Wicked King Quotes

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Kiss me again,” he says, drunk and foolish. “Kiss me until I am sick of it.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold on to.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
If you’re the sickness, I suppose you can’t also be the cure.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
He looks up at me with his night-colored eyes, beautiful and terrible all at once. “For a moment,” he says, “I wondered if it wasn’t you shooting bolts at me.” I make a face at him. “And what made you decide it wasn’t?” He grins up at me. “They missed.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Kill him before he makes you love him.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
If he thought I was bad, I would be worse. If he thought I was cruel, I would be horrifying.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Sweet Jude, you’re my dearest punishment
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
The three of you have one solution to every problem. Murder. No key fits every lock.” Cardan gives us all a stern look, holding up a long-fingered hand with my stolen ruby ring still on one finger. “Someone tries to betray the High King, murder. Someone gives you a harsh look, murder. Someone disrespects you, murder. Someone ruins your laundry, murder.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
I want to tell you so many lies
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
I hate you," I breathed into his mouth. "I hate you so much that sometimes I can't think of anything else.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Yes, my great villan, my darling god. I will be as sober as a stone carving, just as soon as I can
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Yes, my sweet villain, my darling god… Sweet Jude. You are my dearest punishment
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Pain makes you strong, Madoc once told me, making me lift a sword again and again. Get used to the weight.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Tell me again what you said at the revel,” he says, climbing over me, his body against mine. “What?” I can barely think. “That you hate me,” he says, his voice hoarse. “Tell me that you hate me.” “I hate you,” I say, the words coming out like a caress. I say it again, over and over. A litany. An enchantment. A ward against what I really feel. “I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.” He kisses me harder. “I hate you,” I breathe into his mouth. “I hate you so much that sometimes I can’t think of anything else.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
She had often wished for adventure, for old spells and wicked kings.
Sarah J. Maas (Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1))
The point of a fight is not to have a good fight, it’s to win.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring. The first lesson is to make yourself that strong.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
The disturbing thing about Cardan is how well he plays the fool to disguise his own cleverness.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
I wasn't kind, Jude. Not to many people. Not to you. I wasn't sure if I wanted you or if I wanted you gone from my sight so that I would stop feeling as I did, which made me even more unkind. But when you were gone—truly gone beneath the waves—I hated myself as I never have before.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Your ridiculous family might be surprised to find that not everything is solved by murder,” Locke calls after me. “We would be surprised to find that,” I call back.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
And the single last thing in my head: that I like him better than I've ever liked anyone and that of all the things he's ever done to me, making me like him so much is by far the worst.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
It is said we learn more from our failures than our successes.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Once upon a time, there was a human girl stolen away by faeries, and because of that, she swore to destroy them.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
The Folk doubtlessly learned this lesson long ago. They do not need to deceive humans. Humans will deceive themselves.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
You say potato; I say potahto...' 'I say integrity; you say deceit.
Melissa Marr (Wicked Lovely (Wicked Lovely, #1))
You don’t think monster girls and wicked boys deserve love?
Holly Black (How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories (The Folk of the Air, #3.5))
Watching my back is the perfect opportunity to stick a knife in it.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
I have heard that for mortals, the feeling of falling in love is very like the feeling of fear. Your heart beats fast. Your senses are heightened. You grow light-headed, maybe even dizzy.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
I’ve wanted this and feared it, and now that it’s happening, I don’t know how I will ever want anything else.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
His mouth curls into a smile. His eyes shine with wicked intent. “Look at them all, your subjects. A shame not a one knows who their true ruler is.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
I have said that he has the power to deliver a compliment and make it hurt. So, too, he can say something that ought to be insulting and deliver it in such a way that it feels like being truly seen.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
It was good to be hugged. Even by a monster.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Marry me,” he says. “Become the Queen of Elfhame.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
I kissed him on the mouth, and then I threatened to kiss him some more if he didn't do exactly what I wanted.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
He continues looking at me in this strange way, as though he’s never seen me before or as though he thought he might never see me again.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
His eyes are open, watching my flushed face, my ragged breathing. I try to stop myself from making embarrassing noises. It’s more intimate than the way he’s touching me, to be looked at like that. I hate that he knows what he’s doing and I don’t. I hate being vulnerable. I hate that I throw my head back, baring my throat. I hate the way I cling to him, the nails of one hand digging into his back, my thoughts splintering, and the single last thing in my head: that I like him better than I’ve ever liked anyone and that of all the things he’s ever done to me, making me like him so much is by far the worst.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Thus, a good man, though a slave, is free; but a wicked man, though a king, is a slave. For he serves, not one man alone, but what is worse, as many masters as he has vices.
Augustine of Hippo (City of God)
Nicasia said that as mortal power grows, land and sea ought to be united. And that they would be, either in the way she hoped or the way I should fear.” “Ominous,” I say. “It seems I have a singular taste for women who threaten me.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Our eyes meet, and something dangerous sparks. He hates you, I remind myself. “Kiss me again,” he says, drunk and foolish. “Kiss me until I am sick of it.” I feel those words, feel them like a kick to the stomach. He sees my expression and laughs, a sound full of mockery. I can’t tell which of us he’s laughing at. He hates you. Even if he wants you, he hates you. Maybe he hates you the more for it. After a moment, his eyes flutter closed. His voice falls to a whisper, as though he’s talking to himself. “If you’re the sickness, I suppose you can’t also be the cure.” He drifts off to sleep, but I am wide awake.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
If wishes were horses, my mortal father used to say, beggars would ride.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Legends need not concern themselves with something as small as happiness
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
I hope Cardan misses me.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
He kisses the scar of my palm. I still have his brother’s blood under my fingernails. I don’t have a ring for him. Above us, the buds are blooming. The whole room smells of flowers.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
He hates you. Even if he wants you, he hates you. Maybe he hates you the more for it.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
It occurs to me that maybe desire isn't something overindulging helps. Maybe it is not unlike mithridatism; maybe I took a killing dose when I should have been poisoning myself slowly, one kiss at a time.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Revenge is sweet, but ice cream is sweeter.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
I remember what it was to hate him with the whole of my heart, but I’ve remembered too late.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Come home and shout at me. Come home and fight with me. Come home and break my heart, if you must. Just come home. Cardan
Holly Black (The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air, #3))
Kiss me until I am sick of it.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Your Majesty, you just-" Costis stopped. "Just what?" the king prompted wickedly. Nothing would induce Costis to say out loud that the king had almost fallen from the palace wall and that Costis had seen him manifestly saved by the God of Thieves. The king smiled. "Cat got your tongue?" "Your Majesty, you are drunk," Costis pleaded. "I am. What's your excuse?
Megan Whalen Turner (The King of Attolia (The Queen's Thief, #3))
Balekin and Orlagh are planning your murder,” I say flustered. “Yes,” he says lazily. “So why did I wake at all?
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Revenge is sweet, but ice cream is sweeter.” She goes to the freezer and removes a tub of mint chocolate chip. She brings that and two spoons back to the sofa. “For now, accept this delight, unworthy though it is for the Queen of Faerie in exile.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
You can take a thing when no one’s looking. But defending it, even with all the advantage on your side, is no easy task,” Madoc told her with a laugh. She looked up to find him offering her a hand. “Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold on to.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
I am not sure I sleep, but I do dream.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Why am I the way I am?” His tone makes it clear he’s proposing something I might suggest he ask, not really wondering about it. “There are no real answers, Jude. Why was I cruel to Folk? Why was I awful to you? Because I could be. Because I liked it. Because, for a moment, when I was at my worst, I felt powerful, and most of the time, I felt powerless, despite being a prince and the son of the High King of Faerie.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Better she never be a bride than wind up a widow
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
For a moment,” he says, “I wondered if it wasn’t you shooting bolts at me.” I make a face at him. “And what made you decide it wasn’t?” He grins up at me. “They missed.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
There is one fairly good reason for fighting - and that is, if the other man starts it. You see, wars are a great wickedness, perhaps the greatest wickedness of a wicked species. They are so wicked that they must not be allowed. When you can be perfectly certain that the other man started them, then is the time when you might have a sort of duty to stop them.
T.H. White (The Once and Future King)
[Keenan] 'What am I going to do?' He sank to the floor. [Donia] 'Hope that some of us are kinder to you than you've been to us,' she whispered. Then, before she could soften again, she walked away and left the Summer King kneeling in her foyer.
Melissa Marr (Fragile Eternity (Wicked Lovely, #3))
A great many people are looking for you." The gleam in the tiny girl's eye was wicked. "They'd best pray they don't find me
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Someone tries to betray the High King, murder. Someone gives you a harsh look, murder. Someone disrespects you, murder. Someone ruins your laundry, murder.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
It will hurt. Pain makes you strong.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
A king is a living symbol, a beating heart, a star upon which Elfhame's future is written. Surely you have noticed that since his reign began, the isles are different. Storms come in faster. Colors are a bit more vivid, smells are sharper.... When he becomes drunk, his subjects becomes tipsy without knowing why. When his blood falls, things grow.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Just because I am bitter about romance doesn't mean everyone else needs to be.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Yes, my sweet villain, my darling god. I will be as sober as a stone carving, just as soon as I can.” And with that, he kisses me on the mouth.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Rules are different for poets.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
I want to have some reaction. I want to tremble or feel nauseated. I want to be the person who begins to weep. I want to be anyone but the person I am, who looks around to be sure no one saw, who wipes off my knife in the dirt, wipes off my hand on his clothes, and gets out of there before the guards come.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
You’re young, but you’re ambitious in the way that perhaps only the young can be.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Sometimes lying is a real pleasure.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
What do they do?" I ask. He laughs. "They are beautiful - isn't that enough?
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Cal stares at the floor, silent for a long, stoic moment. "I never thought Maven would do that to her," he mutters finally. "She probably didn't either." Then you're both stupid, my brain screams. How many times doe one wicked boy have to betray you people before you learn?
Victoria Aveyard (King's Cage (Red Queen, #3))
You are my king. You could command me to stop seeing her." Niall turned his gaze to Irial. "What would you do?" "Blind myself, if you were foolish enough to use those words.
Melissa Marr (Stopping Time (Wicked Lovely, #2.5))
Monsters are real, and I am their king.
Emily A. Duncan (Wicked Saints (Something Dark and Holy, #1))
I need to make her realize that even terrible memories are better than weird gaps or the hollowness of your feelings not making sense.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
But what if I actually am becoming besotted with him? Cardan is more knowledgeable than I am at love. He could use that against me, just as I asked him to use it against Nicasia. Perhaps he found a way to turn the tables after all. Kill him, a part of me says, a part I remember from the night I took him captive. Kill him before he makes you love him.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
She had often wished for adventure, for old spells and wicked kings. But she hadn’t realized it would be like this—a fight for her freedom. And she’d always imagined that there’d be someone to help her—a loyal friend or a one-armed soldier or something. She hadn’t imagined she would be so … alone.
Sarah J. Maas (Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1))
The Grand General would mount your head on a wall,” Nicasia informed him, patting his cheek. “A very fine head,” he informed her with a wicked grin. “Suitable for mounting.
Holly Black (How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories (The Folk of the Air, #3.5))
We get power by taking it.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Most of all, I hate you because I think of you.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
only under the water can I allow myself to weep. Only under the water can I admit that I almost died and that I was terrified and that I wish there was someone to whom I could tell all that.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
You should tell him, I say. Which is not bad advice, I think. Not advice I would take myself, but that doesn't necessarily make it bad.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
I still feel the warm pressure of his fingers against my skin. Something is really wrong with me, to want what I hate, to want someone who despises me, even if he wants me, too. My only comfort is that he doesn’t know what I feel.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
For a moment, there is silence between us. He takes a step toward me. “The other night—” I cut him off. “I did it for the same reason that you did. To get it out of my system.” “And is it?” he asks. “Out of your system?” I look him in the face and lie. “Yes.” If he touches me, if he even takes another step toward me, my deceit will be exposed. I don’t think I can keep the longing off my face. Instead, to my relief, he gives a thin-lipped nod and departs. From the next room, I hear the Roach call out to Cardan, to offer to teach him the trick of levitating a playing card. I hear Cardan laugh. It occurs to me that maybe desire isn’t something overindulging helps. Maybe it is not unlike mithridatism; maybe I took a killing dose when I should have been poisoning myself slowly, one kiss at a time.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
You put a curse on that girl over there,” I tell him. “Fix her immediately.” “She admired my ears,” the boy says. “I was only giving her what she desired. A party favor.” “That’s what I am going to say after I gut you and use your entrails as streamers,” I tell him. “I was only giving him what he wanted. After all, if he didn’t want to be eviscerated, he would have honored my very reasonable request.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
The Summer King stroked her cheek with his thumb. “Can you offer me your fidelity? Your heart and your body and your companionship for eternity? Do you want my fidelity? Either love me or kiss me goodbye, my Summer Queen.
Melissa Marr (Darkest Mercy (Wicked Lovely, #5))
You could still be lying,” says the Roach. He turns to Cardan. “Try her.” “Your pardon?” Cardan says, drawing himself up, and the Roach seems to suddenly remember to whom he’s speaking in such an offhanded way. “Don’t be such a prickly rose, Your Majesty,” the Roach says with a shrug and a grin. “I’m not giving you an order. I’m suggesting that if you tried to glamour Jude, we could find out the truth.” Cardan sighs and walks toward me. I know this is necessary. I know that he doesn’t intend to hurt me. I know he can’t glamour me. And yet I draw back automatically. “Jude?” he asks. “Go ahead,” I say. I hear the glamour enter his voice, heady and seductive and more powerful than I expected. “Crawl to me,” he says with a grin. Embarrassment pinks my cheeks. I stay where I am, looking at all their faces. “Satisfied?” The Bomb nods. “You’re not charmed.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
This book is a fairy tale  in which I am the prince  and the princess. I am  the king and the queen.  I am my own wicked  witch and fairy godmother.  This book is a fairy tale  in which I’m cursed  and blessed by others.  But, finally, I am the fair y  finding my own magic.
Dean Atta (The Black Flamingo)
You said that you thought Queen Orlagh was waiting for an advantage to declare war. Instead, I think she is trying a new ruler—one she hopes she can trick or replace with another indebted to her. She thinks me young and feckless and means to take my measure.” “So what?” I ask. “Our choice is to endure her games, no matter how deadly, or engage in a war we cannot win?” Cardan shakes his head and drinks another cup of tea. “We show her that I am no feckless High King.” “And how do we do that?” I ask. “With great difficulty,” he says. “Since I fear she is right.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
He stares at me in blankly. “Are you accusing me of not caring for your sister?” he asks. “If I truly believed you didn’t care for Taryn, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” He gives a long sigh. “Because you’d murder me?” “If you’re playing with Taryn, Madoc will murder you; I won’t even get a chance.” I sheath my knife and head toward the door. “Your ridiculous family might be surprised to find that not everything is solved by murder,” Locke calls after me. “We would be surprised to find that,” I call back.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
I concentrate on what I am going to say to Vivi, instead of thinking of Cardan. I do not want to consider what happened between us. I do not want to think about the way his muscles moved or how his skin felt or the soft gasping sounds he made or the slide of his mouth against mine. I definitely don’t want to think about how hard I had to bite my own lip to keep quiet. Or how obvious it was that I’d never done any of the things we did, no less the things we didn’t do.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Cardan’s eyebrows rise, but he has all the appearance of blissful unconcern. “My lady, you flatter me. I had no idea you were interested.” Her gaze is unflinching as she passes her gift to one of Cardan’s personal guard. “May you grow into the wisdom of your counselors.” “The fervent prayer of many,” he says.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
The books were legends and tales, stories from all over the Realm. These she had devoured voraciously – so voraciously, in fact, that she started to become fatigued by them. It was possible to have too much of a good thing, she reflected. “They’re all the same,” she complained to Fleet one night. “The soldier rescues the maiden and they fall in love. The fool outwits the wicked king. There are always three brothers or sisters, and it’s always the youngest who succeeds after the first two fail. Always be kind to beggars, for they always have a secret; never trust a unicorn. If you answer somebody’s riddle they always either kill themselves or have to do what you say. They’re all the same, and they’re all ridiculous! That isn’t what life is like!” Fleet had nodded sagely and puffed on his hookah. “Well, of course that’s not what life is like. Except the bit about unicorns – they’ll eat your guts as soon as look at you. those things in there” – he tapped the book she was carrying – “they’re simple stories. Real life is a story, too, only much more complicated. It’s still got a beginning, a middle, and an end. Everyone follows the same rules, you know. . . It’s just that there are more of them. Everyone has chapters and cliffhangers. Everyone has their journey to make. Some go far and wide and come back empty-handed; some don’t go anywhere and their journey makes them richest of all. Some tales have a moral and some don’t make any sense. Some will make you laugh, others make you cry. The world is a library, young Poison, and you’ll never get to read the same book twice.
Chris Wooding (Poison)
I hope it unnerves them to know that I am lying. After all, if the insult to me is pointing out that I am mortal, then this is my riposte: I live here, too, and I know the rules. Perhaps I even know them better than you since you were born into them, but I had to learn. Perhaps I know them better than you because you have greater leeway to break them.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Tell me again what you said at the revel," he says, climbing over me, his body against mine. "What?" I can barely think. "That you hate me," he says, his voice hoarse. "Tell me that you hate me." "I hate you," I say, the words coming out like a caress. I say it again, over and over. A litany. An enchantment. A ward against what I really feel. "I hate you. I hate you. I hate you." He kisses me harder. "I hate you," I breathe into his mouth. "I hate you so much that sometimes I can't think of anything else.
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
Now, therefore, I will sleep. I speak no comfort to you, for there is no comfort for such pain within the circles of the world. The uttermost choice is before you: to repent and go to the Havens and bear away into the West the memory of our days together that shall there be evergreen but never more than memory; or else to abide the Doom of Men." Nay, dear lord," she said, "that choice is long over. There is now no ship that would bear me hence, and I must indeed abide the Doom of Men, whether I will or I nill: the loss and the silence. But I say to you, King of the Numenoreans, not till now have I understood the tale of your people and their fall. As wicked fools I scorned them, but I pity them at last. For if this is indeed, as the Eldar say, the gift of the One to Men, it is bitter to receive." So it seems," he said. "But let us not be overthrown at the final test, who of old renounced the Shadow and the Ring. In sorrow we must go, but not in despair. Behold! we are not bound for ever to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory.
J.R.R. Tolkien
O, that this too too solid flesh would melt Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God! How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, Seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely. That it should come to this! But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two: So excellent a king; that was, to this, Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother That he might not beteem the winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth! Must I remember? why, she would hang on him, As if increase of appetite had grown By what it fed on: and yet, within a month-- Let me not think on't--Frailty, thy name is woman!-- A little month, or ere those shoes were old With which she follow'd my poor father's body, Like Niobe, all tears:--why she, even she-- O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, Would have mourn'd longer--married with my uncle, My father's brother, but no more like my father Than I to Hercules: within a month: Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, She married. O, most wicked speed, to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! It is not nor it cannot come to good: But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.
William Shakespeare (Hamlet)
is a broken man an outlaw?" "More or less." Brienne answered. Septon Meribald disagreed. "More less than more. There are many sorts of outlaws, just as there are many sorts of birds. A sandpiper and a sea eagle both have wings, but they are not the same. The singers love to sing of good men forced to go outside the law to fight some wicked lord, but most outlaws are more like this ravening Hound than they are the lightning lord. They are evil men, driven by greed, soured by malice, despising the gods and caring only for themselves. Broken men are more deserving of our pity, though they may be just as dangerous. Almost all are common-born, simple folk who had never been more than a mile from the house where they were born until the day some lord came round to take them off to war. Poorly shod and poorly clad, they march away beneath his banners, ofttimes with no better arms than a sickle or a sharpened hoe, or a maul they made themselves by lashing a stone to a stick with strips of hide. Brothers march with brothers, sons with fathers, friends with friends. They've heard the songs and stories, so they go off with eager hearts, dreaming of the wonders they will see, of the wealth and glory they will win. War seems a fine adventure, the greatest most of them will ever know. "Then they get a taste of battle. "For some, that one taste is enough to break them. Others go on for years, until they lose count of all the battles they have fought in, but even a man who has survived a hundred fights can break in his hundred-and-first. Brothers watch their brothers die, fathers lose their sons, friends see their friends trying to hold their entrails in after they've been gutted by an axe. "They see the lord who led them there cut down, and some other lord shouts that they are his now. They take a wound, and when that's still half-healed they take another. There is never enough to eat, their shoes fall to pieces from the marching, their clothes are torn and rotting, and half of them are shitting in their breeches from drinking bad water. "If they want new boots or a warmer cloak or maybe a rusted iron halfhelm, they need to take them from a corpse, and before long they are stealing from the living too, from the smallfolk whose lands they're fighting in, men very like the men they used to be. They slaughter their sheep and steal their chicken's, and from there it's just a short step to carrying off their daughters too. And one day they look around and realize all their friends and kin are gone, that they are fighting beside strangers beneath a banner that they hardly recognize. They don't know where they are or how to get back home and the lord they're fighting for does not know their names, yet here he comes, shouting for them to form up, to make a line with their spears and scythes and sharpened hoes, to stand their ground. And the knights come down on them, faceless men clad all in steel, and the iron thunder of their charge seems to fill the world... "And the man breaks. "He turns and runs, or crawls off afterward over the corpses of the slain, or steals away in the black of night, and he finds someplace to hide. All thought of home is gone by then, and kings and lords and gods mean less to him than a haunch of spoiled meat that will let him live another day, or a skin of bad wine that might drown his fear for a few hours. The broken man lives from day to day, from meal to meal, more beast than man. Lady Brienne is not wrong. In times like these, the traveler must beware of broken men, and fear them...but he should pity them as well
George R.R. Martin
As all men are touched by God’s love, so all are also touched by the desire for His intimacy. No one escapes this longing; we are all kings in exile, miserable without the Infinite. Those who reject the grace of God have a desire to avoid God, as those who accept it have a desire for God. The modern atheist does not disbelieve because of his intellect, but because of his will; it is not knowledge that makes him an atheist…The denial of God springs from a man’s desire not to have a God—from his wish that there were no Justice behind the universe, so that his injustices would fear not retribution; from his desire that there be no Law, so that he may not be judged by it; from his wish that there were no Absolute Goodness, that he might go on sinning with impunity. That is why the modern atheist is always angered when he hears anything said about God and religion—he would be incapable of such a resentment if God were only a myth. His feeling toward God is the same as that which a wicked man has for one whom he has wronged: he wishes he were dead so that he could do nothing to avenge the wrong. The betrayer of friendship knows his friend exists, but he wished he did not; the post-Christian atheist knows God exists, but he desires He should not.
Fulton J. Sheen (Peace of Soul: Timeless Wisdom on Finding Serenity and Joy by the Century's Most Acclaimed Catholic Bishop)
If you can master me, that look seemed to say, then you can master whatever else this wicked world might bring. I can see her now, standing amidst her deerhounds that had the same thin, lean bodies, and the same long nose and the same huntess eyes as their mistress. Green eyes, she had, with a kind of cruelty deep inside them. It was not a soft face, any more that her body was soft. She was a woman of strong lines and high bones, and that made for a good face and a handsome one, but hard, so hard. What made her beautiful was her hair and her carriage, for she stood as straight as spear and her hair fell around her shoulders like a cascade of tumbling red tangles. That red hair softened her looks, while her laughter snared men like salmon caught in basket traps. There have been many more beautiful women, and thousands who were better, but since the world was weaned I doubt there have been many more so unforgettable as Guinevere, eldest daughter of Leodegan, the exiled King of Henis Wyren. And it would have been better, Merlin always said, had she been drowned at birth.
Bernard Cornwell (The Winter King (The Warlord Chronicles, #1))
The season of the world before us will be like no other in the history of mankind. Satan has unleashed every evil, every scheme, every blatant, vile perversion ever known to man in any generation. Just as this is the dispensation of the fullness of times, so it is also the dispensation of the fullness of evil. We and our wives and husbands, our children, and our members must find safety. There is no safety in the world: wealth cannot provide it, enforcement agencies cannot assure it, membership in this Church alone cannot bring it. As the evil night darkens upon this generation, we must come to the temple for light and safety. In our temples we find quiet, sacred havens where the storm cannot penetrate to us. There are hosts of unseen sentinels watching over and guarding our temples. Angels attend every door. As it was in the days of Elisha, so it will be for us: “Those that be with us are more than they that be against us.” Before the Savior comes the world will darken. There will come a period of time where even the elect will lose hope if they do not come to the temples. The world will be so filled with evil that the righteous will only feel secure within these walls. The saints will come here not only to do vicarious work, but to find a haven of peace. They will long to bring their children here for safety’s sake. I believe we may well have living on the earth now or very soon the boy or babe who will be the prophet of the Church when the Savior comes. Those who will sit in the Quorum of Twelve Apostles are here. There are many in our homes and communities who will have apostolic callings. We must keep them clean, sweet and pure in an oh so wicked world. There will be greater hosts of unseen beings in the temple. Prophets of old as well as those in this dispensation will visit the temples. Those who attend will feel their strength and feel their companionship. We will not be alone in our temples. Our garments worn as instructed will clothe us in a manner as protective as temple walls. The covenants and ordinances will fill us with faith as a living fire. In a day of desolating sickness, scorched earth, barren wastes, sickening plagues, disease, destruction, and death, we as a people will rest in the shade of trees, we will drink from the cooling fountains. We will abide in places of refuge from the storm, we will mount up as on eagle’s wings, we will be lifted out of an insane and evil world. We will be as fair as the sun and clear as the moon. The Savior will come and will honor his people. Those who are spared and prepared will be a temple-loving people. They will know Him. They will cry out, “Blessed be the name of He that cometh in the name of the Lord; thou are my God and I will bless thee; thou are my God and I will exalt thee.” Our children will bow down at His feet and worship Him as the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings. They will bathe His feet with their tears and He will weep and bless them for having suffered through the greatest trials ever known to man. His bowels will be filled with compassion and His heart will swell wide as eternity and He will love them. He will bring peace that will last a thousand years and they will receive their reward to dwell with Him. Let us prepare them with faith to surmount every trial and every condition. We will do it in these holy, sacred temples. Come, come, oh come up to the temples of the Lord and abide in His presence.
Vaughn J. Featherstone