“
In addition to my other numerous acquaintances, I have one more intimate confidant… My depression is the most faithful mistress I have known — no wonder, then, that I return the love.
”
”
Søren Kierkegaard (Either/Or: A Fragment of Life)
“
A woman should be able to kiss a man beautifully and romantically without any desire to be either his wife or his mistress.
”
”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Beautiful and Damned)
“
I will be calm. I will be mistress of myself.
”
”
Jane Austen (Sense and Sensibility)
“
Belief?"
"Yes," Sazed said. "Tell me, Mistress. What is it that you believe?"
Vin frowned. "What kind of question is that?"
"The most important kind, I think.
”
”
Brandon Sanderson (The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1))
“
Truth is a jealous, vicious mistress that never, ever sleeps.
”
”
Tahereh Mafi (Shatter Me (Shatter Me, #1))
“
Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress. When I get fed up with one, I spend the night with the other
”
”
Anton Chekhov
“
Memory is a cruel mistress with whom we all must learn to dance.
”
”
Kate Morton (The Forgotten Garden)
“
The truth is, every son raised by a single mom is pretty much born married. I don't know, but until your mom dies it seems like all the other women in your life can never be more than just your mistress.
”
”
Chuck Palahniuk
“
There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.
”
”
Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)
“
Who are you?" he asked.
I am the future queen of this world, at the very least. You may refer to me as Mistress Koboi for the next five minutes. After that you may refer to me as Aaaaarrrrgh, hold your throat, die screaming, and so on.
”
”
Eoin Colfer (The Time Paradox (Artemis Fowl, #6))
“
Music is a proud, temperamental mistress. Give her the time and attention she deserves, and she is yours. Slight her and there will come a day when you call and she will not answer. So I began sleeping less to give her the time she needed.
”
”
Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1))
“
Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public.
”
”
Winston S. Churchill
“
A member of Parliament to Disraeli: 'Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease.'
That depends, Sir,' said Disraeli, 'whether I embrace your policies or your mistress.
”
”
Benjamin Disraeli
“
A woman can become a man's friend only in the following stages - first an acquantaince, next a mistress, and only then a friend.
”
”
Anton Chekhov (Uncle Vanya)
“
I remain
Mistress of mine own self
and mine own soul
”
”
Alfred Tennyson
“
My new knight mistress is famed for wielding sharp edges: Sword, Knife and Tongue!
”
”
Tamora Pierce (Squire (Protector of the Small, #3))
“
There might be some hours of loneliness. But there was something wonderful even in loneliness. At least you belonged to yourself when you were lonely.
”
”
L.M. Montgomery (Mistress Pat (Pat, #2))
“
Looking for an entirely reliable informant is like looking for a chaste mistress.
”
”
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, #1))
“
Language is my whore, my mistress, my wife, my pen-friend, my check-out girl. Language is a complimentary moist lemon-scented cleansing square or handy freshen-up wipette. Language is the breath of God, the dew on a fresh apple, it's the soft rain of dust that falls into a shaft of morning sun when you pull from an old bookshelf a forgotten volume of erotic diaries; language is the faint scent of urine on a pair of boxer shorts, it's a half-remembered childhood birthday party, a creak on the stair, a spluttering match held to a frosted pane, the warm wet, trusting touch of a leaking nappy, the hulk of a charred Panzer, the underside of a granite boulder, the first downy growth on the upper lip of a Mediterranean girl, cobwebs long since overrun by an old Wellington boot.
”
”
Stephen Fry
“
It's okay," he whispers. "You'll be okay."
Truth is a jealous, vicious mistress that never ever sleeps, is what I don't tell him. I'll never be okay.
”
”
Tahereh Mafi (Shatter Me (Shatter Me, #1))
“
Talent must be a fanatical mistress. She's beautiful; when you're with her, people watch you, they notice. But she bangs on your door at odd hours, and she disappears for long stretches, and she has no patience for the rest of your existence; your wife, your children, your friends. She is the most thrilling evening of your week, but some day she will leave you for good. One night, after she's been gone for years, you will see her on the arm of a younger man, and she will pretend not to recognize you.
”
”
David Benioff (City of Thieves)
“
Stop. That was a mistake. It shouldn’t have happened."
"No?"
"No."
"I could offer you more.”
"What?”
"Power. Access. Rewards. You’d need be available only to me.”
"Are you asking me to be your mistress?”
"Yes.”
"Oh, my God.”
"Is that a yes?”
"No, Ethan, Jesus. Definitely not.
”
”
Chloe Neill (Some Girls Bite (Chicagoland Vampires, #1))
“
The man is always the last to know when
Cupid has struck him
-Anonymous, Memoirs of a Mistress
”
”
Sabrina Jeffries (One Night with a Prince (Royal Brotherhood, #3))
“
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
”
”
William Shakespeare (Shakespeare's Sonnets)
“
My melancholy is the most faithful mistress I have known; what wonder, then, that I love her in return.
”
”
Søren Kierkegaard (Either/Or: A Fragment of Life)
“
The thing about witchcraft," said Mistress Weatherwax, "is that it's not like school at all. First you get the test, and then afterward you spend years findin' out how you passed it. It's a bit like life in that respect
”
”
Terry Pratchett (The Wee Free Men (Discworld, #30; Tiffany Aching, #1))
“
You’re far too prickly tempered to be a mistress. You’re far better suited as a wife.
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Married by Morning (The Hathaways, #4))
“
I love the night passionately. I love it as I love my country, or my mistress, with an instinctive, deep, and unshakeable love. I love it with all my senses: I love to see it, I love to breathe it in, I love to open my ears to its silence, I love my whole body to be caressed by its blackness. Skylarks sing in the sunshine, the blue sky, the warm air, in the fresh morning light. The owl flies by night, a dark shadow passing through the darkness; he hoots his sinister, quivering hoot, as though he delights in the intoxicating black immensity of space.
”
”
Guy de Maupassant
“
I will have but one mistress and no master
”
”
Queen Elizabeth I
“
He feared me as many men fear women: because their mistresses (or their wives) understand them. They are scarcely adult, some men: they wish women to understand them, and to that end they tell them all their secrets; and then, when they are properly understood, they hate their women for understanding them.
”
”
Julian Barnes (Flaubert's Parrot)
“
Make your own dream.
That's the Beatles' story, isn't it? That's Yoko's story, that's what I'm saying now. Produce your own dream. If you want to save Peru, go save Peru. It's quite possible to do anything, but not to put it on the leaders and the parking meters. Don't expect Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan or John Lennon or Yoko Ono or Bob Dylan or Jesus Christ to come and do it for you. You have to do it yourself.
That's what the great masters and mistresses have been saying ever since time began. They can point the way, leave signposts and little instructions in various books that are now called holy and worshipped for the cover of the book and not for what it says, but the instructions are all there for all to see, have always been and always will be.
There's nothing new under the sun. All the roads lead to Rome. And people cannot provide it for you. I can't wake you up. You can wake you up. I can't cure you. You can cure you.
”
”
John Lennon
“
That's a sweet piece," said Jean, briefly forgetting to be aggravated. "You didn't snatch that off a street."
"No," said Locke, before taking another deep draught of the warm water in the decanter. "I got it from the neck of the governor's mistress."
"You can't be serious."
"In the governor's manor."
"Of all the -"
"In the governor's bed."
"Damned lunatic!"
"With the governor sleeping next to her."
The night quiet was broken by the high, distant trill of a whistle, the traditional swarming noise of city watches everywhere. Several other whistles joined in a few moments later.
"It is possible," said Locke with a sheepish grin, "that I have been slightly too bold.
”
”
Scott Lynch (Red Seas Under Red Skies (Gentleman Bastard, #2))
“
Behold your new mistress, my wife," he pronounced, "and know that when she
bids you, I have bidden you. What service you render her, you are rendering me. What loyalty you give or withhold from her, you give or withhold from me!"
-Royce Westmoreland
”
”
Judith McNaught (A Kingdom of Dreams (Westmoreland, #1))
“
Linh Cinder. Such a pleasure. My master has spoken so highly of you.”
Cinder paused and studied her again. “Who are you?”
“I’m called Darla. I am Captain Thorne’s mistress.”
Cinder blinked. “Excuse me?”
“He asked me to stay and keep watch over the vehicle,” she said. “He’s just gone inside to be heroic. I’m sure he’ll be glad to know you’re here. I believe he’s under the impression that you’re out in space somewhere.
”
”
Marissa Meyer (Cress (The Lunar Chronicles, #3))
“
I am eternally, devastatingly romantic, and I thought people would see it because 'romantic' doesn't mean 'sugary.' It's dark and tormented — the furor of passion, the despair of an idealism that you can't attain.
”
”
Catherine Breillat (Romance (Script in French Language))
“
For he was aware of the great secret of life: Women don't look for handsome men. Women look for men who have had beautiful women. Having an ugly mistress is therefore a fatal mistake.
”
”
Milan Kundera (The Book of Laughter and Forgetting)
“
Don't explain computers to laymen. Simpler to explain sex to a virgin.
”
”
Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)
“
I'm tired, I'm hungry and I have a head in a bag," I warned him. "Do not fuck with me.
”
”
Karen Chance (Death's Mistress (Dorina Basarab, #2))
“
Each day has a color, a smell.
”
”
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (The Mistress of Spices)
“
I felt hot under my Mutton sleeves. "I just wish he'd have the decency to say whatever he came to say in front of his wife."
"Perhaps his wife is busy today."
"She shouldn't be." His wife should track him like a bloodhound.
”
”
Diana Forbes (Mistress Suffragette)
“
To see the ocean once is to learn how to miss it. ~Mistress Coyle
”
”
Patrick Ness
“
I wished he'd stop trying to put me off. It was becoming irksome. Or, if he were, then he really needed to stop acting so damned charming.
”
”
Diana Forbes (Mistress Suffragette)
“
The word "mistress" sounds like a cross between mistake and mattress.
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Devil in Spring (The Ravenels, #3))
“
What could he mean by speaking so, as if I were always thinking that he cared for me, when I know he does not; he cannot. ... But I won't care for him. I surely am mistress enough of myself to control this wild, strange, miserable feeling
”
”
Elizabeth Gaskell (North and South)
“
Dreadful sorry mistress. Ma always said I was too silly to die
”
”
Tamora Pierce
“
Don't be afraid" he whispered against her lips "This life is nothing but one blink of God's eyes. He'll blink again, and we'll be back together
”
”
Tiffany Reisz (The Mistress (The Original Sinners, #4))
“
He didn't have a single clue what was going on with these two strangers, but every instinct told him Master George equaled good, Mistress Jane equaled bald- he blinked-uh, bad.
”
”
James Dashner (The Journal of Curious Letters (The 13th Reality, #1))
“
Love versus love. King, you’re comparing infinities. There is no ‘more.’ That’s not how love works. If it’s love, it’s infinite. You can’t count it.
”
”
Tiffany Reisz (The Mistress (The Original Sinners, #4))
“
Karma is a cruel mistress.
”
”
Kelley York (Hushed)
“
Others go to bed with their mistresses; I with my ideas.
”
”
José Martí
“
Nothing uses up alcohol faster than political argument.
”
”
Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)
“
You know Søren’s not a vampire, right? He’s a sadist. You don’t turn kinky just because he bites you.
”
”
Tiffany Reisz (The Mistress (The Original Sinners, #4))
“
Love is a tempestuous mistress.
And none of us shall ever master her.
”
”
Lisa Ann Sandell (Song of the Sparrow)
“
Mistress, I have never asked anything of you in my servitude. But now, I beg you this: do not make me keep passing these adolescent sentiments back and forth all night.
”
”
Richelle Mead (Shadow Heir (Dark Swan, #4))
“
Truth is a jealous, vicious mistress that never ever sleeps, is what I don’t tell him. I’ll never be okay.
”
”
Tahereh Mafi (Shatter Me (Shatter Me, #1))
“
Don't die in a bone. I am your creature, gloom mistress. I serve you with fidelity as big as a mountain, penumbral lady."
Harrow's eyes flickered open. "Stop."
"I am your sworn sword, night boss."
"Fine," said Harrow heavily.
Gideon's mouth was about to round out the words "bone empress" before she realised what had been said.
”
”
Tamsyn Muir (Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1))
“
Women are amazing creatures-sweet, soft, gentle, and far more savage than we are.
”
”
Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)
“
Mon Dieu, the entire vanilla world has taken over my house. Fine. Both of you stay. Have tea. Turn everyone in my house boring.
-Kingsley
”
”
Tiffany Reisz (The Mistress (The Original Sinners, #4))
“
Anything which is physically possible can always be made financially possible; money is a bugaboo of small minds.
”
”
Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)
“
Don't say 'wife.' I'm your mistress. Wife's such an ugly word. Your 'permanent mistress' is so much more tangible and desirable… .
”
”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Beautiful and Damned)
“
Self-doubt is a persuasive mistress; careful not to shag her or you’ll never get your balls back.” - Simon Hunt
”
”
Dannika Dark (Twist (Mageri, #2; Mageriverse #2))
“
I am quite determined to be mistress of my own fate, Mrs. Clutterthorpe, but I do sympathize with how strange it must sound to you. It is not your fault that you are entirely devoid of imagination. I blame your education
”
”
Deanna Raybourn (A Curious Beginning (Veronica Speedwell, #1))
“
Modern civilization has made woman a little wiser, but it has increased her suffering because of man's covetousness. The woman of yesterday was a happy wife, but the woman of today is a miserable mistress. In the past she walked blindly in the light, but now she walks open-eyed in the dark. She was beautiful in her ignorance, virtuous in her simplicity, and strong in her weakness. Today she has become ugly in her ingenuity, superficial and heartless in her knowledge. Will the day ever come when beauty and knowledge, ingenuity and virtue, and weakness of body and strength of spirit will be united in a woman?
”
”
Kahlil Gibran (Broken Wings)
“
I am a king's daughter,
And if I cared to care,
The moon that has no mistress
Would flutter in my hair.
No one dares to cherish
What I choose to crave.
Never have I hungered,
For that I did not have
I am a kings daughter,
And I grow old within
The prison of my person,
The shackles of my skin.
And I would run away
And beg from door to door,
Just to see your shadow
Once, and never more.
”
”
Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn (The Last Unicorn, #1))
“
I will accept any rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
”
”
Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)
“
Are not all loves secretly the same? A hundred flowers sprung from a single root.
”
”
Tanith Lee (Delirium's Mistress (Flat Earth, #4))
“
There are things we want, and things we may have.... Sanity lies in knowing the difference.
”
”
Karen Chance (Death's Mistress (Dorina Basarab, #2))
“
Had we but World enough, and Time,
This coyness Lady were no crime.
We would sit down, and think which way
To walk, and pass our long Loves Day.
”
”
Andrew Marvell (To His Coy Mistress)
“
The worst thing about loneliness is that it brings one face to face with oneself.
”
”
Mary Balogh (No Man's Mistress (Mistress Trilogy, #2))
“
I don't want to hurt you, Mistress Weatherwax," said Mrs Gogol.
"That's good," said Granny. "I don't want you to hurt me either.
”
”
Terry Pratchett (Witches Abroad (Discworld, #12; Witches, #3))
“
You thought I was a lovelorn mistress and I was really just an expensive prostitute.
”
”
Edith Wharton
“
Was it really some other person I was so anxious to discover...or was it only my own solitude that I could not abide?
”
”
David Markson (Wittgenstein's Mistress)
“
Our thanks to you, Mistress Melaugo. Your kindness will not be forgotten.
Please forget it. I've a reputation to uphold.
”
”
Samantha Shannon (The Priory of the Orange Tree (The Roots of Chaos, #1))
“
The cheesecake was smooth and lush, with the personality of a warm and well-to-do uncle who knows a hundred dirty jokes and will die of sexual exertions in the arms of his mistress.
”
”
Don DeLillo (Underworld)
“
Yes, but knee pants are so much more flattering. You can see my legs."
You want people to see your legs?"
I have very nice legs!" We both paused to admire them for a moment.
”
”
Karen Chance (Death's Mistress (Dorina Basarab, #2))
“
The only way to lose a kingdom is if your power drops or..well, if you're killed."
"I'm sure Volusian would love to help with that."
My minion walked near me, needing no horse to move swiftly. Upon hearing his name, he said, "I would perform the deed with great relish and much suffering on your part, mistress."
"You can't put a price on that kind of loyalty," I told Kiyo.
”
”
Richelle Mead (Thorn Queen (Dark Swan, #2))
“
A managed democracy is a wonderful thing... for the managers... and its greatest strength is a 'free press' when 'free' is defined as 'responsible' and the managers define what is 'irresponsible'.
”
”
Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)
“
Limiting the freedom of news 'just a little bit' is in the same category with the classic example 'a little bit pregnant.
”
”
Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)
“
His sister had been sent down to the village to ask Mistress Garlick the witch how you stopped spelling recommendation.
”
”
Terry Pratchett (Guards! Guards! (Discworld, #8; City Watch, #1))
“
When you were six you thought mistress meant to put your shoes on the wrong feet. Now you are older and know it can mean many things, but essentially it means to put your shoes on the wrong feet.
”
”
Lorrie Moore
“
A love story can never be about full possession. The happy marriage, the requited love, the desire that never dims--these are lucky eventualites but they aren't love stories. Love stories depend on disappointment, on unequal births and feuding families, on matrimonial boredom and at least one cold heart. Love stories, nearly without exception, give love a bad name.
We value love not because it's stronger than death but because it's weaker. Say what you want about love: death will finish it. You will not go on loving in the grave, not in any physical way that will at all resemble love as we know it on earth. The perishable nature of love is what gives love its importance in our lives. If it were endless, if it were on tap, love wouldn't hit us the way it does.
And we certainly wouldn't write about it.
”
”
Jeffrey Eugenides (My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead: Great Love Stories from Chekhov to Munro)
“
Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me.
”
”
Napoléon Bonaparte
“
You went up a girl and came down a woman.
”
”
Patrick Ness (Monsters of Men (Chaos Walking, #3))
“
(Men without ambition are boring)
And that attitude, mistress, is why the females of your kind continue to struggle for equality. And why they continue to fail.
”
”
Richelle Mead (Storm Born (Dark Swan, #1))
“
Have you ever been - well, i mean, have you ever - really wanted someone ? Wanted them like water in the desert - even when you knew all their faults, every single one - and it didnt matter ?
”
”
Kate Quinn (Mistress of Rome (The Empress of Rome, #1))
“
When a man takes a mistress, he doesn't turn around and divorce his wife.
”
”
Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha)
“
Please let him come, and give me the resilience & guts to make him respect me, be interested, and not to throw myself at him with loudness or hysterical yelling; calmly, gently, easy baby easy. He is probably strutting the backs among crocuses now with seven Scandinavian mistresses. And I sit, spiderlike, waiting, here, home; Penelope weaving webs of Webster, turning spindles of Tourneur. Oh, he is here; my black marauder; oh hungry hungry. I am so hungry for a big smashing creative burgeoning burdened love: I am here; I wait; and he plays on the banks of the river Cam like a casual faun.
”
”
Sylvia Plath (The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath)
“
I wonder if it is possible to have two boyfriends. I mean, times are changing. Relationships are more complicated. In France men always have mistresses and wives and so on. Henri probably has two girlfriends. He would laugh if you told him you just had one. He would say, 'C'est tres, tres tragique.'
”
”
Louise Rennison (Knocked Out by My Nunga-Nungas (Confessions of Georgia Nicolson, #3))
“
Well...what did you promise exactly? Not to tell anyone that Eric Dragomir had a mistress and baby?"
Sonya nodded.
"And not to tell who they were?"
Sonya nodded again.
Sydney gave Sonya the warmest, friendliest smile i'd ever seen on the Alchemist. "Did you promise not to tell anyone where they are?" Sonya nodded, and Sydney's smile faltered a little. Then her eyes lit up. "Did you promise not to LEAD anyone to where they are?
”
”
Richelle Mead (Last Sacrifice (Vampire Academy, #6))
“
Her name is Anarchy. And she has taught me more as a mistress than you [Justice] ever did! She has taught me that justice is meaningless without freedom. She is honest. She makes no promises and breaks none. Unlike you, Jezebel.
”
”
Alan Moore (V for Vendetta #2)
“
Mistress Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With Silver Bells, and Cockle Shells,
And marigolds all in a row.
”
”
Frances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden)
“
Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress. When I get fed up with one, I spend the night with the other. Though it is irregular, it is less boring this way, and besides, neither of them loses anything through my infidelity.
”
”
Anton Chekhov
“
Will these books be comedies or tragedies?”
“Both. Just like life.
”
”
Tiffany Reisz (The Mistress (The Original Sinners, #4))
“
One might define adulthood as the age at which a person learns that he must die ...and accepts his sentence undismayed.
”
”
Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)
“
Our Nora has a magic pussy. It’s the opposite of the Bermuda Triangle. Lost men sail into it and then find themselves.
”
”
Tiffany Reisz (The Mistress (The Original Sinners, #4))
“
The loveliest Muse in the world does not feed her owner; these girls make fine mistresses but terrible wives
”
”
Alfred de Vigny (Stello (Spanish Edition))
“
Where’s my white out?”
“Chapter ten is missing!”
“Has anyone seen my socks?”
Linda spun around.
Mistress Yvonne gripped her shoulders. “This is a regular occurrence. No need to get involved.”
Faint shouts echoed down the hall. “Leprechauns!
”
”
Marlene Simonette (Trouble In Bookland (Part One))
“
We live in a society where too many women tear each other down instead of raising each other up. That's absurd to me. We need to empower one another, teach future generations of girls that it's important to stand together. Once upon a time, we had a common goal and a common enemy. We were burning bras, and fighting for the right to vote.
Now we're body shaming each other on social media and blaming the mistress if our man cheats.
”
”
Elle Kennedy (The Chase (Briar U, #1))
“
I quote Tolkien because he puts it better. But I can still open a can of whup ass all over you."
You're right," I told him. "He does put it better.
”
”
Karen Chance (Death's Mistress (Dorina Basarab, #2))
“
A daughter,' Rowley scooped up the child and held her high. The baby blinked from sleep and crowed with him. 'Any fool can have a son,' he said. 'It takes a man to conceive a daughter.
”
”
Ariana Franklin (The Serpent's Tale (Mistress of the Art of Death, #2))
“
In the absence of sleep, my restless nights have been fueled by my overactive imagination, weaving waking dreams onto the canvas of conception. Filling my head with lots of ideas waiting to be born into reality. I am eager to return to my beautiful mistress, Creation!
”
”
Jaeda DeWalt
“
Betrayal clearly has its own reward: the small deep human satisfaction of having one up on someone else. It is the psychology of the mistress, and this regime used it as fuel.
”
”
Anna Funder (Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall)
“
Mistress Mary Quite Contrary
”
”
Frances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden)
“
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
”
”
Andrew Marvell (To His Coy Mistress)
“
Revolution is an art that I pursue rather than a goal I expect to achieve. Nor is this a source of dismay; a lost cause can be as spiritually satisfying as a victory.
”
”
Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)
“
If you choose, Little One... I can own you. You would be my property. mine alone.
”
”
Tiffany Reisz (The Mistress (The Original Sinners, #4))
“
A man who catches History's eye is thereafter bound to a mistress from whom he will never escape.
”
”
Salman Rushdie (Shame)
“
We come together, we create our families, we chose our mates out of the desire to form a life together. Love takes many forms, wears many faces, but when it's real, when it touches your heart, you will know it and--with hope--embrace it. Love is stronger than hate, love is stronger than anger. Love is stronger than all artificial divisions that exist n our world.
”
”
Yasmine Galenorn (Demon Mistress (Otherworld / Sisters of the Moon, #6))
“
Well met, Mistress Lirael. This ragamuffin, as your servant so aptly described him, is His Highness Prince Sameth, the Abhorsen-in-Waiting. Hence the bells. But on to more serious matters. Could you please rescue us? Prince Sameth's personal vessel is not quite what I'm used to, and he is eager to catch me a fish before my morning nap.
”
”
Garth Nix (Lirael (Abhorsen, #2))
“
You know,” OreSeur muttered quietly, obviously counting on her tin to let Vin hear him, “it seems that these meetings would be more productive if someone forgot to invite those two.”
Vin smiled. “They’re not that bad,” she whispered.
OreSeur raised an eyebrow.
“Okay,” Vin said. “They do distract us a little bit.”
“I could always eat on of them, if you wish,” OreSeur said. “That might speed things up.”
Vin paused.
OreSeur, however had a strange little smile on his lips. “Kandra humor, Mistress. I apologize. We can be a bit grim.”
Vin smiled. “They probably wouldn’t taste very good anyway. Ham’s far too stringy, and you don’t want to know the kinds of things that Breeze spends his time eating….”
“I’m not sure,” OreSeur said. “One is, after all, named ‘Ham.’ As for the other…” He nodded to the cup of wine in Breeze’s hand. “He does seem quite fond of marinating himself.
”
”
Brandon Sanderson (The Well of Ascension (Mistborn, #2))
“
An angel! Nonsense! Everybody so describes his mistress; and yet I find it impossible to tell you how perfect she is, or why she is so perfect: suffice it to say she has captivated all my senses.
”
”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (The Sorrows of Young Werther)
“
I want you to go back to Tucson and bring me the bottle of tequila I keep in my liquor cabinet. And don't scare Tim."
Volusian remained motionless in that way of his. "My mistress grows increasingly creative in her ways to torment me."
"I thought you'd appreciate it."
"Only in so much as it inspires me to equally creative means to rip you apart when I am able to break free of these bonds and finally destroy you."
"You see? There's a silver lining to everything. Now hurry up.
”
”
Richelle Mead (Thorn Queen (Dark Swan, #2))
“
So, " Nathan said, attention focused on Adrian, "now that Vasilisa's graduated, what are you going to do with yourself? You aren't going to keep slumming with high school students, are you? There's no point in you being there anymore. "
"I don't know, " said Adrian lazily. "I kind of like hanging out with them. They think I'm funnier than I really am. "
"Unsurprising, " his father replied. "You aren't funny at all. It's time you do something productive. If you aren't going to go back to college, you should at least start sitting in on some of the family business meetings. Tatiana spoils you, but you could learn a lot from Rufus. "
"True, " said Adrian deadpan."I'd really like to know how he keeps his two mistresses a secret from his wife. "
"Adrian!" snapped Daniella, a flush spilling over her pale cheeks
”
”
Richelle Mead (Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy, #5))
“
A problem is a chance for you to do your best.
”
”
Duke Ellington (Music is My Mistress)
“
Paulinus, everyone knows. Say the word, and I'll run the bitch over with my chariot
”
”
Kate Quinn (Mistress of Rome (The Empress of Rome, #1))
“
As it says in the Bible, God fights on the side with the heaviest artillery.
”
”
Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)
“
We’ll go where the air is pure, where all sounds are soothing, where, no matter how proud one may be, one feels humble and finds oneself small- in short, we’ll go to the sea. I love the sea as one loves a mistress and I long for her when I haven’t seen her for some time
”
”
Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo)
“
Every night, my love. All nights are yours.
”
”
Tiffany Reisz (The Mistress (The Original Sinners, #4))
“
Oh, yes, poor little me. Had to have sex with the two most beautiful men on the planet in the same night. It was torture by orgasm. All, I don’t know, five or six of them.
”
”
Tiffany Reisz (The Mistress (The Original Sinners, #4))
“
In terms of morals there is no such thing as ‘state.’ Just men. Individuals. Each responsible for his own acts.
”
”
Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)
“
Her tongue flailed around all the questions stammering to get out, and she finally landed on: “When did you have time to take a mistress?”
His smile faltered. “Don’t talk about Cress like that.”
“What?”
“Oh—wait! You mean Darla. I won her in a hand of cards.”
Cinder gawked.
“I thought she’d make a nice gift for Iko.”
“You … what?”
“For her replacement body?”
“Um.”
“Because Darla’s an escort-droid?
”
”
Marissa Meyer (Cress (The Lunar Chronicles, #3))
“
Because I’m a cat. A big one, the Panther of Rough Storms, in fact. But still a cat. If there’s a saucer of milk to spill, I’d rather spill it than let it lie. If my mistress grows absent-minded and leaves a ball of yarn about, I’ll bat it between my paws, and unravel it. Because it’s fun. Because it’s what cats do best.
”
”
Catherynne M. Valente (The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Fairyland, #1))
“
Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he loved; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster.
This is the whole of the story and we might have left it at that had there not been profit and pleasure in the telling; and although there is plenty of space on a gravestone to contain, bound in moss, the abridged version of a man's life, detail is always welcome.
”
”
Vladimir Nabokov (Laughter in the Dark)
“
And what do you really do?" asked Tiffany.
The thin witch hesitated for a moment, and then: "We look to ... the edges," said Mistress Weatherwax. "There's a lot of edges, more than people know. Between life and death, this world and the next, night and day, right and wrong ... an' they need watchin'. We watch 'em, we guard the sum of things. And we never ask for any reward. That's important.
”
”
Terry Pratchett (The Wee Free Men (Discworld, #30; Tiffany Aching, #1))
“
Each spice has a special day to it. For turmeric it is Sunday, when light drips fat and butter-colored into the bins to be soaked up glowing, when you pray to the nine planets for love and luck.
”
”
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (The Mistress of Spices)
“
Women talk when they want to. Or don't.
”
”
Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)
“
It is a delicious thing to write, to be no longer yourself but to move in an entire universe of your own creating. Today, for instance, as man and woman, both lover and mistress, I rode in a forest on an autumn afternoon under the yellow leaves, and I was also the horses, the leaves, the wind, the words my people uttered, even the red sun that made them almost close their love-drowned eyes.
”
”
Gustave Flaubert
“
The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.
”
”
David Markson (Wittgenstein's Mistress)
“
A man of the Night's Watch lives his life for the realm. Not for a king, nor a lord, nor the honor of this house or that house, neither for gold nor glory nor a woman's love, but for the realm, and all the people in it. A man of the Night's Watch takes no wife and fathers no sons. Our wife is duty. Our mistress is honor. And you are the only sons we shall ever know.
”
”
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
“
ROXANE:
Live, for I love you!
CYRANO:
No, In fairy tales
When to the ill-starred Prince the lady says 'I love you!' all his ugliness fades fast--
But I remain the same, up to the last!
ROXANE:
I have marred your life--I, I!
CYRANO:
You blessed my life!
Never on me had rested woman's love.
My mother even could not find me fair:
I had no sister; and, when grown a man,
I feared the mistress who would mock at me.
But I have had your friendship--grace to you
A woman's charm has passed across my path.
”
”
Edmond Rostand (Cyrano de Bergerac)
“
I thought I wanted the truth, but I don't. The past is the past and it can't be changed. It's the future I'm interested in." -Gabriel McGregor
”
”
Tilly Bagshawe (Sidney Sheldon's Mistress of the Game)
“
The lies kinky people tell vanilla people.
”
”
Tiffany Reisz (The Mistress (The Original Sinners, #4))
“
Because there is nothing I wouldn’t do to protect you, Eleanor. Nothing I wouldn’t do to help you. And nothing I wouldn’t do to save you. Nothing.
”
”
Tiffany Reisz (The Mistress (The Original Sinners, #4))
“
Certain types of loudmouthism should be a capital offense among decent people.
”
”
Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)
“
What do you know about racing?" Ronnie asked, curious. He looked fascinated, like a scientist confronted by a strange new species: dontgivadamnus from the phylum couldntcareless.
”
”
Karen Chance (Death's Mistress (Dorina Basarab, #2))
“
O Mistress mine, where are you roaming?
O, stay and hear; your true love's coming,
That can sing both high and low:
Trip no further, pretty sweeting;
Journeys end in lovers meeting,
Every wise man's son doth know.
What is love? 'Tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter;
What's to come is still unsure:
In delay there lies not plenty;
Then, come kiss me, sweet and twenty,
Youth's a stuff will not endure.
”
”
William Shakespeare
“
Let go with me. Let me comfort you with my body...there's no shame in forgetting for a night even if you know you'll remember in the morning.
”
”
Tiffany Reisz (The Mistress (The Original Sinners, #4))
“
Mistresses, have you ever noticed that when we disagree with a male – I hesitate to say ‘man’ – or find ourselves in a position over males, the first comment they make is always about our reputations or our monthlies?”
One of the new women snorted. Others snickered.
Kel looked at the man, who was momentarily speechless. “If I disagree with you, should I place blame on the misworkings of your manhood? Or do I refrain from so serious an insult” – she made a face – “far more serious, of course, than your hint that I am a whore. Because my mother taught me courtesy, I only suggest that my monthlies will come long after your hair has escaped your head entirely.
”
”
Tamora Pierce (Lady Knight (Protector of the Small, #4))
“
How can I forgive if you are not ready to give up that which caused you to stumble?
”
”
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (The Mistress of Spices)
“
I'm only a housewife, I'm afraid." How often do we hear this shocking admission. I'm afraid when I hear it I feel very angry indeed. Only a housewife: only a practitioner of one of the two most noble professions (the other one is that of a farmer); only the mistress of a huge battery of high and varied skills and custodian of civilization itself. Only a typist, perhaps! Only a company director, or a nuclear physicist; only a barrister; only the President! When a woman says she is a housewife she should say it with the utmost pride, for there is nothing higher on this planet to which she could aspire.
”
”
John Seymour (Forgotten Household Crafts)
“
The trouble with conspiracies is that they rot internally.
”
”
Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)
“
But do you know why we are always more just and generous toward the dead? The reason is simple. With them there is no obligation. They leave us free and we can take our time, fit the testimonial between a cocktail party and a nice little mistress, in our spare time, in short.
”
”
Albert Camus (The Fall)
“
From somewhere, back in my youth, heard Prof say, 'Manuel, when faced with a problem you do not understand, do any part of it you do understand, then look at it again.' He had been teaching me something he himself did not understand very well—something in math—but had taught me something far more important, a basic principle.
”
”
Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)
“
Once, somebody asked Robert Schumann to explain the meaning of a certain piece of music he had just played on the piano.
What Robert Schumann did was sit back down at the piano and play the piece of music again.
”
”
David Markson (Wittgenstein's Mistress)
“
The chef turned back to the housekeeper. “Why is there doubt about the relations between Monsieur and Madame Rutledge?”
The sheets,” she said succinctly.
Jake nearly choked on his pastry. “You have the housemaids spying on them?” he asked around a mouthful of custard and cream.
Not at all,” the housekeeper said defensively. “It’s only that we have vigilant maids who tell me everything. And even if they didn’t, one hardly needs great powers of observation to see that they do not behave like a married couple.”
The chef looked deeply concerned. “You think there’s a problem with his carrot?”
Watercress, carrot—is everything food to you?” Jake demanded.
The chef shrugged. “Oui.”
Well,” Jake said testily, “there is a string of Rutledge’s past mistresses who would undoubtedly testify there is nothing wrong with his carrot.”
Alors, he is a virile man . . . she is a beautiful woman . . . why are they not making salad together?
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Tempt Me at Twilight (The Hathaways, #3))
“
It’s an inconvenience, true enough, and I don’t like it at all, but I know that you do it for everyone, Mister Death. Is there any other way?’
NO, THERE ISN’T, I’M AFRAID. WE ARE ALL FLOATING IN THE WINDS OF TIME. BUT YOUR CANDLE, MISTRESS WEATHERWAX, WILL FLICKER FOR SOME TIME BEFORE IT GOES OUT – A LITTLE REWARD FOR A LIFE WELL LIVED. FOR I CAN SEE THE BALANCE AND YOU HAVE LEFT THE WORLD MUCH BETTER THAN YOU FOUND IT, AND IF YOU ASK ME, said Death, NOBODY COULD DO ANY BETTER THAN THAT . . .
”
”
Terry Pratchett (The Shepherd's Crown (Discworld, #41; Tiffany Aching, #5))
“
She stopped and listened to him and somehow his cheerful, friendly little whistle gave her a pleased feeling--even a disagreeable little girl may be lonely, and the big closed house and big bare moor and big bare gardens had made this one feel as if there was no one left in the world but herself. If she had been an affectionate child, who had been used to being loved, she would have broken her heart, but even though she was "Mistress Mary Quite Contrary" she was desolate, and the bright-breasted little bird brought a look into her sour little face which was almost a smile. She listened to him until he flew away. He was not like an Indian bird and she liked him and wondered if she should ever see him again. Perhaps he lived in the mysterious garden and knew all about it.
”
”
Frances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden (Dover Children's Evergreen Classics))
“
I love you. I love the way you rub the scar on the back of your hand when you're nervous. I love the way you make a sword into a living part of your body. I love the way you burn your eyes into me, as if you're seeing me fresh every time. I love the black streak in you that wants to kill the world, and the soft streak that is sorry afterward. I love the way you laugh, as if you're surprised that you can laugh at all. I love the way you kiss my breath away. I love the way you breathe and speak and smile. I love the way you take the air out of my lungs when you hold me. I love the way you make a dance out of death. I love the confusion I see in your eyes when you realize you are happy. I love every muscle and bone in your body, every twist and bend in your soul.
”
”
Kate Quinn (Mistress of Rome (The Empress of Rome, #1))
“
Yet are you so certain, good mistress, you wish to be free of this mist? Is it not better some things remain hidden from our minds?"
"It may be for some, father, but not for us. Axl and I wish to have again the happy moments we shared together. To be robbed of them is as if a thief came in the night and took what's most precious from us."
"Yet the mist covers all memories, the bad as well as the good. Isn't that so, mistress?"
"We'll have the bad ones come back too, even if they make us weep or shake with anger. For isn't it the life we've shared?
”
”
Kazuo Ishiguro (The Buried Giant)
“
I am Athena. Before that I was Thea, singer and slave and lover of gladiators. Before that I was Leah, daughter of Benjamin and Rachael of Masada. I am as mortal as you, you common little man. And I fear no one!
”
”
Kate Quinn (Mistress of Rome (The Empress of Rome, #1))
“
I know that love is giving yourself to someone else. Giving yourself to someone without losing yourself
”
”
Tiffany Reisz (The Mistress (The Original Sinners, #4))
“
But at my back I always hear
Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near
”
”
Andrew Marvell (To His Coy Mistress)
“
You will say that I am old and mad, was what Michaelangelo wrote, but I answer that there is no better way of being sane and free from anxiety than by being mad.
”
”
David Markson (Wittgenstein's Mistress)
“
Fenugreek, Tuesday's spice, when the air is green like mosses after rain.
”
”
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (The Mistress of Spices)
“
He has to play hard to get hard, I know that. I'm okay with that. More than okay.
”
”
Tiffany Reisz (The Mistress (The Original Sinners, #4))
“
Seems to be a deep instinct in human beings for making everything compulsory that isn't forbidden.
”
”
Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)
“
I'd rather see you dead than let him touch you the way he touches me.
”
”
Tiffany Reisz (The Mistress (The Original Sinners, #4))
“
Drop dead-but first get permit
”
”
Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)
“
Must be yearning deep in human heart to stop other people from doing as they please.
”
”
Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)
“
Mrs. Darling loved to have everything just so, and Mr. Darling had a passion for being exactly like his neighbours; so, of course, they had a nurse. As they were poor, owing to the amount of milk the children drank, this nurse was a prim Newfoundland dog, called Nana, who had belonged to no one in particular until the Darlings engaged her. She had always thought children important, however, and the Darlings had become acquainted with her in Kensington Gardens, where she spent most of her spare time peeping into perambulators, and was much hated by careless nursemaids, whom she followed to their homes and complained of to their mistresses. She proved to be quite a treasure of a nurse.
”
”
J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan)
“
Silent as a flower, her face fell in dismay, aware that the ghost of lust ate and left, sensing that there was a different scent of perfume consuming the room, and that she had numbered and counted the he loves me, he loves me not of each petal, where the lifeless dust had settle.
”
”
Anthony Liccione
“
I yield to nobody in my admiration for God, but he's no good in bed.
”
”
Ariana Franklin (The Serpent's Tale (Mistress of the Art of Death, #2))
“
Fennel, which is the spice for Wednesdays, the day of averages, of middle-aged people. . . . Fennel . . . smelling of changes to come.
”
”
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (The Mistress of Spices)
“
Monday is the day of silence, day of the whole white mung bean, which is sacred to the moon.
”
”
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (The Mistress of Spices)
“
Nor would anybody suspect. If was one thing all people took for granted, was conviction that if you feed honest figures into a computer, honest figures come out. Never doubted it myself till I met a computer with a sense of humor.
”
”
Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)
“
...heroine: the artist, the premier mistress writhering in a garden graced w/highly polished blades of grass... release (ethiopium) is the drug...an animal howl says it all...notes pour into the caste of freedom...the freedom to be intense...to defy social order and break the slow kill monotony of censorship. to break from the long bonds of servitude-ruthless adoration of the celestial shepherd. let us celebrate our own flesh-to embrace not ones race mais the marathon-to never let go of the fiery sadness called desire.
”
”
Patti Smith
“
Who is this Marlowe guy anyway? He's an ass. Threw him out. Threatened to have Ysmi sit on him if he returned.
Why are there two severed heads rolling around the house? Cats tried to eat one. Mostly prevented.
Headless guy is in hallway broom closet with head that I think is his.
”
”
Karen Chance (Death's Mistress (Dorina Basarab, #2))
“
I thought, perhaps you might have had something to say, but I see we are nothing to each other. If you're quite convinced that any foolish passion on my part is entirely over, I will wish you good afternoon.'
'What can he mean?' thought Margaret -- 'what could he mean by speaking so, as if I were always thinking that he cared for me, when I know he does not; he cannot. ... But I won't care for him. I surely am mistress enough of myself to control this wild, strange, miserable feeling, which tempted me even to betray my own dear Frederick, so that I might but regain his good opinion -- the good opinion of a man who takes such pains to tell me that I am nothing to him. Come! poor little heart! be cheery and brave. We'll be a great deal to one another, if we are thrown off and left desolate.
”
”
Elizabeth Gaskell
“
Only the weak blame their past for the faults they find in their present; the strong acknowledge the effects of their past and then move on from it. We are all free to choose whether we will be weak or strong.
”
”
Penny Jordan (The Italian Duke's Virgin Mistress)
“
To be beautiful, handsome, means that you possess a power which makes all smile upon and welcome you; that everybody is impressed in your favor and inclined to be of your opinion; that you have only to pass through a street or to show yourself at a balcony to make friends and to win mistresses from among those who look upon you. What a splendid, what a magnificent gift is that which spares you the need to be amiable in order to be loved, which relieves you of the need of being clever and ready to serve, which you must be if ugly, and enables you to dispense with the innumerable moral qualities which you must possess in order to make up for the lack of personal beauty.
”
”
Théophile Gautier (Mademoiselle de Maupin)
“
The best I can say, it's like this. A man's in his skin, see, like a nut in its shell ... It's hard and strong, that shell, and it's all full of him. Full of grand man-meat, man-self. And that's all. That's all there is.
A woman's a different thing entirely. Who knows where a woman begins and ends? Listen mistress, I have roots, I have roots deeper than this island. Deeper than the sea, older than the raising of the lands. I go back into the dark ... I go back into the dark! Before the moon I am, what a woman is, a woman of power, a woman's power, deeper than the roots of trees, deeper than the roots of islands, older than the Making, older than the moon. Who dares ask questions of the dark? Who'll ask the dark its name?
”
”
Ursula K. Le Guin (Tehanu (Earthsea Cycle, #4))
“
A Great Rabbi stands, teaching in the marketplace. It happens that a husband finds proof that morning of his wife's adultery, and a mob carries her to the marketplace to stone her to death.
There is a familiar version of this story, but a friend of mine - a Speaker for the Dead - has told me of two other Rabbis that faced the same situation. Those are the ones I'm going to tell you.
The Rabbi walks forward and stands beside the woman. Out of respect for him the mob forbears and waits with the stones heavy in their hands. 'Is there any man here,' he says to them, 'who has not desired another man's wife, another woman's husband?'
They murmur and say, 'We all know the desire, but Rabbi none of us has acted on it.'
The Rabbi says, 'Then kneel down and give thanks that God has made you strong.' He takes the woman by the hand and leads her out of the market. Just before he lets her go, he whispers to her, 'Tell the Lord Magistrate who saved his mistress, then he'll know I am his loyal servant.'
So the woman lives because the community is too corrupt to protect itself from disorder.
Another Rabbi. Another city. He goes to her and stops the mob as in the other story and says, 'Which of you is without sin? Let him cast the first stone.'
The people are abashed, and they forget their unity of purpose in the memory of their own individual sins. ‘Someday,’ they think, ‘I may be like this woman. And I’ll hope for forgiveness and another chance. I should treat her as I wish to be treated.’
As they opened their hands and let their stones fall to the ground, the Rabbi picks up one of the fallen stones, lifts it high over the woman’s head and throws it straight down with all his might it crushes her skull and dashes her brain among the cobblestones. ‘Nor am I without sins,’ he says to the people, ‘but if we allow only perfect people to enforce the law, the law will soon be dead – and our city with it.’
So the woman died because her community was too rigid to endure her deviance.
The famous version of this story is noteworthy because it is so startlingly rare in our experience. Most communities lurch between decay and rigor mortis and when they veer too far they die. Only one Rabbi dared to expect of us such a perfect balance that we could preserve the law and still forgive the deviation.
So of course, we killed him.
-San Angelo
Letters to an Incipient Heretic
”
”
Orson Scott Card (Speaker for the Dead (Ender's Saga, #2))
“
I’ll never leave you. I’ll never mistreat you. I think you know that by now. Try with me. Let us find what we
may find.”
“What do you expect to find, Robert?”
“How should I know? I’ve never experienced anything like this before in my life.”
Tears shone briefly under her graceful long lashes before she blinked them away and glanced at him
again with a reluctant twist of a smile. Sitting up, she wrapped her arms around her bent knees and
sighed. “You are asking us both to set ourselves up for great hurt when it comes time for me to leave.”
“Leave? Don’t speak of leaving, angel. You must stay forever.”
“As your mistress.”
“As my love,” he countered insistently.
”
”
Gaelen Foley (The Duke (Knight Miscellany, #1))
“
Ah, mistress, you’re an angel. Sure there’s not a drop left? I might have remembered one more person….”
“Up yours,” I said rudely with another belch. “It’s empty. You should tell me the name anyway, after making me drink all that sewage.”
Winston gave me a devious smile. “Come back with a full bottle and I will.”
“Selfish spook,” I mumbled, and staggered away.
I’d made it a few feet when I felt that distinct pins-and-needles sensation again, only this time it wasn’t in my throat.
“Hey!”
I looked down in time to see Winston’s grinning, transparent form fly out of my pants. He was chuckling even as I smacked at myself and hopped up and down furiously.
“Drunken filthy pig!” I spat. “Bastard!”
“And a good eve’in’ to you, too, mistress!” he called out, his edges starting to blur and fade. “Come back soon!”
“I hope worms shit on your corpse!” was my reply. A ghost had just gotten to third base with me. Could I sink any lower?
”
”
Jeaniene Frost (Halfway to the Grave (Night Huntress, #1))
“
A rational anarchist believes that concepts such as ‘state’ and ‘society’ and ‘government’ have no existence save as physically exemplified in the acts of self-responsible individuals. He believes that it is impossible to shift blame, share blame, distribute blame… as blame, guilt, responsibility are matters taking place inside human beings singly and nowhere else. But being rational, he knows that not all individuals hold his evaluations, so he tries to live perfectly in an imperfect world…aware that his effort will be less than perfect yet undismayed by self-knowledge of self-failure.
[...]
“My point is that one person is responsible. Always. [...] In terms of morals there is no such thing as ‘state.’ Just men. Individuals. Each responsible for his own acts.
”
”
Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)
“
Tell me not, sweet, I am unkind,” he said, “That from the nunnery, Of they chaste breast and quiet mind.”
I looked up at him, and said the next line, “To war and arms I fly.”
“True, a new mistress now I chase,” he said.
“The first foe in the field,” I said, and let him draw me closer.
“And with a stronger faith embrace,” he said.
“A sword, a horse, a shield.” And the last word was whispered against his chest, still looking up into those eyes, searching his face.
“Yet this inconstancy is such, As thou too shalt adore,” he whispered against my hair.
I finished the poem with my face pressed against his chest, listening to the beat of his heart, that truly beat with my blood. “I could not love thee, dear, so much, Loved I not honor more.
”
”
Laurell K. Hamilton (Incubus Dreams (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, #12))
“
To be the mistress of a married man is to have the better role. Do you realize? His dirty shirt, his disgusting underwear, his daily ironing, his bad breath, his hemorrhoid attacks, his fuss, not to mention his bad moods, and his tantrums. Well all that is for his wife.
When a married man comes to his mistress... he's always bleached and ironed, his teeth sparkle, his breath is like perfume, he's in a good mood, he's full of conversation, he is there to have a good time with you.
”
”
Marjane Satrapi (Embroideries)
“
Cats don’t have dark sides. That’s all a shadow is—and though you might be prejudiced against the dark, you ought to remember that that’s where stars live, and the moon and raccoons and owls and fireflies and mushrooms and cats and enchantments and a rather lot of good, necessary things. Thieving, too, and conspiracies, sneaking, secrets, and desire so strong you might faint dead away with the punch of it. But your light side isn’t a perfectly pretty picture, either, I promise you. You couldn’t dream without the dark. You couldn’t rest. You couldn’t even meet a lover on a balcony by moonlight. And what would the world be worth without that? You need your dark side, because without it, you’re half gone. Cats, on the other hand, have a more sensible setup. We just have the one side, and it’s mostly the sneaking and sleeping side anyway. So the other Iago and I feel very companionable toward each other. Whereas I expect my drowsy mistress Above would loathe this version of herself, who is kind and quiet and lonely and rather dear, all the things the original is not. My love stands for both. This one pets me more; that one let me pounce on anything I wanted.
”
”
Catherynne M. Valente (The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There (Fairyland, #2))
“
During a party, Luis Buñuel, seduced by Carrington’s beauty and emboldened by the notion that she had transcended all bourgeois morality, proposed (with his characteristic bluntness) that she become his mistress. Without even waiting for her answer, he gave her the key to the secret studio that he used as a love nest and told her to meet him at three o’clock the next afternoon. Early the next morning, Leonora went to visit the place alone. She found it tasteless: It looked exactly like a motel room. Taking advantage of the fact that she was in her menstrual period, she covered her hands with blood and used them to make bloody handprints all over the walls in order to provide a bit of decoration for that anonymous, impersonal room. Buñuel never spoke to her again.
”
”
Alejandro Jodorowsky (The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsky: The Creator of El Topo)
“
I moved to assist, but never got the chance. there was some pretty violent banging for a minute, and then a tearing sound. Finally the stall door flew open, and Ray's shirtless body emerged and started bitch-slapping everything in sight.
His aim was off, probably due to the difficulty of having his eyes on the other side of the room, but he made up for it with sheer determination.
”
”
Karen Chance (Death's Mistress (Dorina Basarab, #2))
“
I love you,” she said, not able to go on any longer without him hearing those words, without her saying them. “I always loved you. I never once stopped loving you. All those times I said I hated you, I never meant them, not once. I loved every part of you, every secret, every sin. I love what you are and what you do and how you make me feel so scared and so safe all at the same time.
”
”
Tiffany Reisz (The Mistress (The Original Sinners, #4))
“
Have you noticed that death alone awakens our feelings? How we love the friends who have just left us? How we admire those of our teachers who have ceased to speak, their mouths filled with earth! Then the expression of admiration springs forth naturally, that admiration they were perhaps expecting from us all their lives. But do you know why we are always more just and more generous toward the dead? The reason is simple. With them there is no obligation. They leave us free and we can take our time, fit the testimonial between a cocktail party and a nice little mistress, in our spare time, in short.
”
”
Albert Camus (The Fall)
“
We don't really want to get what we think that we want.
I am married to a wife and relationship with her are cold and I have a mistress. And all the time I dream oh my god if my wife were to disappear - I'm not a murderer but let us say- that it will open up a new life with the mistress.Then, for some reason, the wife goes away, you lose the mistress.
You thought this is all I want, when you have it there, you turn out it was a much more complex situation.
It was not to live with the mistress, but to keep her as a distance as on object of desire about which you dream.
This is not an excessive example, I claim this is how things function. We don't really want what we think we desire
”
”
Slavoj Žižek
“
-You know how to call me
although such a noise now
would only confuse the air
Neither of us can forget
the steps we danced
the words you stretched
to call me out of dust
Yes I long for you
not just as a leaf for weather
or vase for hands
but with a narrow human longing
that makes a man refuse
any fields but his own
I wait for you at an
unexpected place in your journey
like the rusted key
or the feather you do not pick up.-
-I WILL NEVER FIND THE FACES
FOR ALL GOODBYES I'VE MADE.-
For Anyone Dressed in Marble
The miracle we all are waiting for
is waiting till the Parthenon falls down
and House of Birthdays is a house no more
and fathers are unpoisoned by renown.
The medals and the records of abuse
can't help us on our pilgrimage to lust,
but like whips certain perverts never use,
compel our flesh in paralysing trust.
I see an orphan, lawless and serene,
standing in a corner of the sky,
body something like bodies that have been,
but not the scar of naming in his eye.
Bred close to the ovens, he's burnt inside.
Light, wind, cold, dark -- they use him like a bride.
I Had It for a Moment
I had it for a moment
I knew why I must thank you
I saw powerful governing men in black suits
I saw them undressed
in the arms of young mistresses
the men more naked than the naked women
the men crying quietly
No that is not it
I'm losing why I must thank you
which means I'm left with pure longing
How old are you
Do you like your thighs
I had it for a moment
I had a reason for letting the picture
of your mouth destroy my conversation
Something on the radio
the end of a Mexican song
I saw the musicians getting paid
they are not even surprised
they knew it was only a job
Now I've lost it completely
A lot of people think you are beautiful
How do I feel about that
I have no feeling about that
I had a wonderful reason for not merely
courting you
It was tied up with the newspapers
I saw secret arrangements in high offices
I saw men who loved their worldliness
even though they had looked through
big electric telescopes
they still thought their worldliness was serious
not just a hobby a taste a harmless affectation
they thought the cosmos listened
I was suddenly fearful
one of their obscure regulations
could separate us
I was ready to beg for mercy
Now I'm getting into humiliation
I've lost why I began this
I wanted to talk about your eyes
I know nothing about your eyes
and you've noticed how little I know
I want you somewhere safe
far from high offices
I'll study you later
So many people want to cry quietly beside you
”
”
Leonard Cohen (Flowers for Hitler)
“
We cannot do this now!" ....
"Sure we can."
He scowled.... "Go home, Dory."
"Give me what I want and I will!"
Radu appeared in the doorway. "I know this is a stupid question before I ask it, but is there any chance that we can discuss this like civilized people?"
Louis-Cesare.... stepped back a pace and dangled the duffel of one long finger. "Come and get it."
I stared. "Oh, no, you didn't."
"Oh, yeah. He did. You gonna take that?" Raymond piped up....
"You really want to do this?" I demanded.... The only answer I got was a flying tackle that caught me around the knees and sent me skidding on my back over hard wood.
I grinned. Well, all right then.
"That's what I thought." Radu sighed.
”
”
Karen Chance (Death's Mistress (Dorina Basarab, #2))
“
Don't expect me to be sane anymore. Don't let's be sensible. It was a marriage at Louveciennes - you can't dispute it. I came away with pieces of you sticking to me; I am walking about, swimming, in an ocean of blood, your Andalusian blood, distilled and poisonous. Everything I do and say and think relates back to the marriage. I saw you as the mistress of your home, a Moor with a heavy face, a negress with a white body, eyes all over your skin, woman, woman, woman. I can't see how I can go on living away from you. [...] You became a woman with me. I was almost terrified by it. You are not just thirty years old - you are a thousand years old. [...]
Anaïs, I only thought I loved you before; it was nothing like this certainty that's in me now. Was all this so wonderful only because it was brief and stolen? Were we acting for each other, to each other? Was I less I, or more I, and you less or more you? Is it madness to believe that this could go on? When and where would the drab moments begin?
”
”
Henry Miller
“
To His Coy Mistress
Had we but world enough and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down, and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love’s day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the flood,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires and more slow;
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.
But at my back I always hear
Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found;
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long-preserved virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust;
The grave’s a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.
Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapped power.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
”
”
Andrew Marvell (The Complete Poems)
“
This ain’t right, you know. She’s the one who ought to rule, fair enough. And you used magic to help her this far, and that’s all right. But it stops right here. It’s up to her what happens next. You can’t make things right by magic. You can only stop making them wrong.”
Mrs. Gogol pulled herself up to her full, impressive height. “Who’s you to say what I can and can’t do here?”
“We’re her godmothers,” said Granny.
“That’s right,” said Nanny Ogg.
“We’ve got a wand, too,” said Magrat.
“But you hate godmothers, Mistress Weatherwax,” said Mrs. Gogol.
“We’re the other kind,” said Granny. “We’re the kind that gives people what they know they really need, not what we think they ought to want.
”
”
Terry Pratchett (Witches Abroad (Discworld, #12; Witches, #3))
“
I think about how truly interesting and odd it is that when a woman marries, traditionally she loses her name, becoming absorbed by the husband's family name - she is in effect lost, evaporated from all records under her maiden name. I finally understand the anger behind feminism - the idea that as a woman you are property to be conveyed between your father and your husband, but never an individual who exists independently. And on the flip side, it is also one of the few ways one can legitimately get lost - no one questions it.
”
”
A.M. Homes (The Mistress's Daughter)
“
Michael, this is an order from your mistress. Tell me what you want. Now.” “I want Griffin.” The words came out immediately. She had trained him too well. “I want Griffin so much it hurts. I love him, Nora. I have never felt anything like this before. And it’s absolutely stupid because he’s rich and he’s perfect and amazing and I’m a nobody. I’m a nobody, and I’m in love with someone I can’t be with. He’s so beautiful. I can’t stop looking at him, I can’t stop thinking about him. I dream about him at night. And he’s the first thing I think about when I wake up. And I want to touch him so much. I want to touch his face and that fucking perfect hair of his. And his lips and his chest and his arms— and I think about those arms around me, and it’s humiliating how much I want that. And, God, I want to live in his bed. I want to spend the rest of my life underneath him. I want to feel him on top of me and inside me. And I want submit to him. I want to go down on my knees in front of him. I want to call him sir and wear his collar and kiss his fucking feet if he told me to. And I want to walk down the busiest street in New York with him holding hands so the entire world can see us together and know that I belong to him. I love Griffin, Nora. I’m in love with him. And I can’t be with him. But that’s… that’s it.” Michael turned his head and buried it a little deeper into the cleft of Nora’s neck and shoulder. He wanted to stay there so he wouldn’t have to look her or anyone in the eyes ever again. “You won’t tell him, will you?” “She doesn’t have to.
”
”
Tiffany Reisz (The Angel (The Original Sinners, #2))
“
Walt Whitman (1819–1892). Leaves of Grass. 1900.
To You
WHOEVER you are, I fear you are walking the walks of dreams,
I fear these supposed realities are to melt from under your feet and hands;
Even now, your features, joys, speech, house, trade, manners, troubles, follies, costume, crimes, dissipate away from you,
Your true Soul and Body appear before me,
They stand forth out of affairs—out of commerce, shops, law, science, work, forms, clothes, the house, medicine, print, buying, selling, eating, drinking, suffering, dying.
Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poem;
I whisper with my lips close to your ear,
I have loved many women and men, but I love none better than you.
O I have been dilatory and dumb;
I should have made my way straight to you long ago;
I should have blabb’d nothing but you, I should have chanted nothing but you.
I will leave all, and come and make the hymns of you;
None have understood you, but I understand you;
None have done justice to you—you have not done justice to yourself;
None but have found you imperfect—I only find no imperfection in you;
None but would subordinate you—I only am he who will never consent to subordinate you;
I only am he who places over you no master, owner, better, God, beyond what waits intrinsically in yourself.
Painters have painted their swarming groups, and the centre figure of all;
From the head of the centre figure spreading a nimbus of gold-color’d light;
But I paint myriads of heads, but paint no head without its nimbus of gold-color’d light;
From my hand, from the brain of every man and woman it streams, effulgently flowing forever.
O I could sing such grandeurs and glories about you!
You have not known what you are—you have slumber’d upon yourself all your life;
Your eye-lids have been the same as closed most of the time;
What you have done returns already in mockeries;
(Your thrift, knowledge, prayers, if they do not return in mockeries, what is their return?)
The mockeries are not you;
Underneath them, and within them, I see you lurk;
I pursue you where none else has pursued you;
Silence, the desk, the flippant expression, the night, the accustom’d routine, if these conceal you from others, or from yourself, they do not conceal you from me;
The shaved face, the unsteady eye, the impure complexion, if these balk others, they do not balk me,
The pert apparel, the deform’d attitude, drunkenness, greed, premature death, all these I part aside.
There is no endowment in man or woman that is not tallied in you;
There is no virtue, no beauty, in man or woman, but as good is in you;
No pluck, no endurance in others, but as good is in you;
No pleasure waiting for others, but an equal pleasure waits for you.
As for me, I give nothing to any one, except I give the like carefully to you;
I sing the songs of the glory of none, not God, sooner than I sing the songs of the glory of you.
Whoever you are! claim your own at any hazard!
These shows of the east and west are tame, compared to you;
These immense meadows—these interminable rivers—you are immense and interminable as they;
These furies, elements, storms, motions of Nature, throes of apparent dissolution—you are he or she who is master or mistress over them,
Master or mistress in your own right over Nature, elements, pain, passion, dissolution.
The hopples fall from your ankles—you find an unfailing sufficiency;
Old or young, male or female, rude, low, rejected by the rest, whatever you are promulges itself;
Through birth, life, death, burial, the means are provided, nothing is scanted;
Through angers, losses, ambition, ignorance, ennui, what you are picks its way.
”
”
Walt Whitman
“
Sad Girl"
Being a mistress on the side,
It might not appear to fools like you.
Creeping around on the side
Might not be somethin' you would do.
But you haven't seen my man,
You haven't seen my man,
You haven't seen my man,
You haven't seen him.
He's got the fire and he walks with fame,
He's got the fire and he talks with fame.
His bonnie on the side, bonnie on the side,
Makes me so sad, girl.
His money on the side, money on the side,
Makes me so sad, girl.
I'm a sad girl, I'm a sad girl, I'm a sad girl.
I'm a sad girl, I'm a bad girl, I'm a bad girl.
Being a bad bitch on the side,
Might not appeal to fools like you.
We been around while he gets high,
It might not be somethin' you would do.
But you haven't seen my man,
You haven't seen my man,
You haven't seen my man,
You haven't seen him.
He's got the fire and he walks with fame,
He's got the fire and he talks with fame.
His bonnie on the side, bonnie on the side,
Makes me so sad, girl.
His money on the side, money on the side,
Makes me so sad, girl.
I'm a sad girl, I'm a sad girl, I'm a sad girl.
I'm a sad girl, I'm a bad girl, I'm a bad girl.
Watch what you say to me,
Careful who you're talkin' to.
Watch what you say to me,
Careful who you're talkin' to.
I'm on fire, baby, I'm on fire.
He's got the fire and he walks with fame,
He's got the fire and he talks with fame.
His bonnie on the side, bonnie on the side,
Makes me so sad, girl.
His money on the side, money on the side,
Makes me so sad, girl.
I'm a sad girl, I'm a sad girl, I'm a sad girl.
I'm a sad girl, I'm a bad girl, I'm a bad girl.
I'm a sad girl, I'm a sad girl, I'm a sad girl.
I'm a sad girl, I'm a bad girl, I'm a bad girl.
”
”
Lana Del Rey
“
He was the son of this bitchy book reviewer. Totally blasted my first book. Called all my lovely kinksters ‘sick’ and ‘abusive.’ So I got my payback by sickly abusing her youngest all night long.”
“And you felt guilty about that?”
“Not the sex. The note I sent Mom the next day.”
“You sent his mother a note after you seduced her son? What did it say?”
“It said...” Nora began, and paused for a breath. Not one of her prouder moments. “It said, ‘Your son gave me five stars last night. And five fingers.’”
“You’re smiling.”
“I’m trying so hard to feel bad about it. I swear to God I am.
”
”
Tiffany Reisz (The Mistress (The Original Sinners, #4))
“
Thing that got me was not her list of things she hated, since she was obviously crazy as a Cyborg, but fact that always somebody agreed with her prohibitions. Must be a yearning deep in human heart to stop other people from doing as they please. Rules, laws — always for other fellow. A murky part of us, something we had before we came down out of trees, and failed to shuck when we stood up. Because not one of those people said: "Please pass this so that I won't be able to do something I know I should stop." Nyet, tovarishchee, was always something they hated to see neighbors doing. Stop them "for their own good" — not because speaker claimed to be harmed by it.
”
”
Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)
“
A wonderful serenity has taken possession of my entire soul, like these sweet mornings of spring which I enjoy with my whole heart. I am alone, and feel the charm of existence in this spot, which was created for the bliss of souls like mine. I am so happy, my dear friend, so absorbed in the exquisite sense of mere tranquil existence, that I neglect my talents. I should be incapable of drawing a single stroke at the present moment; and yet I feel that I never was a greater artist than now. When, while the lovely valley teems with vapour around me, and the meridian sun strikes the upper surface of the impenetrable foliage of my trees, and but a few stray gleams steal into the inner sanctuary, I throw myself down among the tall grass by the trickling stream; and, as I lie close to the earth, a thousand unknown plants are noticed by me: when I hear the buzz of the little world among the stalks, and grow familiar with the countless indescribable forms of the insects and flies, then I feel the presence of the Almighty, who formed us in his own image, and the breath of that universal love which bears and sustains us, as it floats around us in an eternity of bliss; and then, my friend, when darkness overspreads my eyes, and heaven and earth seem to dwell in my soul and absorb its power, like the form of a beloved mistress, then I often think with longing, Oh, would I could describe these conceptions, could impress upon paper all that is living so full and warm within me, that it might be the mirror of my soul, as my soul is the mirror of the infinite God! O my friend — but it is too much for my strength — I sink under the weight of the splendour of these visions!
”
”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (The Sorrows of Young Werther)
“
There are no whores in Scaithe’s Ebb, or none that consider themselves as such, although there have always been many women who, if pressed, would describe themselves as much-married, with one husband on this ship here every six months, and another husband on that ship, back in port for a month or so every nine months. The mathematics of the thing have always kept most folk satisfied; and if ever it disappoints and a man returns to his wife while one of her other husbands is still in occupancy, why, then there is a fight — and the grog shops to comfort the loser.
The sailors do not mind the arrangement, for they know that this way there will, at the least, be one person who, at the last, will notice when they do not come back from the sea, and will mourn their loss; and their wives content themselves with the certain knowledge that their husbands are also unfaithful, for there is no competing with the sea in a man’s affections, since she is both mother and mistress, and she will wash his corpse also, in time to come, wash it to coral and ivory and pearls.
”
”
Neil Gaiman (Stardust)
“
I was the dhampir daughter of the family patriarch, the little known stain on an otherwise immaculate record. Louis-Cesare, on the other hand, was vamp royalty. The only Child of Mircea’s younger, and far stranger, brother Radu, he was a first-level master--the highest and rarest vampire rank.
A month ago, the prince and the pariah had crossed paths because we had one thing in common: we were very good at killing things. And Mircea’s bug-eyed crazy brother Vlad had needed killing if anyone ever had. The collaboration hadn’t exactly been stress free, but to my surprise, we eventually sorted things out and got the job done. By the end, I’d even started to think that it was kind of nice, having someone to watch my back for a change.
Sometimes, I could be really stupid.
”
”
Karen Chance (Death's Mistress (Dorina Basarab, #2))
“
Who told you that?" I say. "Davy Prentiss?"
He blinks. "What?"
"What do you mean what?" My voice is harder now. "Your new best friend. The man who shot me, Todd, and who you ride to work with laughing every morning."
He clenches his hands into fists.
"You've been spying on me?" he says. "Three months I don't see you, three months I don't hear nothing from you and you been spying? Is that what yer doing in your spare time when yer not blowing people up?"
"Yeah," I yell, my voice getting louder to match his. "Three months of defending you to people who'd only be too happy to call you enemy, Todd. Three months of wondering why the hell you're working so hard for the Mayor and how he knew to go right for the ocean the day after we spoke." He winces, but I keep going, thrusting out my arm and pulling up on the sleeve. "Three months wondering why you put these on women!"
His face changes in an instant. He actually calls out as if he felt the pain himself. He puts a hand to his mouth to stifle it but his Noise is suddenly washed with blackness. He moves his fingertips of his other hand within reach of the band, hovering over my skin, over the band that'll never be removed unless I lose my arm. The skin is still red, and band 1391 still trobs, despite the healing of three mistresses.
"Oh, no," he says. "Oh, no."
The side door opens and the man who let me in leans out. "Everything all right out there, Lieutenant?"
"Lieutenant?" I say.
"We're fine," Todd chokes a little. "We're fine."
The man waits for a second, then goes back inside.
"Lieutenant?" I say again, lowering my voice.
Todd's leant down, his hands on his knees, staring at the floor. "It wasn't me, was it?" he says, his voice quiet, too. "I didn't-" He gestures again at the band without looking up. "I didn't do it without knowing it was you, did I?
”
”
Patrick Ness (The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking, #2))
“
Miss Bingley was very deeply mortified by Darcy's marriage; but as she thought it advisable to retain the right of visiting at Pemberley, she dropt all her resentment; was fonder than ever of Georgiana, almost as attentive to Darcy as heretofore, and paid off every arrear of civility to Elizabeth.
Pemberley was now Georgiana's home; and the attachment of the sisters was exactly what Darcy had hoped to see. They were able to love each other, even as well as they intended. Georgiana had the highest opinion in the world of Elizabeth; though at first she often listened with an astonishment bordering on alarm at her lively, sportive manner of talking to her brother. He, who had always inspired in herself a respect which almost overcame her affection, she now saw the object of open pleasantry. Her mind received knowledge which had never before fallen in her way. By Elizabeth's instructions she began to comprehend that a woman may take liberties with her husband which a brother will not always allow in a sister more than ten years younger than himself.
Lady Catherine was extremely indignant on the marriage of her nephew; and as she gave way to all the genuine frankness of her character, in her reply to the letter which announced its arrangement, she sent him language so very abusive, especially of Elizabeth, that for some time all intercourse was at an end. But at length, by Elizabeth's persuasion, he was prevailed on to overlook the offence, and seek a reconciliation; and, after a little farther resistance on the part of his aunt, her resentment gave way, either to her affection for him, or her curiosity to see how his wife conducted herself: and she condescended to wait on them at Pemberley, in spite of that pollution which its woods had received, not merely from the presence of such a mistress, but the visits of her uncle and aunt from the city.
With the Gardiners they were always on the most intimate terms. Darcy, as well as Elizabeth, really loved them; and they were both ever sensible of the warmest gratitude towards the persons who, by bringing her into Derbyshire, had been the means of uniting them.
”
”
Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)
“
The American really loves nothing but his automobile: not his wife his child nor his country nor even his bank-account first (in fact he doesn't really love that bank-account nearly as much as foreigners like to think because he will spend almost any or all of it for almost anything provided it is valueless enough) but his motor-car. Because the automobile has become our national sex symbol. We cannot really enjoy anything unless we can go up an alley for it. Yet our whole background and raising and training forbids the sub rosa and surreptitious. So we have to divorce our wife today in order to remove from our mistress the odium of mistress in order to divorce our wife tomorrow in order to remove from our mistress and so on. As a result of which the American woman has become cold and and undersexed; she has projected her libido on to the automobile not only because its glitter and gadgets and mobility pander to her vanity and incapacity (because of the dress decreed upon her by the national retailers association) to walk but because it will not maul her and tousle her, get her all sweaty and disarranged. So in order to capture and master anything at all of her anymore the American man has got to make that car his own. Which is why let him live in a rented rathole though he must he will not only own one but renew it each year in pristine virginity, lending it to no one, letting no other hand ever know the last secret forever chaste forever wanton intimacy of its pedals and levers, having nowhere to go in it himself and even if he did he would not go where scratch or blemish might deface it, spending all Sunday morning washing and polishing and waxing it because in doing that he is caressing the body of the woman who has long since now denied him her bed.
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William Faulkner (Intruder in the Dust)