Of Darkness and Light (The Bound and the Broken, #2)

by Ryan Cahill

there was a difference between hearing the stories and living them. When you heard the stories of war and heroes, you couldn’t smell the death, the scent of crackling flesh, the stench of voided bowels. You couldn’t see the utter devastation, taste the blood on your tongue, feel the fear and horror in your bones. Stories were beautiful. They were words that painted a canvas in your mind. But death could not be beautiful.

Books are not a complete history. They are only the history people chose to record.”

“There is not a soul in this world who does not feel the push and pull of pride. Damage it, and you can make an enemy for life. Keep it intact, and you may find allies in the strangest of places.”

“The sun will set, and it will rise again, and it will do so the next day and the next. The gods are in charge of such things, but it is by our own will that we pick ourselves up when we fall.”

We are born, we live, and we die. Those three things cannot be changed. The only thing within our control is what we choose to do with the short time we have – the things we fight for, the people we love, the things we hold dear. Good men stand even when it is against all odds.

“Things that matter are rarely easy.”

People tended to fear what they didn’t understand, and fear was a good friend of hate.

I do not mean you cannot hold fear in your hearts, for courage is not the absence of fear. It is the will to act in spite of fear.”