Giraffedragon > Giraffedragon's Quotes

“It's a sword, not a fairy wand, you know.”
― John Flanagan, The Outcasts

“Stig: 'Of course, she'll sail rings around Wolfswind,'
Hal: 'Then why didn't you tell him that?'
Stig: 'I like my head where it is.”
― John Flanagan, The Outcasts

“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 forget myself sometimes, but then I look up, as I am looking up now, and I see in my mind's eye a sheild, strangely changed by a rich encrusting of jewel-like barnacles and cold-water coral, with an eight foot tooth sticking right out of the middle of it. I reach out and the edge of that tooth is still so bitingly sharp after all these years that just a gentle brush with the fingers might send a rain of blood down on these pages. And I bend my head, not too close, and I am sure I can hear, very faintly:

Once I set the sea alight
With a single fiery breath....
Once I was so mighty that I thought
My name was Death....
Sing out loud until you're eaten,
Song of melancholy blisss,
For the mighty and the middling
All shall come to THIS....

The Supper is still singing.”
― Cressida Cowell

“I didn't mean to come here...
And I didn't mean to stay...
It's just where the sea wind blew me
One accidental day...”
― Cressida Cowell - How to twist a dragons tale

“History is a set of repeating circles, like the tide. The wind does blow through the ruins of tomorrow. But it is more a question of two steps forward, one step back. Humans and dragons make the same mistakes, again and again, but things do get better over time”
― Cressida Cowell

“Words are pale shadows of forgotten names. As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“Perhaps the greatest faculty our minds possess is the ability to cope with pain. Classic thinking teaches us of the four doors of the mind, which everyone moves through according to their need.

First is the door of sleep. Sleep offers us a retreat from the world and all its pain. Sleep marks passing time, giving us distance from the things that have hurt us. When a person is wounded they will often fall unconscious. Similarly, someone who hears traumatic news will often swoon or faint. This is the mind's way of protecting itself from pain by stepping through the first door.

Second is the door of forgetting. Some wounds are too deep to heal, or too deep to heal quickly. In addition, many memories are simply painful, and there is no healing to be done. The saying 'time heals all wounds' is false. Time heals most wounds. The rest are hidden behind this door.

Third is the door of madness. There are times when the mind is dealt such a blow it hides itself in insanity. While this may not seem beneficial, it is. There are times when reality is nothing but pain, and to escape that pain the mind must leave reality behind.

Last is the door of death. The final resort. Nothing can hurt us after we are dead, or so we have been told.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“When we are children we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“The best lies about me are the ones I told.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“Very impressive. Where did you learn that?"
Made it up just now.”
― John Flanagan, The Battle for Skandia

“You can cry about how things aren’t fair, or you can stand tall and make things fair.”
― David Dalglish, Magic, Myth & Majesty

“What makes a man so, eh? Born bad? Bad choices? Bad friends? Maybe just bad chroniclers. You know, the victors writing history.”
― David Dalglish, Magic, Myth & Majesty

“War is rarely black and white, rarely goodness fighting evil; we are all different shades of gray. There are no pure means, only pure ends.”
― David Dalglish, Magic, Myth & Majesty

“Most faiths, he thought, could stand to learn the virtue of keeping their devotion to themselves.”
― David Dalglish, Magic, Myth & Majesty

“I hope your bacon burns.”
― Diana Wynne Jones , Howl’s Moving Castle

“Being a hero means ignoring how silly you feel.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Fire and Hemlock

“Feltock bit the inside of his cheek. Then he said, ‘And you think you remember everyone who was there that day?’
I thought about it for a moment. ‘Not everyone, ’I replied. Feltock was looking at me intently, trying to see if I knew, if I did remember. More trouble than it will be worth, I thought, but I was a little drunk and a little tired so I said, ‘But since you’re asking, yes, General Feltock, I remember you.’
Feltock’s eyes went wide for a moment, but then he gave a bitter laugh. ‘Not “General”, ’he said. ‘Not for a few years now. ’We drank some more in silence. ‘So,’he said, uncrossing his legs with a crack. ‘Are you gonna come for me next, boy?’
I sighed. ‘No.’
‘Why not? I was there, wasn’t I? I was one of those what took down your King, wasn’t I? So what’s the difference between me and Lynniac?’
‘You didn’t laugh. ’He just looked at me for a while and then said, ‘Huh’. Then he stood up and started walking back to the wagons.
‘Why “Captain”Feltock?’ I asked when he was a few paces away. ‘Why aren’t you a general any more?’
Feltock turned and gave me a sour grin. He tossed the rest of his wineskin back to me.
‘Because, boy, when they put the King’s head on that pole, I forgot to laugh.”
― Sebastien de Castell, Traitor's Blade

“Gods, man, don't you start now,' I said softly. 'We're going to get a terrible reputation if we just keep travelling across the countryside crying all the time.”
― Sebastien de Castell, Traitor's Blade

“All the truth in the world is held in stories.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

“You never do things the easy way, do you?" she said.
"There's an easy way?" I asked.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

“Music is a proud, temperamental mistress. Give her the time and attention she deserves, and she is yours. Slight her and there will come a day when you call and she will not answer. So I began sleeping less to give her the time she needed.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“Music sounds different to the one who plays it. It is the musician's curse.”
― Patrick Rothfuss

“They were maps that lived, maps that one could study, frown over, and add to; maps, in short, that really meant something.”
― Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals

“What fools we are, eh? What fools, sitting here in the sun, singing. And of love, too! I am too old for it and you are too young, and yet we waste our time singing about it.
Ah, well, let's have a glass of wine, eh?”
― Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals

“The fish trap exists because of the fish. Once you've gotten the fish you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit. Once you've gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning. Once you've gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him?”
― Zhuangzi, Chuang Tsu: Inner Chapters