Raya

“Peace was like any high. It couldn't last. It was an illusion, something that could be interrupted in a moment and lost forever.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ninth House

“You were true to her, even if she was not to you. Never repent of your own goodness, child. To stay true in the face of evil is a feat of great strength.”

“Strength,” she said with a little laugh. “I gave her strength, and look what she did with it.”
― Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke & Bone

“Why must I cling to the customs and practices of a particular country forever, just because I happened to be born there? What does it matter if its distinctiveness is lost? Need we be so attached to it? What's the harm if everyone on earth shares the same thoughts and feelings, if they stand under a single banner of laws and regulations? What if we can't be recognized as Indians any more? Where's the harm in that? No one can object if we declare ourselves to be citizens of the world. Is that any less glorious?”
― Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay

“She had been innocent once, a little girl playing with feathers on the floor of a devil's lair. She wasn't innocent now, but she didn't know what to do about it. This was her life: magic and shame and secrets and teeth and a deep, nagging hollow at the center of herself where something was most certainly missing.”
― Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke & Bone