Smiley C > Smiley's Quotes

“And now that its ruby eyes are set into the gold, you cannot see their tear-shape, so they seem to be laughing rather than crying. It is a constant reminder to me of the human ability to create something beautiful even when things are at the darkest.”
― Cressida Cowell, How to Twist a Dragon's Tale

“Sometimes it is only a True Friend who knows what we mean when we try to speak.

Somebody who has spent a lot of time with us, and listens carefully to what we are trying to say, and tries to understand.”
― Cressida Cowell, How to Cheat a Dragon's Curse

“There's no such thing as im-POSSIBLE, Hiccup, only im-PROBABLE. The only thing that limits us are the limits to our imagination”
― Cressida Cowell, How to Cheat a Dragon's Curse

“I stopped believing there was a power of good and a power of evil that were outside us. And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are.”
― Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass

“But I stopped believing there was a power of good and a power of evil that were outside us. And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are. All we can say is that this is a good deed, because it helps someone, or that's an evil one, because it hurts them. People are too complicated to have simple labels.”
― Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass

“It takes long practice, yes. You have to work. Did you think you could snap your fingers, and have it as a gift? What is worth having is worth working for.”
― Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass

“If a coin comes down heads, that means that the possibility of its coming down tails has collapsed. Until that moment the two possibilities were equal.
But on another world, it does come down tails. And when that happens, the two worlds split apart.”
― Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass

“Anyone can rise if they have enough yeast.”
― Terry Pratchett, Dodger

“And on this dirty night there were appropriately dirty deeds that not even the rain could wash away.”
― Terry Pratchett, Dodger

“History isn't like that. History unravels gently, like an old sweater. It has been patched and darned many times, reknitted to suit different people, shoved in a box under the sink of censorship to be cut up for the dusters of propaganda, yet it always - eventually - manages to spring back into its old familar shape. History has a habit of changing the people who think they are changing it. History always has a few tricks up its frayed sleeve. It's been around a long time.”
― Terry Pratchett, Mort

“The whole of life was a game. But if it was a game, then were you the player or were you the pawn?”
― Terry Pratchett, Dodger

“... responsibilities are the anvil on which a man is forged.”
― Terry Pratchett, Dodger

“Sir, sometimes I feel there are no heroes, no villains. Just men, ordinary men locked up by circumstances, good or bad. This I truly believe, and I suggest that you believe it too.”
― Terry Pratchett, Dodger

“The past never really leaves us.
And now I am an old, old man. I hover over my childhood self, as if I were a dead mother, and I am anxious for Hiccup's future because I already know it, and I want to protect the boy from the pain.
But I am happy too because I know the future is a curious mixture of joy and sadness.
So suddenly I throw away my fear, and I no longer shout "Stop!" I am shouting something slightly different now.
Walk on, Hiccup!
Have Courage!
Walk on to Tomorrow...
And I will meet you there at Hero's End...”
― Cressida Cowell, How to Seize a Dragon's Jewel

“It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

“Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

“We must try not to sink beneath our anguish, Harry, but battle on.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

“His hand closed automatically around the fake Horcrux but in spite of everything, in spite of the dark and twisting path he saw stretching ahead for himself, in spite of the final meeting with Voldemort he knew must come whether in a month in a year or in ten, he felt his heart lift at the thought that there was still one last golden day of peace left to enjoy with Ron and Hermione.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

“The point is—as far as the Society is concerned—if you are not honest, and determined, and brave, then it doesn’t matter how talented you are.”
― Jessica Townsend, Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow

“In a valley shaded with rhododendrons, close to the snow line, where a stream milky with meltwater splashed and where doves and linnets flew among the immense pines, lay a cave, half, hidden by the crag above and the stiff heavy leaves that clustered below.

The woods were full of sound: the stream between the rocks, the wind among the needles of the pine branches, the chitter of insects and the cries of small arboreal mammals, as well as the birdsong; and from time to time a stronger gust of wind would make one of the branches of a cedar or a fir move against another and groan like a cello.

It was a place of brilliant sunlight, never undappled. Shafts of lemon-gold brilliance lanced down to the forest floor between bars and pools of brown-green shade; and the light was never still, never constant, because drifting mist would often float among the treetops, filtering all the sunlight to a pearly sheen and brushing every pine cone with moisture that glistened when the mist lifted. Sometimes the wetness in the clouds condensed into tiny drops half mist and half rain, which floated downward rather than fell, making a soft rustling patter among the millions of needles.

There was a narrow path beside the stream, which led from a village-little more than a cluster of herdsmen's dwellings - at the foot of the valley to a half-ruined shrine near the glacier at its head, a place where faded silken flags streamed out in the Perpetual winds from the high mountains, and offerings of barley cakes and dried tea were placed by pious villagers. An odd effect of the light, the ice, and the vapor enveloped the head of the valley in perpetual rainbows.”
― Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass

“I don’t know what to tell you, Mog.’ Jupiter sighed. ‘Some people are brave bullies. Some people are friendly cowards.”
― Jessica Townsend, Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow

“She said it out loud, the words distributed into a room that was full of cold air and books. Books everywhere! Each wall was armed with overcrowded yet immaculate shelving. It was barely possible to see paintwork. There were all different styles and sizes of lettering on the spines of the black, the red, the gray, the every-colored books. It was one of the most beautiful things Liesel Meminger had ever seen.

With wonder, she smiled.

That such a room existed!”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“Just be patient, she told herself, and with the mounting pages, the strength of her writing fist grew.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“Papa was a man with silver eyes, not dead ones.
Papa was an accordion!
But his bellows were all empty.
Nothing went in and nothing came out.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson

“So Lyra and her dæmon turned away from the world they were born in, and looked towards the sun, and walked into the sky.”
― Philip Pullman, Northern Lights

“The idea hovered and shivered delicately, like a soap bubble, and she dared not even look at it directly in case it burst. But she was familiar with the way of ideas, and she let it shimmer, looking away, thinking about something else.”
― Philip Pullman, Northern Lights: Oxford

“in black ink my love may still shine bright.”
― William Shakespeare, Shakespeare's Sonnets