β
By you, I am forever undone.
β
β
Holly Black (The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air, #3))
β
You're like a song that I heard when I was a little kid but forgot I knew until I heard it again.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception (Books of Faerie, #1))
β
You are my heart, my life, my entire existence."
-Ash
β
β
Julie Kagawa (The Iron Queen (The Iron Fey, #3))
β
Itβs you I love,β he says. βI spent much of my life guarding my heart. I guarded it so well that I could behave as though I didnβt have one at all. Even now, it is a shabby, worm-eaten, and scabrous thing. But it is yours.β He walks to the door to the royal chambers, as though to end the conversation. βYou probably guessed as much,β he says. βBut just in case you didnβt.
β
β
Holly Black (The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air, #3))
β
I missed you," I whisper against his skin and feel dizzy with the intimacy of the admission, feel more naked than when he could see every inch of me. "In the mortal world, when I thought you were my enemy, I still missed you."
"My sweet nemesis, how glad I am that you returned.
β
β
Holly Black (The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air, #3))
β
The Queen's Pride was his ship, and he loved her. (That was the way his sentences always went: It is raining today and I love you. My cold is better and I love you. Say hello to Horse and I love you. Like that.)
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
I will never make the mistake of loving you ever again."
"So you choose him?"
That's all this ever was. Jealousy. Rivalry. All so shadow could defeat the flame.
β
β
Victoria Aveyard (Red Queen (Red Queen, #1))
β
My name is Ashallyn'darkmyr Tallyn, third son of the Unseelie Court...Let it be known--from this day forth, I vow to protect Meghan Chase, daughter of the Summer King, with my sword, my honor, and my life. Her desires are mine. Her wishes are mine. Should even the world stand against her, my blade will be at her side. And should it fail to protect her, let my own existence be forfeit. This I swear, on my honor, my True Name, and my life. From this day on..." His voice went even softer, but I still heard it as though he whispered it into my ear. "I am yours.
β
β
Julie Kagawa (The Iron Queen (The Iron Fey, #3))
β
You can be brave and still be feminine. You can lead and still love flowers. Most importantly, you can be queen and still be a bride.
β
β
Kiera Cass (The Heir (The Selection, #4))
β
Ash brought my hand to his lips, his eyes never leaving mine. "I love you, Meghan Chase," he murmured against my skin. "For the rest of my life, however long we have left. I'll consider it an honor to die beside you.
β
β
Julie Kagawa (The Iron Queen (The Iron Fey, #3))
β
Hide yourself in God, so when a man wants to find you he will have to go there first.
β
β
Shannon L. Alder
β
You are enough to drive a saint to madness or a king to his knees.
β
β
Grace Willows (To Kiss a King)
β
I have always loved you, princess" Robin Goodfellow promised, his green eyes shining in the darkness. "I always will. And I'll take whatever you can give me.
β
β
Julie Kagawa (The Iron Queen (The Iron Fey, #3))
β
He promised her that he would give her everything, everything she wanted, as men in love always do. And she trusted him despite herself, as women in love always do.
β
β
Philippa Gregory (The White Queen (The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels, #2))
β
Tell me what I must slay, what I must steal, tell me the riddle I must solve or the hag I must trick. Only tell me the way, and I will do it, no matter the danger, no matter the hardship, no matter the cost.
β
β
Holly Black (The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air, #3))
β
Iβm going to go back and stop your son from killing her.β
The queenβs face fell. For a moment, she looked as old as the years sheβd spent lying in a suspended state. βThat is not a small mistake to fix. If you do this, Time will take something equally valuable from you.β
The Fate gave the queen a look more vicious than any curse. βThere is nothing of equal value to me.
β
β
Stephanie Garber (The Ballad of Never After (Once Upon a Broken Heart, #2))
β
I think Heaven will be like a first kiss.
β
β
Sarah Addison Allen (The Sugar Queen)
β
He didn't marry you to become king. He became king because he wanted to marry you.
β
β
Megan Whalen Turner (The King of Attolia (The Queen's Thief, #3))
β
Her desires are mine. Her wishes are mine. Should even the world stand against her, my blade will be at her side. And should it fail to protect her, let my own existence be forfeit." - Ash
β
β
Julie Kagawa (The Iron Queen (The Iron Fey, #3))
β
It's good to let God pick a man for you. We don't do so well when we pick them ourselves. They end up lipsticks in a drawer, all those wrong colors you thought looked so good in the package.
β
β
Deb Caletti (The Queen of Everything)
β
We could die tomorrow," I whispered back. "I want to be with you tonight. I don't want to have any regrets, when it comes to us. So, yes, I'm sure. I love you, Ash.
β
β
Julie Kagawa (The Iron Queen (The Iron Fey, #3))
β
As long as you exist and I exist, I will love you.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Queen of Air and Darkness (The Dark Artifices, #3))
β
Ash brushed the hair from my neck and leaned close to my ear, his voice so soft not even Grimalkin couldβve heard it. βI love you,β he murmured, and my heart nearly burst out of my chest. βWhatever happens, weβre together now.
Always.
β
β
Julie Kagawa (The Iron Queen (The Iron Fey, #3))
β
What are you doing?β
βKneeling before a goddess.β
βIβm not a goddess.β
βYou are. A goddess, a princess, a queen. As a soldier, I pledge myself to your service. As a prince, I grant you any boon within my power. As a man, I ask to sit at your feet and worship you. Ask me to do anything for you and I will do it.
β
β
Colleen Houck
β
Aelin took a step forward.
One step, as if in a daze.
She loosed a shuddering breath, and a small, whimpering noise came out of her - a sob.
And then she was sprinting down the alley, flying as though the winds themselves pushed at her heels.
She flung herself on the male, crashing into him hard enough that anyone else might have gone rocking back into the stone wall.
But the male grabbed her to him, his massive arms wrapping around her tightly and lifting her up. Nesryn made to approach, but Aedion stopped her with a hand on her arm.
Aelin was laughing as she cried, and the male was just holding her, his hooded head buried in her neck. As if he were breathing her in.
"Who is that?" Nesryn asked.
Aedion smiled. "Rowan.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4))
β
This witch had been crafted from the darkness between the stars.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4))
β
This is the stupidest plan I have ever in my career participated in," Xenophon said.
"I love stupid plans," said Eugenides.
β
β
Megan Whalen Turner (The Queen of Attolia (The Queen's Thief, #2))
β
I suppose that's why I love you."
His eyes flew open and his face lit in an extraordinary grin. "All Saints, say it again."
"I will not."
"You must."
"I'm the queen. I must do nothing but please myself."
"Would it please you to kiss me?
β
β
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
β
You say potato; I say potahto...'
'I say integrity; you say deceit.
β
β
Melissa Marr (Wicked Lovely (Wicked Lovely, #1))
β
I want her to be happy, and she's most happy with you. Maybe this will make up for... past mistakes." He shook his head and returned to his normal idiocy. "So, either you say, 'Sure, I'd love to have you along,' or you have a big bird dropping things on your head the whole trip.
β
β
Julie Kagawa (The Iron Queen (The Iron Fey, #3))
β
I fear being alone more than anything else. So why do I do this? Why do I push away the people I love? What is so very wrong with me?
I donβt know.
And I donβt know how to make it stop.
β
β
Victoria Aveyard (Glass Sword (Red Queen, #2))
β
Every single thing I did, you stood behind me,β I say. βIf Iβm turning into a monster, then so are you.β
βLove blinds.
β
β
Victoria Aveyard (Glass Sword (Red Queen, #2))
β
Maybe it isn't the worst thing to want to be loved, even if you're not. Even if it hurts. Maybe being human isn't always being weak.
Maybe it was the shame that was the problem.
β
β
Holly Black (The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air, #3))
β
I know your soul. Everything else is just an ornament.
β
β
Roshani Chokshi (The Star-Touched Queen (The Star-Touched Queen, #1))
β
Once upon a time, there was a boy. He lived in a village that no longer exists, in a house that no longer exists, on the edge of a field that no longer exists, where everything was discovered, and everything was possible. A stick could be a sword, a pebble could be a diamond, a tree, a castle. Once upon a time, there was a boy who lived in a house across the field, from a girl who no longer exists. They made up a thousand games. She was queen and he was king. In the autumn light her hair shone like a crown. They collected the world in small handfuls, and when the sky grew dark, they parted with leaves in their hair.
Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering.
β
β
Nicole Krauss (The History of Love)
β
I love you for who you are, not who the world thinks you should be.
β
β
Libba Bray (Beauty Queens)
β
Some of the most beautiful things worth having in your life come wrapped in a crown of thorns.
β
β
Shannon L. Alder
β
I learned long ago that you don't get in the middle of a lover's spat. Nothing EVER goes as planned - People fall in love with the wrong person, someone ends up with a donkey head and then its a whole big mess. - Puck
β
β
Julie Kagawa (The Iron Queen (The Iron Fey, #3))
β
And maybe he wanted her to be the kind of girl who dressed as Queen Mab, who loved words and had stars in her blood.
β
β
Leigh Bardugo (Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1))
β
He could tell her he loved her. He ached to shout it out loud for the gods and everyone to hear. Little good it would do. Better to trust in the moon's promises than in the word of the Thief of Eddis. He was famous in three countries for his lies.
β
β
Megan Whalen Turner (The Queen of Attolia (The Queen's Thief, #2))
β
Unleashing a cry that set the world trembling, Prince Rowan Whitethorn Galathynius, Consort of the Queen of Terrasen, began the hunt to find his wife.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass, #5))
β
The Fate gave the queen a look more vicious than any curse. 'There is nothing of equal value to me.
β
β
Stephanie Garber (The Ballad of Never After (Once Upon a Broken Heart, #2))
β
I have lived with you and loved you, and now you are gone. Gone where I cannot follow, until I have finished all of my days.
β
β
Victoria Hanley (The Seer and the Sword)
β
He is bound to you,β said the Queen. βBut does he love you?
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments, #4))
β
One by one, like shadows emerging from the mist, they appeared. The faces of the people she had loved with her heart of wildfire.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3))
β
I have named you queen.
There are taller than you, taller.
There are purer than you, purer.
There are lovelier than you, lovelier.
But you are the queen.
When you go through the streets
No one recognizes you.
No one sees your crystal crown, no one looks
At the carpet of red gold
That you tread as you pass,
The nonexistent carpet.
And when you appear
All the rivers sound
In my body, bells
Shake the sky,
And a hymn fills the world.
Only you and I,
Only you and I, my love,
Listen to it.
β
β
Pablo Neruda (Love Poems)
β
Calf love doesn't usually survive amputation, Your Majesty.
β
β
Megan Whalen Turner (The Queen of Attolia (The Queen's Thief, #2))
β
For the murder of Jest, the court joker of Hearts, I sentence this man to death.β
She spoke without feeling, unburdened by love or dreams or the pain of a broken heart. It was a new day in Hearts, and she was the Queen.
βOff with his head
β
β
Marissa Meyer (Heartless)
β
That is ridiculous," she said.
The king agreed. "Like falling in love with a landslide. Only you could fail to notice.
β
β
Megan Whalen Turner (The King of Attolia (The Queen's Thief, #3))
β
I love you," he murmured into my hair. "You are my night and stars, the fate I would fix myself to in any life.
β
β
Roshani Chokshi (The Star-Touched Queen (The Star-Touched Queen, #1))
β
Love can be exploited, I guess, used to manipulate. It's leverage. But I would never call loving someone else a weakness. I think living without love at all, any kind of love, is weakness. And the worst kind of darkness.
β
β
Victoria Aveyard (War Storm (Red Queen, #4))
β
Who am I, that you should love me?"
"You are My Queen," said Eugenides. She sat perfectly still, looking at him without moving as his words dropped like water into dry earth.
"Do you believe me?" he asked.
"Yes," she answered.
"Do you love me?"
"Yes."
"I love you."
And she believed him.
β
β
Megan Whalen Turner (The Queen of Attolia (The Queen's Thief, #2))
β
I whisper your name, Ty. I whisper the most important thing:
I love you. I love you. I love you.
Livvy
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Queen of Air and Darkness (The Dark Artifices, #3))
β
The person she loved is dead, stolen by someone else. Mine chose to walk away. Chose everything I hate over everything I am. I wonder which hurts more. Before
β
β
Victoria Aveyard (King's Cage (Red Queen, #3))
β
Doing what you love is freedom.
Loving
what you do is happiness.
β
β
Lana Del Rey
β
A woman with romance in her life lived as grandly as a queen, because her heart was treasured.
β
β
Nora Roberts (Bed of Roses (Bride Quartet, #2))
β
I miss you,' she said. 'Every day, I miss you. And I wonder what you would have made of all this. Made of me. I think - I think you would have been a wonderful king. I think they would have liked you more than me, actually.' Her throat tightened. 'I never told you - how I felt. But I loved you, and I think a part of me might always love you. Maybe you were my mate, and I never knew it. Maybe I'll spend the rest of my life wondering about that. Maybe I'll see you again in the Afterworld, and then I'll know for sure. But until then ... until then I'll miss you, and I'll wish you were here.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4))
β
She was a ray of sunshine, a warm summer rain, a bright fire on a cold winterβs day, and now she could be dead because she had tried to save the man she loved.
β
β
Grace Willows
β
The story that I love you, it has no end.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Queen of Air and Darkness (The Dark Artifices, #3))
β
There are pieces of me, small pieces, still in love with a fiction.
β
β
Victoria Aveyard (King's Cage (Red Queen, #3))
β
When a woman thinks her husband is a fool, her marriage is over. They may part in one year or ten; they may live together until death. But if she thinks he is a fool, she will not love him again.
β
β
Philippa Gregory (The Other Queen (The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels, #16))
β
True lovers may never know what love means. A man may love a woman out of his reach. She does not know he loves her, and he will never speak of it.
β
β
Rosalind Miles (Isolde, Queen of the Western Isle (Tristan and Isolde, #1))
β
There will be no more British guys. Unless they are members of the royal family, of course.
β
β
Meg Cabot (Queen of Babble (Queen of Babble, #1))
β
Girls like us, when we love, it takes everything we have.
β
β
Sarah Addison Allen (The Sugar Queen)
β
I am going to destroy everything you love.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4))
β
There were two men in this city responsible for destroying her life and the people sheβd loved. She would not leave Rifthold until sheβd buried them both.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4))
β
... it means putting up with my fiercest and most annoying rival, Robin Goodfellow, who - despite all his attempts to hide it - is in love with my queen as well. I don't know why I haven't killed him yet. Maybe because Puck is Meghan's closest friend and she would mourn him terribly if he were gone (though I can't imagine why).
β
β
Julie Kagawa (The Iron Knight (The Iron Fey, #4))
β
We canβt choose who we love. I wish, more than anything, that we could.
β
β
Victoria Aveyard (Glass Sword (Red Queen, #2))
β
You're the only person I've ever loved like this, and I know you're the only person I ever will. And I'm not myself without you, Emma. Once you dissolve dye in water, you can't take it back out. It's like that. I can't take you out of me. It means cutting out my heart, and I don't like myself without my heart, I know that now.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Queen of Air and Darkness (The Dark Artifices, #3))
β
I wanted a love thick with time, as inscrutable as if a lathe had carved it from night and as familiar as the marrow in my bones. I wanted the impossible, which made it that much easier to push out of my mind.
β
β
Roshani Chokshi (The Star-Touched Queen (The Star-Touched Queen, #1))
β
Rhys flipped back the lid. A note lay atop the golden metal of the book.
I read your letter. About the woman you love.
I believe you. And I believe in peace.
I believe in a better world.
If anyone asks, you stole this during the meeting.
Do not trust the others. The sixth queen was not ill.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2))
β
I predict a long reign ahead of you. Years of being referred to as Your Majesty, Your Grace, Your Excellence, My Liege, My Queen, My Lovely.β βI donβt think that last one is a formal title,β I said. βIt should be.
β
β
Amanda Hocking (Ascend (Trylle, #3))
β
Once she had loved Prince Joffrey with all her heart, and admired and trusted her his mother, the queen. They had repaid that love and trust with her father's head. Sansa would never make that mistake again.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2))
β
Why me?" she asked, holding on to him.
"Because you cared," he whispered. "You cared so much for your people, it broke your heart to see the pack in ruins. You cared so much for your mother, you risked your life for hers. You cared enough to save someone who wanted you dead. And because you walk like a queen.
β
β
Annette Curtis Klause (Blood and Chocolate)
β
It was the best first kiss in the history of first kisses. It was as sweet as sugar. And it was warm, as warm as pie. The whole world opened up and I fell inside. I don't know where I was, but I didn't care. I didn't care because the only person who mattered was there with me.
β
β
Sarah Addison Allen (The Sugar Queen)
β
What is it like? Manon asked quietly. 'To love.' 'It was like dying a little every day. It was like being alive, too. It was joy so complete it was pain. It destroyed me and unmade me and forged me. I hated it, because I knew I couldn't escape it, and knew it would forever change me.'"-Asterin/Manon
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4))
β
It feels like he's taken your heart, doesn't it?....Like he's reached in and pulled it out from you. And I bet he smiles like he doesn't know, like he doesn't know he's holding your heart in his hand and you're dying from him.
β
β
Sarah Addison Allen (The Sugar Queen)
β
Relius looked away. "He said that you...cried," he said softly.
"But not that he cried as well," said the queen, amused at the memory. "We were very lachrymose... would you like to hear more romance of the evening? He told me the Guard should be reduced by half, and I threw an ink jar at his head."
"Is that when he cried?"
"He ducked," said Attolia dryly.
"I had not pictured you for a fishwife."
"Lo, the transforming power of love.
β
β
Megan Whalen Turner (The King of Attolia (The Queen's Thief, #3))
β
I thought I knew what heartbreak was. I thought that was what Maven did to me. When he stood and left me kneeling. When he told me everything I ever thought him to be was a lie. But then, I believed I loved him.
I know now, I didn't know what love was. Or what even the echo of heartbreak felt like.
To stand in front of a person who is your whole world and be told you are not enough. You are not the choice. You are a shadow to the person who is your sun.
β
β
Victoria Aveyard (King's Cage (Red Queen, #3))
β
Dorian looked at the carpet, at all the threads woven together. 'What do I do now?' They were gone: the woman he'd loved--and the man he hated. He met her stare. No calculation, no coldness, no pity in those turquoise eyes. Just unflinching honesty, as there had been from the very start with her. 'What do I do?'
She had to swallow before she said. 'You light up the darkness.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4))
β
You can only win the game when you understand that it is a game. Let a man play chess, and tell him that every pawn is his friend. Let him think both bishops holy. Let him remember happy days in the shadows of his castles. Let him love his queen. Watch him lose them all.
β
β
Mark Lawrence (Prince of Thorns (Broken Empire, #1))
β
I was not supposed to love you. The woman had said thatβand then she died. She should not have loved him, and he should not have dared to love her. He deserved this darkness, and once the invisible boundary shattered and the waiting thing pounced, infiltrating and filling him β¦ heβd have earned it.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4))
β
There are pieces of me, small pieces, still in love with a fiction. A ghost living inside a living boy I cannot begin to fathom. The ghost who sat by my bed while I dreamed in pain. The ghost who kept Samson from my mind as long as he could, I know, delaying an inevitable torture.
The ghost who loves me, in what poisoned way he can.
And I feel that poison working in me.
β
β
Victoria Aveyard (King's Cage (Red Queen, #3))
β
I want to take my time with you - to learn β¦ every inch of you. And this apartment has very, very thin walls. I donβt want to have an audienceβ he added as he leaned down again, brushing his mouth over the cut at the base of her throat, βwhen I make you moan, Aelin.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4))
β
I learned that love can transcend race and time, and that it can be beautiful and perfect and worth fighting for but also fragile and heartbreaking, and sometimes sacrifice is necessary. That sometimes it's you against the world, and there are no easy answers. That you have to know when to hold on...and when to let go. And even if that love comes back, you could discover something in someone else who has been there all along.
β
β
Julie Kagawa (The Iron Queen (The Iron Fey, #3))
β
This is probably a bad idea,β Jace said. βLike, a record-breakingly bad idea. Like a go-down-in-history bad idea. Butββ
Clary bounced to her feet. βWhat he means is, weβre in,β she said. βWe love bad ideas.β
βThatβs true,β Jace admitted, a smile breaking over his face. Suddenly he looked seventeen again.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Queen of Air and Darkness (The Dark Artifices, #3))
β
And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!
β
β
J.R.R. Tolkien (The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1))
β
I am Preachers little girl. And I'm gonna be just like him when I grow up. I'm gonna have a Fatboy but I want mine to be sparkly and I want a pink helmet with skulls on it. And instead of being the club President, I'm gonna be the club Queen cuz I'm gonna marry the biggest, scariest biker in the whole world and he's gonna let me do whatever I want because he's gonna love me like crazy.
β
β
Madeline Sheehan (Undeniable (Undeniable, #1))
β
I have always loved you, princess," Robin Goodfellow promised, his green eyes shining in the darkness. "I always will. And I'll take whatever you can give me."
I looked down, unable to meet his open stare, human fears and self-consciousness coming to the surface. "Even if all I can offer is friendship? Will that still be enough?"
"Well, not really." Puck dropped his hand, his voice turning light and carefree again, more like the Puck I knew. "Damn not being able to lie. Princess, if you suddenly decide ice-boy is a first-class jerk and that you can't stand him, I'll always be here. But for now, I'll settle for being the best friend.
β
β
Julie Kagawa (The Iron Queen (The Iron Fey, #3))
β
To diminish the worth of women, men had to diminish the worth of the moon. They had to drive a wedge between human beings and the trees and the beasts and the waters, because trees and beasts and waters are as loyal to the moon as to the sun. They had to drive a wedge between thought and feeling...At first they used Apollo as the wedge, and the abstract logic of Apollo made a mighty wedge, indeed, but Apollo the artist maintained a love for women, not the open, unrestrained lust that Pan has, but a controlled longing that undermined the patriarchal ambition. When Christ came along, Christ, who slept with no female...Christ, who played no musical instrument, recited no poetry, and never kicked up his heels by moonlight, this Christ was the perfect wedge. Christianity is merely a system for turning priestesses into handmaidens, queens into concubines, and goddesses into muses.
β
β
Tom Robbins (Jitterbug Perfume)
β
When they killed him, Mother wouldn't hold her peace, so they slit her throat. I was stupid then, being only nine, and I fought to save them both. But the thorns held me tight. I've learned to appreciate thorns since. The thorns taught me the game. They let me understand what all those grim and serious men who've fought the Hundred War have yet to learn. You can only win the game when you understand that it IS a game. Let a man play chess, and tell him that every pawn is his friend. Let him think both bishops holy. Let him remember happy days in the shadows of his castles. Let him love his queen. Watch him loose them all.
β
β
Mark Lawrence (Prince of Thorns (Broken Empire, #1))
β
I have known many gods. He who denies them is as blind as he who trusts them too deeply. I seek not beyond death. It may be the blackness averred by the Nemedian skeptics, or Crom's realm of ice and cloud, or the snowy plains and vaulted halls of the Nordheimer's Valhalla. I know not, nor do I care. Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content. Let teachers and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content.
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Robert E. Howard (Queen of the Black Coast)
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Tell me what to wish for." Tell me what to ask the sea for."
"To be happy. Happiness."
"I don't think such a thing is had on Thisby. And if it is, I don't know how you would keep it."
"You whisper to it. What it needs to hear. Isn't that what you said?"
"That's what I said. What do I need to hear?"
"That tomorrow we'll rule the Scorpio Races as king and queen of Skarmouth and I'll save the house and you'll have your stallion. Dove will eat golden oats for the rest of her days and you will terrorize the races each year and people will come from every island in the world to find out how it is you get horses to listen to you. The piebald will carry Mutt Malvern into the sea and Gabriel will decide to stay on the island. I will have a farm and you will bring me bread for dinner."
"That's what I needed to hear.
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Maggie Stiefvater (The Scorpio Races)
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He touched my cheek softly, his eyes intense as they gazed into mine."You might have to teach me a little about the human world, but I'm willing to learn if it means being close to you." He smiled again, a wry quirk of his lips. "I'm sure I can adapt to 'being human' if I must. If you want me to attend classes as a student, I can do that. If you want to move to a large city to pursue your dreams, I will follow. And if, someday, you wish to be married in a white gown and make this official in human eyes I'm willing to do that, too." He leaned in, close enough for me to see my reflection in his silver gaze." For better or worse, I'm afraid you're stuck with me now.
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Julie Kagawa (The Iron Queen (The Iron Fey, #3))
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Love loves to love love. Nurse loves the new chemist. Constable 14A loves Mary Kelly. Gerty MacDowell loves the boy that has the bicycle. M. B. loves a fair gentlema. Li Chi Han lovey up kissy Cha Pu Chow. Jumbo, the elephant, loves Alice, the elephant. Old Mr Verschole with the ear trumpet loves old Mrs VErschoyle with the turnedin eye. The man in the brown macintosh loves a lady who is dead. His Majesty the King loves Her Majesty the Queen. Mrs Norman W. Tupper loves officer Taylor. You love a certain person. And this person loves that other person because everybody loves somebody but God loves everybody.
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James Joyce (Ulysses)
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When I found you, I didnβt know what I was finding,β Alec said. βWords about things that are beautiful and precious to me donβt come easily. You know that. You know me better than anyone.β He licked his dry lips. βAnd when one day people look back on me and what my life meant, I donβt want them to say, βAlec Lightwood fought in the Dark Warβ or even βAlec Lightwood was Consul once.β I want them to think, βAlec Lightwood loved one man so much he changed the world for him.βββ
Magnusβs eyes shone bright as stars. He gazed at Alec with eyes full of joy, of a feeling so profound Alec felt humbled to be a part of it. βYou know youβve already changed the world for me.β
βWill you marry me?β Alec whispered. His heart was beating like a frantic birdβs wings. βRight now? Tonight?β
Magnus nodded wordlessly and pulled Alec to his feet. They wrapped their arms around each other, and Alec leaned up just that little bit, since Magnus was just that little bit taller, which he had always loved.
And they kissed for a long time.
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Cassandra Clare (Queen of Air and Darkness (The Dark Artifices, #3))
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Mare,β he whispers. βChoose me.β
Choose a crown. Choose another kingβs cage. Choose a betrayal to everything youβve bled for.
I find my thread of steel too. Thin but unbreakable.
βI am in love with you, and I want you more than anything else in the world.β His words sound hollow coming from me. βAnything else in this world.β
Slowly, my eyelids flutter open. He finds the spine to match my gaze.
βThink what we could do together,β he murmurs, trying to pull me closer. My feet hold firm. βYou know what you are to me. Without you, I have no one. I am alone. I have nothing left. Donβt leave me alone.β
My breathing turns ragged.
I kiss him for what could be, what might be, what will beβthe last time. His lips feel strangely cold as we both turn to ice.
βYou arenβt alone.β The hope in his eyes cuts deeply. βYou have your crown.
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Victoria Aveyard (King's Cage (Red Queen, #3))
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The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set --
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotised by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink --
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES!
'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,
'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!'
We'll answer this by asking you,
'What used the darling ones to do?
'How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:
THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr. Rat and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something to read.
And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.
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Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Charlie Bucket, #1))
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December 27, 11:00 p.m.
My Dear America,
Iβve never written a love letter, so forgive me if I fail now. . . .
The simple thing would be to say that I love you. But, in truth, itβs so much more than that. I want you, America. I need you.
Iβve held back so much from you out of fear. Iβm afraid that if I show you everything at once, it will overwhelm you, and youβll run away. Iβm afraid that somewhere in the back of your heart is a love for someone else that will never die. Iβm afraid that I will make a mistake again, something so huge that you retreat into that silent world of yours. No scolding from a tutor, no lashing from my father, no isolation in my youth has ever hurt me so much as you separating yourself from me.
I keep thinking that itβs there, waiting to come back and strike me. So Iβve held on to all my options, fearing that the moment I wipe them away, you will be standing there with your arms closed, happy to be my friend but unable to be my equal, my queen, my wife.
And for you to be my wife is all I want in the world. I love you. I was afraid to admit it for a long time, but I know it now.
I would never rejoice in the loss of your father, the sadness youβve felt since he passed, or the emptiness Iβve experienced since you left. But Iβm so grateful that you had to go. Iβm not sure how long it would have taken for me to figure this out if I hadnβt had to start trying to imagine a life without you. I know now, with absolute certainty, that is nothing I want.
I wish I was as true an artist as you so that I could find a way to tell you what youβve become to me. America, my love, you are sunlight falling through trees. You are laughter that breaks through sadness. You are the breeze on a too-warm day. You are clarity in the midst of confusion.
You are not the world, but you are everything that makes the world good. Without you, my life would still exist, but thatβs all it would manage to do.
You said that to get things right one of us would have to take a leap of faith. I think Iβve discovered the canyon that must be leaped, and I hope to find you waiting for me on the other side.
I love you, America.
Yours forever,
Maxon
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Kiera Cass (The One (The Selection, #3))
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There was a dragon who had a long-standing obsession with a queen's breasts," she said, growing breathless. "The dragon knew the penalty to touch her would mean death, yet he revealed his secret desire to the king's chief doctor. This man promised he could arrange for the dragon to satisfy his desire, but it would cost him one thousand gold coins." She spread her soapy hands over his nipples, then down his arms. "Though he didn't have the money, the dragon readily agreed to the scheme."
Grace," Darius moaned, his erection straining against her stomach.
She hid her smile, loving that she had this much power over such a strong man. That she, Grace Carlyle, made him ache with longing. "The next day the physician made a batch of itching powder and poured some into the queen's bra⦠uh, you might call it a brassiere⦠while she bathed. After she dressed, she began itching and itching and itching. The physician was summoned to the Royal Chambers, and he informed the king and queen that only a special saliva, if applied for several hours, would cure this type of itch. And only a dragon possessed this special saliva." Out of breath, she paused.
Continue," Darius said. His arms wound around her so tightly she could barely breathe. His skin blazed hot against hers, hotter than even the steamy water.
Are you sure?"
Continue." Taut lines bracketed his mouth.
Well, the king summoned the dragon. Meanwhile, the physician slipped him the antidote for the itching powder, which the dragon put into his mouth, and for the next few hours, the dragon worked passionately on the queen's breasts.
Anyway," she said, reaching around him and lathering the muscled mounds of his butt, "the queen's itching was eventually relieved, and the dragon left satisfied and touted as a hero."
This does not sound like a joke," Darius said.
I'm getting to the punch line. Hang on. When the physician demanded his payment, the now satisfied dragon refused. He knew that the physician could never report what really happened to the king. So the next day, the physician slipped a massive dose of the same itching powder into the king's loincloth. And the king immediately summoned the dragon."
-Heart of the Dragon
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Gena Showalter