Caroline May > Caroline's Quotes

“And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“In the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands meet, and light spills in a flood like a hundred golden urns pouring out of the sun.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“Name one hero who was happy."
I considered. Heracles went mad and killed his family; Theseus lost his bride and father; Jason's children and new wife were murdered by his old; Bellerophon killed the Chimera but was crippled by the fall from Pegasus' back.
"You can't." He was sitting up now, leaning forward.
"I can't."
"I know. They never let you be famous AND happy." He lifted an eyebrow. "I'll tell you a secret."
"Tell me." I loved it when he was like this.
"I'm going to be the first." He took my palm and held it to his. "Swear it."
"Why me?"
"Because you're the reason. Swear it."
"I swear it," I said, lost in the high color of his cheeks, the flame in his eyes.
"I swear it," he echoed.
We sat like that a moment, hands touching. He grinned.
"I feel like I could eat the world raw.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“I will never leave him. It will be this, always, for as long as he will let me.
If I had had words to speak such a thing, I would have. But there were none that seemed big enough for it, to hold that swelling truth.
As if he had heard me, he reached for my hand. I did not need to look; his fingers were etched into my memory, slender and petal-veined, strong and quick and never wrong.
“Patroclus,” he said. He was always better with words than I.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”
― Oscar Wilde

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”
― Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

“You're alive, Bod. That means you have infinite potential. You can do anything, make anything, dream anything. If you can change the world, the world will change. Potential. Once you're dead, it's gone. Over. You've made what you've made, dreamed your dream, written your name. You may be buried here, you may even walk. But that potential is finished.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

“Name the different kinds of people,’ said Miss Lupescu. ‘Now.’

Bod thought for a moment. ‘The living,’ he said. ‘Er. The dead.’ He stopped. Then, ‘... Cats?’ he offered, uncertainly.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

“Be hole, be dust, be dream, be wind/Be night, be dark, be wish, be mind,/Now slip, now slide, now move unseen,/Above, beneath, betwixt, between.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

“Nearly' only counts in horseshoes and hand-grenades.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

“The moonlight was enough. It would do.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

“It must be good to have somewhere that you belong. Somewhere that’s home.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

“It felt like a small forever.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

“My words are unerring tools of
destruction, and I’ve come unequipped with the ability to disarm them.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven Boys

“While I'm gone," Gansey said, pausing, "dream me the world. Something new for every night.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“I am being perfectly fucking civil.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“...she made her home in between the pages of books.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Linger

“It’s not the world that’s cruel. It’s the people in it.”
― Nora Sakavic, The Foxhole Court

“I hate you,” Andrew said casually. He took a last long drag from his cigarette and flicked it off the roof. “You were supposed to be a side effect of the drugs.”
“I’m not a hallucination,” Neil said, nonplussed.
“You are a pipe dream,” Andrew said.”
― Nora Sakavic, The King's Men

“Is your learning curve a horizontal line?”
― Nora Sakavic, The King's Men

“It sounded like a dream; it tasted like damnation.”
― Nora Sakavic, The Foxhole Court

“This is my reassured face," Neil said, pointing up at his blank expression.”
― Nora Sakavic, The Foxhole Court

“You know, I get it. Being raised as a superstar must be really, really difficult for you. Always a commodity, never a human being, not a single person in your family thinking you’re worth a damn off the court— yeah, sounds rough. Kevin and I talk about your intricate and endless daddy issues all the time. I know it’s not entirely your fault that you are mentally unbalanced and infected with these delusions of grandeur, and I know you’re physically incapable of holding a decent conversation with anyone like every other normal human being can, but I don’t think any of us should have to put up with this much of your bullshit. Pity only gets you so many concessions, and you used yours up about six insults ago. So please, please, just shut the fuck up and leave us alone.”
― Nora Sakavic, The Raven King

“The dice of love are shouting and madness.”
― Sappho

“Once again Love, that loosener of limbs,
bittersweet and inescapable, crawling thing,
seizes me.”
― Sappho

“I can reveal to you that I wished to die -
For with much weeping she left me
Saying: "Sappho - what suffering is ours!
For it is against my will that I leave you."
In answer, I said: "Go, happily remembering me
For you know what we shared and pursued -
If not, I wish you to see again our [ former joys ] .....
The many braids of rose and violet you [ wreathed ]
Around yourself at my side
And the many garlands of flowers
With which you adorned your soft neck:
With royal oils from [ fresh flowers ]
You anointed [ yourself ]
And on soft beds fulfilled your longing
[ For me ] ....”
― Sappho

“Now in my
heart I
see clearly

a beautiful
face
shining back on me,

stained
with love”
― Sappho

“What cannot be said will be wept.”
― Sappho

“their heart grew cold
they let their wings down”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho