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

by Erika Johansen

Selfishness and self-destruction, riding hand in hand, as they so often did.

Anger clouded judgment, precipitated bad decisions. Anger was the indulgence of a child, not a queen.

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.

Pain only disables the weak.” Pain only disables the weak.

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.”

Even small gestures of kindness have the potential to reap enormous rewards. Only the shortsighted man believes otherwise.

Love was a real thing, Aisa thought, but secondary. Certainly love was not as real as her sword.

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.

You cannot bargain with the tide.

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.