The Invasion of the Tearling (The Queen of the Tearling #2)

by Erika Johansen

Kelsea knew that although her anger was destructive, it was also pure, the closest she would ever get to the girl she really was deep down, beneath all of the controls that had been instilled in her since birth. She had been born angry, and she often wondered what it would be like to release her rage, to drop all pretense and let her true self out.

In an era rife with butchery, we must still make special mention of Benin Ducarte.

This, I think, is the crux of evil in this world, Majesty: those who feel entitled to whatever they want, whatever they can grab. Such people never ask themselves if they have the right. They consider no cost to anyone but themselves.”

The success of a great human migration depends on many individual pieces falling into place. There must be discontent with an unpleasant, perhaps even intolerable status quo. There must be idealism to drive the movement, a powerful vision of a better life beyond the horizon. There must be great courage in the face of terrible odds. But most of all, every migration needs its leader, the indispensable charismatic figure whom even terrified men and women will follow headlong into the abyss.

He believes that avoiding the wrongs of the future is more important than righting the wrongs of the past.”

The wrongs of the past are not less significant, they’re just harder to fix. And the longer you ignore them in favor of more pressing issues, the worse the harm, until the problems of the past actually create the problems of the future.

“When it fails, they do call it madness, Lazarus. But when it succeeds, they call it genius,

Always, we think we know what courage means. If I were called upon, we say, I would answer the call. I would not hesitate. Until the moment is upon us, and then we realize that the demands of true courage are very different from what we had envisioned, long ago on that bright morning when we felt brave.

When she was judged–as she surely would be, by history if nothing else–there would be no mitigating circumstances.

You cannot bargain with the tide.

“Above all, let us have niceties, Lady.” “What else do we have now?” “Glory, I suppose. Death with honor.” “Precisely.”

And Kelsea wondered suddenly whether humanity ever actually changed. Did people grow and learn at all as the centuries passed? Or was humanity merely like the tide, enlightenment advancing and then retreating as circumstances shifted? The most defining characteristic of the species might be lapse.

Fortune favors the bold, history tells us. Therefore, it behooves us to be as bold as possible.

the problems of the past, uncorrected, inevitably became the problems of the future.