The Night Circus

by Erin Morgenstern

“People see what they wish to see. And in most cases, what they are told that they see.”

“You prefer not to see the gears of the clock, as to better tell the time.”)

“Follow your dreams, Bailey,” she says. “Be they Harvard or something else entirely. No matter what that father of yours says, or how loudly he might say it. He forgets that he was someone’s dream once, himself.”

“The finest of pleasures are always the unexpected ones,”

“Secrets have power,” Widget begins. “And that power diminishes when they are shared, so they are best kept and kept well. Sharing secrets, real secrets, important ones, with even one other person, will change them. Writing them down is worse, because who can tell how many eyes might see them inscribed on paper, no matter how careful you might be with it. So it’s really best to keep your secrets when you have them, for their own good, as well as yours.

“I prefer to remain unenlightened, to better appreciate the dark.”

“You’re not destined or chosen, I wish I could tell you that you were if that would make it easier, but it’s not true. You’re in the right place at the right time, and you care enough to do what needs to be done. Sometimes that’s enough.”

Most maidens are perfectly capable of rescuing themselves in my experience, at least the ones worth something, in any case.