture and plants and stuff in thoughtful ways.
”
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
β€œ
We can never go back again, that much is certain. The past is still close to us. The things we have tried to forget and put behind us would stir again, and that sense of fear, of furtive unrest, struggling at length to blind unreasoning panic - now mercifully stilled, thank God - might in some manner unforeseen become a living companion as it had before.
”
”
Daphne du Maurier (Rebecca)
β€œ
Hide yourself in God, so when a man wants to find you he will have to go there first.
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”
Shannon L. Alder
β€œ
there is a God, there always has been. I see him here, in the eyes of the people in this [hospital] corridor of desperation. This is the real house of God, this is where those who have lost God will find Him... there is a God, there has to be, and now I will pray, I will pray that He will forgive that I have neglected Him all of these years, forgive that I have betrayed, lied, and sinned with impunity only to turn to Him now in my hour of need. I pray that He is as merciful, benevolent, and gracious as His book says He is.
”
”
Khaled Hosseini
β€œ
Sam came around the side of the car and stopped dead when he saw me. β€œOh my God, what is THAT?” I used my thumb and middle finger to flick the multicolored pom-pom on top of my head. β€œIn my language, we call it a HAT. It keeps my ears warm.” β€œOh my God,” Sam said again, and closed the distance between us. He cupped my face in his hands and studied me. β€œIt’s horribly cute.” He kissed me, looked at the hat, and then he kissed me again. I vowed never to lose the pom-pom hat.
”
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
β€œ
and when love came to us twice and lied to us twice we decided to never love again that was fair fair to us and fair to love itself. we ask for no mercy or no miracles; we are strong enough to live and to die and to kill flies, attend the boxing matches, go to the racetrack, live on luck and skill, get alone, get alone often, and if you can't sleep alone be careful of the words you speak in your sleep; and ask for no mercy no miracles; and don't forget: time is meant to be wasted, love fails and death is useless.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire)
β€œ
His heart's occupied elsewhere," said Ben from behind me. "And even if it weren't he's not interested in your kind. But, I'm available and ready." "You don't have a heart," I told him. "Just a gaping hole where it should have been." "All the more reason for you to give me yours." I pounded my forehead against Warren 's back. "Tell me Ben's not flirting with me." "Hey," said Ben sounding hurt. "I was talking cannibalism, not romance.
”
”
Patricia Briggs (Blood Bound (Mercy Thompson, #2))
β€œ
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.
”
”
H.P. Lovecraft
β€œ
Something Vimes had learned as a young guard drifted up from memory. If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you're going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat. They'll watch you squirm. They'll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar. So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word.
”
”
Terry Pratchett (Men at Arms (Discworld, #15; City Watch, #2))
β€œ
Proximity has taught me some basic and humbling truths, including this vital lesson: Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. My work with the poor and the incarcerated has persuaded me that the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice. Finally, I’ve come to believe that the true measure of our commitment to justice, the character of our society, our commitment to the rule of law, fairness, and equality cannot be measured by how we treat the rich, the powerful, the privileged, and the respected among us. The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned.
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Bryan Stevenson (Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption)
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It's impossible to be the Mockingjay. Impossible to complete even this one sentence. Because now I know that everything I say will be directly taken out on Peeta. Result in his torture. But not his death, no, nothing so merciful as that. Snow will ensure that his life is much more worse than death. "Cut," I hear Cressida say quietly. "What's wrong with her?" Plutarch says under his breath. "She's figured out how Snow's using Peeta," says Finnick. There's something like a collective sigh of regret from that semicircle of people spread out before me. Because I know this now. Because there will never be a way for me to not know this again. Because, beyond the military disadvantage losing a entails, I am broken. Several sets of arms would embrace me. But in the end, the only person I truly want to comfort me is Haymitch, because he loves Peeta, too. I reach out for him and say something like his name and he's there, holding me and patting my back. "It's okay. It'll be okay, sweetheart." He sits me on a length of broken marble pillar and keeps an arm around me while I sob. "I can't do this anymore," I say. "I know," he says.
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Suzanne Collins (Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3))
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She loved all the wolves behind her house, but she loved one of them most of all. And this one loved her back. He loved her back so hard that even the things that weren't special about her became special: the way she tapped her pencil on her teeth, the off-key songs she sang in the shower, how when she kissed him he knew it meant for ever. Hers was a memory made up of snapshots: being dragged through the snow by a pack of wolves, first kiss tasting of oranges, saying goodbye behind a cracked windshield. A life made up of promises of what could be: the possibilities contained in a stack of college applications, the thrill of sleeping under a strange roof, the future that lay in Sam's smile. It was a life I didn't want to leave behind. It was a life I didn't want to forget. I wasn't done with it yet. There was so much more to say.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Linger (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #2))
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I settled on the floor and whispered to Sam, β€œI want you to listen to me, if you can.” I leaned the side of my face against his ruff and remembered the golden wood he had shown me so long ago. I remembered the way the yellow leaves, the color of Sam’s eyes, fluttered and twisted, crashing butterflies, on their way to the ground. The slender white trunks of the birches, creamy and smooth as human skin. I remembered Sam standing in the middle of the wood, his arms stretched out, a dark, solid form in the dream of the trees. His coming to me, me punching his chest, the soft kiss. I remembered every kiss we’d ever had, and I remembered every time I’d curled in his human arms. I remembered the soft warmth of his breath on the back of my neck while we slept. I remembered Sam.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
β€œ
But today’s society is characterized by achievement orientation, and consequently it adores people who are successful and happy and, in particular, it adores the young. It virtually ignores the value of all those who are otherwise, and in so doing blurs the decisive difference between being valuable in the sense of dignity and being valuable in the sense of usefulness. If one is not cognizant of this difference and holds that an individual’s value stems only from his present usefulness, then, believe me, one owes it only to personal inconsistency not to plead for euthanasia along the lines of Hitler’s program, that is to say, β€˜mercy’ killing of all those who have lost their social usefulness, be it because of old age, incurable illness, mental deterioration, or whatever handicap they may suffer. Confounding the dignity of man with mere usefulness arises from conceptual confusion that in turn may be traced back to the contemporary nihilism transmitted on many an academic campus and many an analytical couch.
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Viktor E. Frankl (Man’s Search for Meaning)
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Where lies the strangling fruit that came from the hand of the sinner I shall bring forth the seeds of the dead to share with the worms that gather in the darkness and surround the world with the power of their lives while from the dimlit halls of other places forms that never were and never could be writhe for the impatience of the few who never saw what could have been. In the black water with the sun shining at midnight, those fruit shall come ripe and in the darkness of that which is golden shall split open to reveal the revelation of the fatal softness in the earth. The shadows of the abyss are like the petals of a monstrous flower that shall blossom within the skull and expand the mind beyond what any man can bear, but whether it decays under the earth or above on green fields, or out to sea or in the very air, all shall come to revelation, and to revel, in the knowledge of the strangling fruitβ€”and the hand of the sinner shall rejoice, for there is no sin in shadow or in light that the seeds of the dead cannot forgive. And there shall be in the planting in the shadows a grace and a mercy from which shall blossom dark flowers, and their teeth shall devour and sustain and herald the passing of an age. That which dies shall still know life in death for all that decays is not forgotten and reanimated it shall walk the world in the bliss of not-knowing. And then there shall be a fire that knows the naming of you, and in the presence of the strangling fruit, its dark flame shall acquire every part of you that remains.
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Jeff VanderMeer (Annihilation (Southern Reach, #1))
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[The Old Astronomer to His Pupil] Reach me down my Tycho Brahe, I would know him when we meet, When I share my later science, sitting humbly at his feet; He may know the law of all things, yet be ignorant of how We are working to completion, working on from then to now. Pray remember that I leave you all my theory complete, Lacking only certain data for your adding, as is meet, And remember men will scorn it, 'tis original and true, And the obloquy of newness may fall bitterly on you. But, my pupil, as my pupil you have learned the worth of scorn, You have laughed with me at pity, we have joyed to be forlorn, What for us are all distractions of men's fellowship and smiles; What for us the Goddess Pleasure with her meretricious smiles. You may tell that German College that their honor comes too late, But they must not waste repentance on the grizzly savant's fate. Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night. What, my boy, you are not weeping? You should save your eyes for sight; You will need them, mine observer, yet for many another night. I leave none but you, my pupil, unto whom my plans are known. You 'have none but me,' you murmur, and I 'leave you quite alone'? Well then, kiss me, -- since my mother left her blessing on my brow, There has been a something wanting in my nature until now; I can dimly comprehend it, -- that I might have been more kind, Might have cherished you more wisely, as the one I leave behind. I 'have never failed in kindness'? No, we lived too high for strife,-- Calmest coldness was the error which has crept into our life; But your spirit is untainted, I can dedicate you still To the service of our science: you will further it? you will! There are certain calculations I should like to make with you, To be sure that your deductions will be logical and true; And remember, 'Patience, Patience,' is the watchword of a sage, Not to-day nor yet to-morrow can complete a perfect age. I have sown, like Tycho Brahe, that a greater man may reap; But if none should do my reaping, 'twill disturb me in my sleep So be careful and be faithful, though, like me, you leave no name; See, my boy, that nothing turn you to the mere pursuit of fame. I must say Good-bye, my pupil, for I cannot longer speak; Draw the curtain back for Venus, ere my vision grows too weak: It is strange the pearly planet should look red as fiery Mars,-- God will mercifully guide me on my way amongst the stars.
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Sarah Williams (Twilight Hours: A Legacy of Verse)