Unicorn Quotes

“They'll say you are bad
or perhaps you are mad
or at least you
should stay undercover.
Your mind must be bare
if you would dare
to think you can love
more than one lover.”
― David Rovics

“The magician stood erect, menacing the attackers with demons, metamorphoses, paralyzing ailments, and secret judo holds. Molly picked up a rock.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“With a gun barrel between your teeth, you speak only in vowels.”
― Chuck Palahniuk

“A man breaking his journey between one place and another at a third place of no name, character, population or significance, sees a unicorn cross his path and disappear. That in itself is startling, but there are precedents for mystical encounters of various kinds, or to be less extreme, a choice of persuasions to put it down to fancy; until--"My God," says a second man, "I must be dreaming, I thought I saw a unicorn." At which point, a dimension is added that makes the experience as alarming as it will ever be. A third witness, you understand, adds no further dimension but only spreads it thinner, and a fourth thinner still, and the more witnesses there are the thinner it gets and the more reasonable it becomes until it is as thin as reality, the name we give to the common experience... "Look, look!" recites the crowd. "A horse with an arrow in its forehead! It must have been mistaken for a deer.”
― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

“I think that if you have a horse, pegasus, qilin, or unicorn, you should sit on it! You should stroke its hair, whisper in its ear, be one with it! And you shouldn't feel sorry if other people don't have one.”
― C. JoyBell C.

“Oh please," Scout said."Don't take that tone with me. You know you'd love to have a minion. Someone at your beck and call. Someone to do your bidding. How many times have you said to yourself," Self, I need a unicorn to run errands and such?”
― Chloe Neill, Firespell

“If she had touched me," he said very softly, "I would have been hers and not my own, not ever again. I wanted her to touch me but I could not let her. No cat will. We let human beings caress us because it is pleasant enough and calms them - but not her. The price is more than a cat can pay.”
― Peter S. Beagle

“I’m not trying to impress you,” he replied, glancing up at the front of the room. “Gads,” he said, blinking in surprise. “What is that ?”
Hyacinth followed his gaze. Several of the Pleinsworth progeny, one of whom appeared to be costumed as a shepherdess, were milling about.
“Now that’s an interesting coincidence,” Gareth murmured.
“It might be time to start bleating,” she agreed.
“I thought this was meant to be a poetry recitation.”
Hyacinth grimaced and shook her head. “An unexpected change to the program, I’m afraid.”
“From iambic pentameter to Little Bo Peep?” he asked doubtfully. “It does seem a stretch.”
Hyacinth gave him a rueful look. “I think there will still be iambic pentameter.”
His mouth fell open. “From Peep?”
She nodded, holding up the program that had been resting in her lap. “It’s an original composition,” she said, as if that would explain everything. “By Harriet Pleinsworth.The Shepherdess, the Unicorn, and Henry VIII .”
“All of them? At once?”
“I’m not jesting,” she said, shaking her head.
“Of course not. Even you couldn’t have made this up.”
Hyacinth decided to take that as a compliment.
“Why didn’t I receive one of these?” he asked, taking the program from her.
“I believe it was decided not to hand them out to the gentlemen,” Hyacinth said, glancing about the room. “One has to admire Lady Pleinsworth’s foresight, actually. You’d surely flee if you knew what was in store for you.”
― Julia Quinn, It's in His Kiss

“Why did they go away, do you think? If there ever were such things."
"Who knows? Times change. Would you call this age a good one for unicorns?"
"No, but I wonder if any man before us ever thought his time a good time for unicorns.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“I always thought they were fabulous monsters!" said the Unicorn. "Is it alive?"
"It can talk," said Haigha, solemnly.
The Unicorn looked dreamily at Alice, and said, "Talk, child."
Alice could not help her lips curling up into a smile as she began: "Do you know, I always thought Unicorns were fabulous monsters, too! I never saw one alive before!"
"Well, now that we have seen each other," said the Unicorn, "if you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you. Is that a bargain?”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass

“Just as knights confront battles and strive for glory, these actinide elements undergo transformations through processes like radioactive decay, evolving into different forms over time, much like a knight becomes wiser after trials.”
― Sybrina Durant, Magical Elements of the Periodic Table Presented By The Actinide Knights

“The team was flowing. Work in progress was under control. Features were used by customers. It was like watching a unicorn drive a Tesla through a burndown chart.”
― Scott M. Graffius, Agile Protocol: The Transformation Ultimatum

“All creative beings are capable of seeing in symbols, and each will seek analogy and omen, even while denying the fact.”
― Tanith Lee, The Gorgon and Other Beastly Tales

“Here it is, here it approaches you, that which you require, that which for ever and ever you have pursued, not knowing it. The wellspring within yourself you cannot tap, the jewel in your mind you cannot uncover.”
― Tanith Lee, The Gorgon and Other Beastly Tales

“The wood was like a curtain or a tapestry. It was possible to thrust through it to its other side, but not to discover any substance to it.”
― Tanith Lee, The Gorgon and Other Beastly Tales

“Don’t worry about being realistic. The way your brain works, if you want a thing, you are physically capable of achieving it. Your brain can’t conceive of things that are impossible, so it won’t try to want them. If you want something, it is within your reach.”
― Danielle A. Vincent, You-nicorn: 30 days to find your inner unicorn and live the life you love

“A unicorn stepped onto the path.
Kiela gasped.
Caz breathed, "Whoa."
It was like moonlit water, so bright that tears sprang into Kiela's eyes as she looked at it. Shaped like a dreamer's idea of a horse, the unicorn was slender and graceful--- closer to a line drawing than an in-the-flesh creature. Its neck curved like a wave, with its mane as the sea foam. The longer Kiela looked at it, the more she saw that it wasn't as white as the moon, it was iridescent, like mother-of-pearl, with purples and reds and blues that swirled through its silvery white hide. Its horn was a slender spiral of gold.
It regarded them with ocean-blue eyes.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, The Spellshop

“Reading Is Magic.”
― Dana Simpson, Unicorn Crossing

“All around the table, voices seemed to drop; the name Brocéliande itself breathed out dark mystery. Men told wild tales of that ancient forest. That the fair-folk, the korriganed, had lived long in its shadows. That an unwary traveler might stray into the Lost Lands, only to vanish forever, or return a century hence, still young while his whole world had spun out from under his feet. And they also did say, with more force than mere rumor, that Brocéliande was one of the last, best places for men to hunt unicorns.
A unicorn was the noblest and rarest prey in Christendom. The fire-drakes, if ever they had lived, had not been seen in living memory, and one could not hunt sea-drakes. Sea-drakes hunted men. At least, that's what seamen said when ships did not come back. But now and again, one heard credible tales of a unicorn.”
― Katherine Arden, The Unicorn Hunters

“To hunt a unicorn required two things. The first was a virgin of high birth and unimpeachable virtue, for bait. And the other was a hunt so extravagant that the mere dazzle of it would tempt the vain beast near.”
― Katherine Arden, The Unicorn Hunters

“According to Blakeney’s, Brownies were common Faeries who would do magic in exchange for shelter or food, but no such offering had been made. Gnomes were more interested in gardens, anyway, and they were a kind of common Faerie who lived in colonies. Imps favored ruins.
Thornwood laughed at a story featuring a unicorn.”
― Moorea Corrigan, Thistlemarsh

“Qíllíns are considered the Chinese equivalent of unicorns, though they don’t look like unicorns at all, not really. For one, they usually have two antlers instead of one horn, and their heads are dragon-esque with long thick beards and manes. In fact, the only thing that qílíns and unicorns have in common is that they are both four-legged and have hooves.
I don't know why a qílín has been brought to Seamere. As far as I can recall, the zoo’s qílín is rainbow-colored, so this one must be from a private trader. There are collectors that import mythical beasts from all over the globe, bartering and negotiating and spending way too much on those that are strange and rare.
This qílín is luminescent, her coat gold-and-red ombré, the golden scales darkening to a deep red at each of her four hooved feet. And she’s clearly in labor. Her golden tail is flicking, and every few minutes her entire abdomen contracts, her jewel-like eyes rolling.
Dystocia. She’s having difficulty giving birth.”
― Keshe Chow, Strange Familiars

“The beast's neck seemed too slender to support the weight of the horn, as long as a broadsword and glowing like fine-carved alabaster. The eyes were dark as winter water, the coat raw white silk, stretched tautly over her panting ribs. She was like the first snow of a bright winter, unsullied and charming.
The unicorn saw Anne and raised her head, nostrils flared red like a horse's. Anne realized that the glow in the horn was not some inner light. It was a strong sunlight shining through the ivory. But what sun? That day was all ragged clouds and mist, veiled still after that night's storm. She was reminded of anaon, of a room with impossible moonlight.”
― Katherine Arden, The Unicorn Hunters

“Water streamed from Anne’s skirt and the unicorn’s mane, flicked like sparks from her horn.
“You must go,” Anne said.
The unicorn didn’t move.
“What is it you want of me?” Anne hardly recognized her own voice. She was soaked and shivering.
As if she’d been waiting for the question, the unicorn stepped forward. The horn came to a point like a lance without a coronel. Jonquil shied back. Anne slid down from the saddle.
The unicorn laid her neck lightly across Anne’s shoulder. She smelled like wild animal and unfamiliar flowers and even, a little, of the sea.
“What do you want of me?” Anne asked again, very softly now.
The unicorn lowered her head so that the mass of her mane filled Anne’s fingers. After a bewildered moment, Anne got out her belt-knife and cut a long, thick lock of it. The unicorn didn’t move. The hair lay sparkling in her palm. She sheathed her knife, reached to touch the horn. She expected it to be cold, but it was silky and warm.”
― Katherine Arden, The Unicorn Hunters

“Where is the unicorn?” demanded La Trémoille again. “The hounds lost the scent.”
“It fled,” said Anne.
Tell them the rest? Yes. For no one in Christendom will ever wonder why I tarried in Brocéliande if I emerge with a lock of a unicorn’s mane.
In her open hand it lay like raw silk, loosely knotted, luminous with a moonstone light. Murmurs became exclamations. Henri whistled low between his teeth. She said, “The unicorn is a holy creature. It gave me a lock of its mane and I have put my hands upon it. I do not think it right that we should kill it.”
La Trémoille said, “God has given us all the beasts of the field to kill.”
Almost she said, Just as he gave you my lands to pillage?”
― Katherine Arden, The Unicorn Hunters

“A sea-drake had appeared on dry land and answered the commands of the duchess of Brittany. The duchess had touched a unicorn. She was dangerous in ways that Marguerite didn’t understand.”
― Katherine Arden, The Unicorn Hunters

“You will die here if you cannot get out. The unicorn cannot make its way into the houses of men."
"What?" whispered Anne.
"The unicorn, girl. Why do you think she came to you in Brocéliande? Gave you a piece of herself, so she could find you again? For your pretty mortal virtues— no. They guard the boundary, do the unicorns, and they do not favor virtue, they favor people who can help them. She saw you and knew you, and I think she might save you from this folly of dragon's blood. If you will only go outside."”
― Katherine Arden, The Unicorn Hunters

“Louis had seen renderings of unicorns, of course. Deer-headed, goat-footed, a lion’s tail, a curling mane. But a drawing could not capture this. A tapestry could not render it.
A stillness louder than cries of wonder fell over the group.
The unicorn walked as though in a summer’s day, with the light pouring through the horn, though there was only moonlight. Though it was dark, the white of her coat seemed to carry faint color, a trace of pink, lavender, green. An absent sun glowed on her skin.”
― Katherine Arden, The Unicorn Hunters

“She raised her eyes to the edge of the wood. "Lady of the forest, you have come to me twice before," Anne said. "You have waited for me and I did not know why. But now I think I know. Will you come again?"
Gralon Meur drew in a sharp breath.
The unicorn stepped soundlessly out from between the trees, with snow tangled in her mane, a cold winter light like silver-gilt on the horn. Then she shook the snow away and was in the same dawn as they. She arched her neck.
"Lady," whispered Gralon Meur. He was silent a long moment, like a man dazzled or dreaming.”
― Katherine Arden, The Unicorn Hunters

“Not a maiden sacrifice now, she thought, but an aspiring queen, who would preserve the unicorn’s grace and with it the way into the land of twilight.
In a breathless instant she thought all these things.
In a breathless instant a legend was born.”
― Katherine Arden, The Unicorn Hunters