More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
If the beginning of wisdom is in realizing that one knows nothing, then the beginning of understanding is in realizing that all things exist in accord with a single truth: Large things are made of smaller things. Drops of ink are shaped into letters, letters form words, words form sentences, and sentences combine to express thought. So it is with the growth of plants that spring from seeds, as well as with walls built of many stones. So it is with mankind, as the customs and traditions of our progenitors blend together to form the foundation for our own cities, history, and way of life.
Large things are made from small things. Significance is cumulative—but not always obvious.
“Love is a fire, Amara. Draw it too close and be burned.”
“Tavi, you’re my friend. If you need help, just expect me to be there whether you want me there or not.”
“Head got nothing to do with the heart. Your heart wants what it wants. Head got to learn that it can only kill the heart or else get out of the way.”
“Broken hearts heal in time,”
“Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don’t.”
Bernard had become, not so much important to her as he was natural to her whole being. He was as much a part of her thoughts as breath, food, and sleep. At once present and not present, conspicuous with his absence and filling her with a sense of completion when he was there.
We are all made to be for a purpose, Aleran.” Amara arched an eyebrow. “And what is yours?” “Like all my people,” Doroga said. “To learn.”
Not just the wisdom of the mind.” He put a fist on his chest. “But the wisdom of the heart. They are equally important.
You will probably find, in life, that successes and victories tend to overshadow the risks you took, while failure will amplify how idiotic they were.”
not all things are in your control. That worrying about those things will not change them.”
The Marat girl stroked her fingers over his cheek, the line of his jaw, and tucked errant, dark hairs into place behind his ears. “I have decided that I do not like it when you hurt,” she said quietly, her eyes never leaving his. “You are weary, Aleran. You have enemies enough without tearing open your own wounds over things you could not have prevented. You should rest while you have a chance.”
“Saying something is not so does not cause it to be not so,
Her eyes made time into something unimportant, something that fit itself to their needs and not the other way around. The moment lasted until it was finished, and only then was time allowed to resume its course.
He looked into Kitai’s eyes, their faces almost touching, and said, his voice low, steady, and certain, “You are not alone.”
Anger subsides. Love doesn’t.”
“Woman of trouble,” Doroga said. “But good to hold.
“What’s the worst that could happen? To be dismissed from service. To have our Citizenships revoked. At which point, well, we’d not have to worry about the legal obligations of the Citizenry, would we?” “We’d be ruined, but together,” Amara said, a dry smile on her lips. “Is that it?” “So long as I had you, I wouldn’t be ruined,” he said.
