Surely if we knew what bitterness fate held in store, we would shrink back in fear and let the cup of life pass us by untasted.

Well, I was living it, but a shared dream half-lived is a hollow thing

Battle for the sake of honor may be a fine thing for bards to sing of, but it is no way to preserve one’s homeland

Soon never comes soon enough to a young child.

Io sono Phèdre nó Delaunay de Montrève, e sono unica.

I have seen the impossible. I have seen great and terrible wonders, and I tell you, the world is a vaster and stranger place than ever I had reckoned.

Yes my lord, but questions are dangerous, for they have answers

There are those who do not hold that there is any innate goodness to mankind. To them I say, had you lived my life, you would not believe it. I have known the depths to...

A nervous silence loosens tongues

Like a falling star, he descended on the Tarbh Cró, a Cassiline berserker, his sword biting and slashing like a silver snake.

Quando l’Amore mi ha scacciata, è stata la Crudeltà ad avere pietà di me.

If you thought better of me, you would not be so surprised

A little truth seasons a lie like salt.

An awkward silence descended between us. Where did that phrase come from? I wonder. Silence descended. Descended from where exactly? Was it hovering over us like the alien spaceship in Independence Day? Maybe it wasn’t...

People believe what they are told.

I can see patterns in events, and behaviors; in mathematics, I follow slower

Non c’è appagamento che non sia reso più dolce dal protrarsi del desiderio.

After you, it’s all cheap tequila.

And having once chosen, never to seek to return to the crossroads of that decision-for even if one chooses wrongly, the choice cannot be unmade.

I lie awake in my bed, clinging to the brightness I have known, fighting back the tide of darkness, the memories of blood and branding and horror, and the legacy of cruelty that runs in...

The harp sounds at each passing breeze, but that does not mean the tune is masterfully played.

To have a traitor for an ally is to have an enemy in waiting

Sidonie, I know you don’t remember it, but you once promised to trust me beyond all reason. And I swear to you that all that I am, all that I possess, including this gem-stone, is...

It is my observations, though, that happiness limits the amount of suffering one is willing to inflict upon others

Oh love and hate are two sides of the same blade

And for a price, I will pretend absolutely nothing.

To recongnize that the treachery of one member of a house does not taint all born within it

One must gauge one’s trust carefully.

This is the secret that none dares tell who fights for a cause. Dying, we are all alike.

I preferred a hard truth to a well-meant lie.

I had begun to think my ripening body would wither untasted on the vine.

Stupid to speak of blame when the wills of the immortals are involved.

It’s the same questions we ask of our existence, and the answer is always the same. The mystery lies not in the question nor the answer, but in the asking and answering themselves, over and...

Those that yield are not always weak

Spontaneity is the province of youth

The pain of the flesh is naught to that of the heart

And Kushiel sends no punishment that we are not fit to bear.

Why is there ever this perverse cruelty in humankind, that makes us hurt most those we love best?

We pay for sins we do not remember, and seek to do a will we can scarce fathom. That is what it is, to be a god’s chosen.

Truly, it is in loss that we learn a thing’s true value.

We might embody those qualities we desire to possess by embracing them, over and over, until the line between seeming and being is no more.

Non sempre chi accondiscende è debole.

It’s funny how despair can soon become an old companion

Love as thou wilt

It’s funny, how one can look back on a sorrow one thought one might well die of at the time, and know that one had not yet reckoned the tenth part of true grief.

I don’t know. I know only that in your own way, you inspire us.

Stand at the crossroads if you will, but if you’ll not choose, I’ll move on without you

Ma al di sopra di tutto c’è l’amore. E se desideriamo essere più che umani, è quella la stella che dobbiamo seguire.

There’s more to clothing than just adornment. It does more than merely change how the world perceives us. It changes how we perceive ourselves.

All knowledge is worth having.