Retribution Quotes

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

My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
If you don't care about money, Nina dear, call it by its other names." "Kruge? Scrub? Kaz's one true love?" "Freedom, security, retribution.
Leigh Bardugo (Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows, #2))
Do not find peace. Find passion.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
Just because I do not accept the teachings of the devotaries does not mean I've discarded a belief in right and wrong." "But the Almighty determines what is right!" "Must someone, some unseen thing, declare what is right for it to be right? I believe that my own morality -- which answers only to my heart -- is more sure and true than the morality of those who do right only because they fear retribution.
Brandon Sanderson (The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1))
I looked up at the video camera and stared. Then raised my hand and gave it the middle finger. “I thought you were going to give it the District Twelve salute,” Jamie said.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
The villain is the hero of her own story.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
(I)f we are going to be kind, let it be out of simple generosity, not because we fear guilt or retribution.
J.M. Coetzee (Disgrace)
You will achieve more in this world through acts of mercy than you will through acts of retribution.
Nelson Mandela
Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule.
Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
Everyone's a little crazy. Some people just hide it better than others.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
Names?' the receptionist asked us. “Jesus,” Jamie answered. “Mary,” said Stella. “Satan,” I said as I walked past her and pushed open the door to Ira Ginsberg’s office.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
I planted a kamikaze kiss on Jamie’s cheek. “FUCK,” he shouted, wiping it off. “What if you killed me!” He threw a Skittle at my face. It hit my forehead. “Ow!” “Taste the rainbow bitch.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
You are what happiness means to me. And I would rather have today with you than forever with anyone else.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
An eye for an eye, and the whole world would be blind.
Kahlil Gibran
My goal was bigger than revenge. My purpose greater than personal retribution.
Sarah J. Maas (A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3))
As I was saying. He could never use you. You own him. You should’ve seen the way he was looking at you while you were out.” I smiled a little. “How?” “Like you’re the ocean and he’s desperate to drown.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
Je t'aime. Aujourd'hui. Ce soir. Demain. Pour toujours. Si je vivais mille ans, je t'appartiendrais pour tous. Si je vivais mille vies, je te ferais mienne dans chacune d'elles. I love you. Today. Tonight. Tomorrow. Forever. If I were to live a thousand years, I would belong to you for all of them. If I were to live a thousand lives, I would want to make you mine in each one.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
Retribution is tricky. . . . The insult isn't usually worth the risk of punishment. And eventually one learns that karma has a surprising way of taking care of these situations. All you have to do is sit back and watch.
Candace Bushnell (One Fifth Avenue)
Lucifer protests he was never to blame for inducing anyone to sin, and that he’s never had an interest in owning souls: 'They die, and they come here – having transgressed against what they believed to be right – and expect us to fulfill their desire for pain and retribution. I don’t make them come here… I need no souls. And how can anyone own a soul? No, they belong to themselves. They just hate to have to face up to it.
Neil Gaiman (The Sandman, Vol. 4: Season of Mists)
This is a love story. Twisted and messy. Flawed and screwed up. But it's ours. It's us. I don't know how our story will end. but I know it will start. I pick up my pen and begin to write: My name is not Mara Dyer, but my lawyer told me I had to choose something.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
You should’ve seen the way he was looking at you while you were out.” I smiled a little. “How?” “Like you're the ocean and he's desperate to drown.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
Maybe sometimes we can only see the truth about ourselves if someone shows us where to look.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
We’re mutants now?” “Don’t tell Marvel. They’ll sue us.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
The power of just mercy is that it belongs to the undeserving. It’s when mercy is least expected that it’s most potent—strong enough to break the cycle of victimization and victimhood, retribution and suffering. It has the power to heal the psychic harm and injuries that lead to aggression and violence, abuse of power, mass incarceration.
Bryan Stevenson (Just Mercy)
I know what I can do to a girl with a word, a look, a touch. And I want to do them all to her.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
But men often mistake killing and revenge for justice. They seldom have the stomach for justice.
Robert Jordan
Forgiveness means it finally becomes unimportant that you hit back.
Anne Lamott
I feel something, I do it. I want something, I take it.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
It's forgiveness that makes us what we are. Without forgiveness, our species would've annihilated itself in endless retributions. Without forgiveness, there would be no history. Without that hope, there would be no art, for every work of art is in some way an act of forgiveness. Without that dream, there would be no love, for every act of love is in some way a promise to forgive. We live on because we can love, and we love because we can forgive.
Gregory David Roberts (Shantaram)
I'll love you to ruins.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
No, I got it,” he said. His voice was weird. “Really?” I felt a nervous thrill in my stomach. “What was it?” Jamie hesitated before he spoke. Then he said, “Marashaw.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
Justice demands integrity. It’s to have a moral universe — not only know what is right or wrong but to put things in perspective, weigh things. Justice is different from violence and retribution; it requires complex accounting.
bell hooks
An angel sat on one shoulder, a devil on the other. Both of them wore my face.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
Pain is just a feeling, and feelings aren't real.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
Like your the ocean and he's desperate to drown.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
You were planned, Noah. Engineered." Noah practically radiated frustration. "For what?" "To be the hero," David said, looking at Noah like he was his greatest disappointment. "To slay the dragon. But you fell in love with it instead.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
You can’t be fixed. You can’t be saved.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
I am convinced that imprisonment is a way of pretending to solve the problem of crime. It does nothing for the victims of crime, but perpetuates the idea of retribution, thus maintaining the endless cycle of violence in our culture. It is a cruel and useless substitute for the elimination of those conditions--poverty, unemployment, homelessness, desperation, racism, greed--which are at the root of most punished crime. The crimes of the rich and powerful go mostly unpunished. It must surely be a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit that even a small number of those men and women in the hell of the prison system survive it and hold on to their humanity.
Howard Zinn (You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times)
Are you going to draw?” “Nope.” “Shame. I was going to ask you to do me like one of your French girls.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
Revenge is more wild, less calculated...deeply personal. Retribution is a punishment that is morally right and fully deserved. (Mitch Rapp)
Vince Flynn (American Assassin (Mitch Rapp, #1))
Gather my leaves, Twist them into crowns Let me be the king of your forest Climb on my branches, I will seek out your hide s you sleep beneath the shade Of my giving tree
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
So we can’t start a fire. We can’t fly. We can’t create a force field. We are the most bullshit superheroes.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all.
Friedrich von Logau
Be careful what you wish for.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
Taste the Rainbow, bitch!
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
It has been said that there must be a villain for every hero, a demon for every angel, a monster for every god. Despite what we are, I do not believe this. I have seen the villainous act heroic, and men called heroes act villainous. The ability to heal does not make one good any more than the ability to kill makes one evil. Kill the right people, and you become a hero. Heal the wrong ones, and you become a villain. It is our choices that define us, not our abilities.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
Your life will not always be a happy one, but it will always have meaning.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
Acheron always says that our scars are there to remind us of out pasts, of where we've been and what we've gone through. But that pain doesn't have to drive or determine our future. We can rise about it if we let ourselves. It's not easy, but nothing in life ever is." -Sundown
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Retribution (Dark-Hunter, #19))
The freaks shall inherit the earth.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
You are a girl, Mara. A girl blessed and cursed.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
I kind of want to see Mara Crucio their asses.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
There is no satisfaction in vengeance unless the offender has time to realize who it is that strikes him, and why retribution has come upon him.
Arthur Conan Doyle (A Study in Scarlet (Sherlock Holmes, #1))
Cooper hesitated, I stared at him and didn't blink. 'Pussying out Coop?'.. He shot me a measured look.. "I'm half Sicilia and half African. Both sides believe in retribution. The only pussy here is yours Commander".
Jeaniene Frost (One Foot in the Grave (Night Huntress, #2))
I will not find peace with her. But there will be no greater passion.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
Vengeance, retaliation, retribution, revenge are deceitful brothers—vile, beguiling demons promising justifiable compensation to a pained soul for his losses. Yet in truth they craftily fester away all else of worth remaining.
Richelle E. Goodrich (The Tarishe Curse)
How are we supposed to get in?” Stella kicked the metal shutter. “Fool of a Took!” Jamie hissed through his teeth. “If someone’s in there, they probably heard that.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
I tilted my head up and asked, “What would you do if I kissed you right now?” He pretended to think about it for an obnoxious amount of time before saying, “I would kiss you back.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
And I would never give up. I've done terrible things I regret and terrible things I don't. But I don't need to be fixed. I don't need to be saved. I just have to keep going.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
She can't help what she does to you. She is your weakness, as you are hers.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
You think it can't get worse than wanting someone and not having them, but it can. You can want someone, have them, and want them more. Still. Always. You can never get enough.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
Mara is the one I never knew I was waiting for, and as long as she'll have me, I will never let her go.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
This is a love story. Twisted and messy. Flawed and screwed up. But it's ours. It's us. I don't know how our story will end. but I know it will start.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
Do not find peace. Find passion. Find something you want to die for more than something you want to live for. If it is your children, then fight not just for your own but for orphans who have no one else. If it is for medicine, then do not just seek out a cure for cancer but search for a cure for AIDS as well. Fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. Speak for them. Scream for them. Live and die for them. You life will not always be a happy one, but it will have meaning.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
Before I could say anything, Jamie began writing giant letters over the words with his index finger. F-U-C-K Y-O-U. My sentiments exactly.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
Got to say, dying would really wreck my best day. Been there, done that, and now that I think about it, Artemis forgot to give me the t-shirt.
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Retribution (Dark-Hunter, #19))
How could everyone be so wrong about us? It is impossible that she could make me weak. Next to her, I feel invincible.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
We will do this while we can, and when we can’t anymore, I will remember the feel of your mouth on me and the taste of your tongue and the weight of your hands on mine, and I will be happy.” I whisper against her skin, “If you choose me.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
We get one life, Mara. You might live forever and I might die tomorrow, but right now we're both here. And I want to spend the time I have with you.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
I punched him nos so lightly in the arm. 'Asshole.' He was silent for a few minutes, and then he smacked my arm. 'OW!' 'You had a mosquito.' 'No, I didn't.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
No man, no matter how smart or strong, can compete with a motivated woman.
J.K. Franko (Killing Johnny Miracle)
In it's purest form, an act of retribution provides symmetry. The rendering payment of crimes against the innocent. But a danger on retaliation lies on the furthering cycle of violence. Still, it's a risk that must be met; and the greater offense is to allow the guilty go unpunished.
Emily Thorne
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))
The hardest part of living is making peace with your past. Most of all, it’s making peace with yourself.
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Retribution (Dark-Hunter, #19))
Karen was radiant in a beautiful blue gown. Even her mother, for once, had said so. “Not just pretty, honey—you reek of class. Like Princess Grace from Morocco,” she’d said, beaming at her daughter.
J.K. Franko (Killing Johnny Miracle)
But maybe someone like us will read it and they’ll know they’re not alone.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
From the start, I told you! We should’a just handled this ourselves. You should’ve handled it the way my daddy would’ve.” She paused, looking at Tom, and lowered her voice, “Just like Crockett.
J.K. Franko (The Trial of Joe Harlan Junior (Talion #0.5))
I'm chasing oblivion I will never find.
Michelle Hodkin (The Evolution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #2))
Justice isn’t about fixing the past; it’s about healing the past's future.
Jackson Burnett
My chest, Stella’s hip, Jamie’s left ass cheek.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
The colors shone, burned through. Sienna and crimson and gold, and I swallowed my name from his mouth and he kissed his from my lips, and I was incandescent as I tripped into- bliss.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
He could never use you. You own him. You should’ve seen the way he was looking at you while you were out.” I smiled a little. “How?” “Like you’re the ocean and he’s desperate to drown.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
That’s what separated us from the multitudes of Them. We lived harder. Knew better. But we laughed anyway. Laughed because there was nothing else to do but give up.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
I love you, Kitten." How puny those words seemed compared to the feelings strafing mine, but his voice vibrated as he said them. Then he crouched beside me. "I would never hurt you that way save for one reason: to keep you safe. I can live with your anger, your retribution...bloody hell, despise me if you must, but don't expect me to behave as though you aren't the most important thing in my life. You are, and I will let no one, yourself included, bring you to harm.
Jeaniene Frost (Up from the Grave (Night Huntress, #7))
The only reason I haven't shot you yet is because he's the one who should get to do it," I say. "Stay away from him or I'll decide I no longer care.
Veronica Roth (Divergent (Divergent, #1))
Leni had never known anyone who had died before. She had seen death on television and read about it in her beloved books, but now she saw the truth of it. In literature, death was many things - a message, catharsis, retribution. There were deaths that came from a beating heart that stopped and deaths of another kind, a choice made, like Frodo going to the Grey Havens. Death made you cry, filled you with sadness, but in the best of her books, there was peace, too, satisfaction, a sense of the story ending as it should. In real life, she saw, it wasn't like that. It was sadness opening up inside of you, changing how you saw the world.
Kristin Hannah (The Great Alone)
I don’t know how to make you understand what you do to me. Just thinking about kissing you is enough. Feeling your tongue against mine. The way you taste. The sounds you make. Everything. I’ve wanted you so much, for so long, but in the way you want things you’ll never, ever have. Like no matter what I do, you’ll always be just out of reach. But when you kiss me? It’s like I’m on fire.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
I also need you to "spread the word," quietly, that if any harm should come to Antanasia during my imprisonment, I will not only tear down these walls stone by stone, but -- once freed -- shatter the rule of law and destroy, with great satisfaction, anyone who arouses in me even the slightest suspicion. Indeed, if so much as one hair on my wife's head is disturbed while I cannot protect her, this kingdom will see retribution that will go down in the history books -- to be read by the very few who remain standing. - Lucius
Beth Fantaskey (Jessica Rules the Dark Side (Jessica, #2))
THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge. You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that gave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitely, settled --but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk. I must not only punish but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.
Edgar Allan Poe (The Cask of Amontillado)
Noah had seen me scarred and broken, dirty and limp, covered in blood and wearing someone else's smile. He didn't cringe or flinch or hide. He knew who I was, he'd seen what I'd done, and he knew what I would do to him someday too. But he was still here. I would be a fool to let him go, and I was many things—a liar, a criminal, a murderer—but I was not a fool.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
It isn’t your fault. It’s nothing you did. You cannot change who you are, any more than you can change black eyes to blue. You can only accept it. If you fight yourself, you will lose, and fighting leaves scars. But you will survive them. I have survived many. You will do good things you will regret, and bad things you won’t, but you must keep going
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
When two things occur successively we call them cause and effect if we believe one event made the other one happen. If we think one event is the response to the other, we call it a reaction. If we feel that the two incidents are not related, we call it a mere coincidence. If we think someone deserved what happened, we call it retribution or reward, depending on whether the event was negative or positive for the recipient. If we cannot find a reason for the two events' occurring simultaneously or in close proximity, we call it an accident. Therefore, how we explain coincidences depends on how we see the world. Is everything connected, so that events create resonances like ripples across a net? Or do things merely co-occur and we give meaning to these co-occurrences based on our belief system? Lieh-tzu's answer: It's all in how you think.
Liezi (Lieh-tzu: A Taoist Guide to Practical Living (Shambhala Dragon Editions))
My fingers caught on something else as I withdrew them. It was his T-shirt, the white one with the holes in it. I filled my hands with the fabric and brought it up to my face. I caught the barest, faintest scent of him, soap and sandalwood and smoke, and in that moment, I felt not loss but need. Noah was there for me when I had no one else. He believed me when no one else did. He could not be gone, I thought, but my throat began to hurt and my chest began to tighten and I curled up in bed, knees to chest, head to knees, waiting for tears that never came and sleep that did.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that I was covered in blood. The second thing I noticed was that this didn’t bother me the way it should have. I didn’t feel the urge to scream or speak, to beg for help, or even to wonder where I was. Those instincts were dead, and I was calm as my wet fingers slid up the tiled wall, groping for a light switch. I found one without even having to stand. Four lights slammed on above me, one after the other, illuminating the dead body on the floor just a few feet away. My mind processed the facts first. Male. Heavy. He was lying face down in a wide, red puddle that spread out from beneath him. The tips of his curly black hair were wet with it. There was something in his hand. The fluorescent lights in the white room flickered and buzzed and hummed. I moved to get a better view of the body. His eyes were closed. He could have been asleep, really, if it weren’t for the blood. There was so much of it. And by one of his hands it was smeared into a weird pattern. No. Not a pattern. Words. PLAY ME. My gaze flicked to his hand. His fist was curled around a small tape recorder. I moved his fingers—still warm—and pressed play. A male voice started to speak. "Do I have your attention?" the voice said. I knew that voice. But I couldn’t believe I was hearing it.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
Mr. Buckley, let me explain it this way. And I'll do so very carefully and slowly so that even you will understand it. If I was the sheriff, I would not have arrested him. If I was on the grand jury, I would not have indicted him. If I was the judge, I would not try him. If I was the D.A., I would not prosecute him. If I was on the trial jury, I would vote to give him a key to the city, a plaque to hang on his wall, and I would send him home to his family. And, Mr. Buckley, if my daughter is ever raped, I hope I have the guts to do what he did.
John Grisham (A Time to Kill (Jake Brigance, #1))
Karma has been a pop culture term for ages. But really, what the heck is it? Karma is not an inviolate engine of cosmic punishment. Rather, it is a neutral sequence of acts, results, and consequences. Receiving misfortune does not necessarily indicate that one has committed evil. But it is a sufficient indicator of something else. And that something else can be anything, as long as it is a logical consequence of what has come before. Consider: if you fall into a well, you are not a bad person who deserves to suffer—you are merely someone who took a wrong step. Or someone who had one drink too many. Or got a head rush due to poor circulation. Or forgot to wear your glasses. Or— The reasons are plentiful, and all plausible. But the chain of cause and effect goes way, way back into the deepest hoariest recesses of your personal past. So never rule out retribution. But never expect it.
Vera Nazarian (The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration)
Women made such swell friends. Awfully swell. In the first place, you had to be in love with a woman to have a basis of friendship. I had been having Brett for a friend. I had not been thinking about her side of it. I had been getting something for nothing. That only delayed the presentation of the bill. The bill always came. That was one of the swell things you could count on. I thought I had paid for everything. Not like the woman pays and pays and pays. No idea of retribution or punishment. Just exchange of values. You gave up something and got something else. Or you worked for something. You paid some way for everything that was any good. I paid my way into enough things that I liked, so that I had a good time. Either you paid by learning about them, or by experience, or by taking chances, or by money. Enjoying living was learning to get your money’s worth. The world was a good place to buy in. It seemed like a fine philosophy. In five years, I though, it will seem just as silly as all the other fine philosophies I’ve had.
Ernest Hemingway (The Sun Also Rises)
I slipped in and out of consciousness as time stretched and flowed around me. Dreams and reality blurred, but I liked the dreams better. Noah was in them. I dreamed of us, walking hand in hand down a crowded street in the middle of the day. We were in New York. I was in no rush—I could walk with him forever—but Noah was. He pulled me alongside him, strong and determined and not smiling. Not today. We wove among the people, somehow not touching a single one. The trees were green and blossoming. It was spring, almost summer. A strong wind shook a few steadfast flowers off of the branches and into our path. We ignored them. Noah led me into Central Park. It was teeming with human life. Bright colored picnic blankets burst across the lawn, the pale, outstretched forms of people wriggling over them like worms in fruit. We passed the reservoir, the sun reflecting off its surface, and then the crowd began to thicken. They funneled into a throbbing mass as we strode up a hill, over and through. Until we could see them all below us, angry and electric. Noah reached into his bag. He pulled out the little cloth doll, my grandmother’s. The one we burned.
Michelle Hodkin (The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #3))
I began by saying that our history will be what we make it. If we go on as we are, then history will take its revenge, and retribution will not limp in catching up with us. We are to a large extent an imitative society. If one or two or three corporations would undertake to devote just a small fraction of their advertising appropriation along the lines that I have suggested, the procedure would grow by contagion; the economic burden would be bearable, and there might ensue a most exciting adventure--exposure to ideas and the bringing of reality into the homes of the nation. To those who say people wouldn't look; they wouldn't be interested; they're too complacent, indifferent and insulated, I can only reply: There is, in one reporter's opinion, considerable evidence against that contention. But even if they are right, what have they got to lose? Because if they are right, and this instrument is good for nothing but to entertain, amuse and insulate, then the tube is flickering now and we will soon see that the whole struggle is lost. This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference.
Edward R. Murrow
They said of him, about the city that night, that it was the peacefullest man's face ever beheld there. Many added that he looked sublime and prophetic. One of the most remarkable sufferers by the same axe---a woman---had asked at the foot of the same scaffold, not long before, to be allowed to write down the thoughts that were inspiring her. If he had given an utterance to his, and they were prophetic, they would have been these: "I see Barsad, and Cly, Defarge, The Vengeance, the Juryman, the Judge, long ranks of the new oppressors who have risen on the destruction of the old, perishing by this retributive instrument, before it shall cease out of its present use. I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out. "I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy, in that England which I shall see no more. I see Her with a child upon her bosom, who bears my name. I see her father, aged and bent, but otherwise restored, and faithful to all men in his healing office, and at peace. I see the good old man, so long their friend, in ten years' time enriching them with all he has, and passing tranquilly to his reward. "I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence. I see her, an old woman weeping for me on the anniversary of this day. I see her and her husband, their course done, lying side by side in their last earthly bed, and I know that each was not more honoured and held sacred in the other's soul, than I was in the souls of both. "I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man winning his way up in that path of life which once was mine. I see him winning it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the light of his. I see the blots I threw upon it, faded away. I see him, foremost of just judges and honoured men, brining a boy of my name, with a forehead that I know and golden hair, to this place---then fair to look upon, with not a trace of this day's disfigurement---and I hear him tell the child my story, with a tender and faltering voice. "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.
Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
That an old Charonte custom that go back forever 'casue we a really old race of demons who go back even before forever." She looked over to where Danger's shade glittered in the opposite corner while the former Dark-Huntress was assisting Pam and Kim with the birth, and explained the custom to her. "When a new baby is born you kill off an old annoying family member who gets on everyone's nerves which for all of us would be the heifer-goddess 'cause the only person who like her be you Akra-Kat. I know she you mother and all, but sometimes you just gotta say no thank you. You a mean old heifer-goddess who need to go play in traffic and get run over by something big like a steamroller or bus or something else really painful that would hurt her a lot and make the rest of us laugh" "Not to mention the Simi barbecue would have been fun too if someone, Akra-Kat, hadn't stopped the Simi from it. I personally think it would have been a most magnificent gift for the baby. Barbecued heifer-goddess Artemis. Yum! No better meal. Oh then again baby got a delicate constitution and that might give the poor thing indigestion. Artemis definitely give the Simi indigestion and I ain't even ate her yet.
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Retribution (Dark-Hunter, #19))