Yoshi > Yoshi's Quotes

“Yes, she was a cat; but if you are tempted, even for an instant, to use any such phrase as “just a cat,” I can only hope that you will read on, and discover how that “mere” cat not only ruled her untamed world, but brought life-affirming purpose to my own.”
― Caleb Carr, My Beloved Monster: Masha, the Half-wild Rescue Cat Who Rescued Me

“Maybe there were people who lived those lives. Maybe this girl was one of them. But what about the rest of us? What about the nobodies and the nothings, the invisible girls? We learn to hold our heads as if we wear crowns. We learn to wring magic from the ordinary. That was how you survived when you weren’t chosen, when there was no royal blood in your veins. When the world owed you nothing, you demanded something of it anyway.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Crooked Kingdom

“How are you so smart?” I asked, suddenly confronting myself with the fact that a cat was typing and understood theories of class and labor. “No offense, but your brain is the size of a walnut.”

HOW ARE SO MANY HUMANS SO UNINTELLIGENT? Hera typed back. THEY HAVE BRAINS THE SIZE OF SEVERAL WALNUTS.”
― John Scalzi, Starter Villain

“All cats are slightly magical, don't you know? It's why they're so smug all the time.”
― Julie Leong, The Teller of Small Fortunes

“Fear is a phoenix. You can watch it burn a thousand times and still it will return.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Crooked Kingdom

“It's a rare person to face who they are and not run from it - not be broken by it.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Wings and Ruin

“And ultimately what mattered most was not the maladies and the hurts but the fact that we were there for each other, always and at every possible moment, during and after them.”
― Caleb Carr, My Beloved Monster: Masha, the Half-wild Rescue Cat Who Rescued Me

“To the people who look at the stars and wish, Rhys."
Rhys clinked his glass against mine. “To the stars who listen— and the dreams that are answered.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Mist and Fury

“I can only say that the experience of being a person alone with a cat for so long and in such wild country depends to some extent on the person, but far, far more on the individual cat. And in Masha was embodied a very rare animal indeed: a cat who expanded the limits of courage, caring, and sacrifice. Think that’s beyond a cat? Think again.”
― Caleb Carr, My Beloved Monster: Masha, the Half-wild Rescue Cat Who Rescued Me

“What's wrong with failing?" Keishin tilted his head. "Or wanting to make things better? Just because things have been done a certain way doesn't mean that's how they should always be. And if I fail, so what? That just means I'm eliminating a wrong turn and getting closer to the right one.”
― Samantha Sotto Yambao, Water Moon

“DOGS ARE THE WORST. THEY’LL SELL YOU OUT FOR A TREAT AND A HEAD PAT.”
― John Scalzi, Starter Villain

“Maybe I’m just better with cats than people, and cats seem to know that.” “That’s the toxoplasmosis talking.” “I’m sure it is.”
― John Scalzi, Starter Villain

“And that’s part of our trouble. Thinking things are inevitable. Not believing change is possible.”
― Suzanne Collins, Sunrise on the Reaping

“They will not use my tears for their entertainment.”
― Suzanne Collins, Sunrise on the Reaping

“If you find it difficult, it's because it contains something that is new to you. Every difficult book offers us a brand-new challenge.”
― Sōsuke Natsukawa, The Cat Who Saved Books

“Books are filled with human thoughts and feelings. People suffering, people who are sad or happy, laughing with joy. By reading their words and their stories, by experiencing them together, we learn about the hearts and minds of other people besides ourselves. Thanks to books, it’s possible to learn not only about the people around us every day, but people living in totally different worlds.”
― Sōsuke Natsukawa, The Cat Who Saved Books

“I think the power of books is that - that they teach us to care about others. It's a power that gives people courage and also supports them in turn. [. . .] Empathy - that's the power of books.”
― Sōsuke Natsukawa, The Cat Who Saved Books

“This is how colonialism works. It convinces us that the fallout from resistance is entirely our fault, that the immoral choice is resistance itself rather than the circumstances that demanded it.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“That's just what translation is, I think. That's all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they're trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“English did not just borrow words from other languages; it was stuffed to the brim with foreign influences, a Frankenstein vernacular. And Robin found it incredible, how this country, whose citizens prided themselves so much on being better than the rest of the world, could not make it through an afternoon tea without borrowed goods.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“Sometimes I am very clever but most of the time I am not. I have been a good person sometimes, and a bad person at others. Sooner or later I will die. But before I do, I will try—I will try very hard—to make it count.”
― R.F. Kuang, Katabasis