At First Spite Quotes

“No education is ever wasted. No experience is ever wasted. Your degrees and your jobs helped make you the woman you are, and as far as we’re concerned, you’re absolutely wonderful.”
― Olivia Dade, At First Spite

“We both know you can’t always trust your thoughts when you’re depressed.” His voice was quiet and calm, each word selected with care. “I understand that everything you just said to me feels like the truth right now, but it’s not, sweetheart. It’s not. It’s the unkindest possible interpretation of your life, and it only makes sense if you ignore all context.”
― Olivia Dade, At First Spite

“But the universe wasn’t kind to anyone, in his admittedly non-comprehensive experience. At best, it was indifferent and chaotic, controlled by chance and forces still only dimly, incompletely understood by humankind. Which was why it required such careful, unceasing attention to stave off potential disaster. People were kind. Or they could be, anyway. That had to be enough.”
― Olivia Dade, At First Spite

“We didn’t fail, just because the life we’d envisioned and thought would make us happy didn’t come to pass. We merely—” “Recalibrated,”
― Olivia Dade, At First Spite

“If your personal history belonged to a friend, and they sat down and cried to you about it, we both know you wouldn’t think, ‘Wow, what a failure. What a waste her existence has been.’ So why can’t you be that kind to yourself?”
― Olivia Dade, At First Spite

“To her mind, the owner of a spite house should spend her days reclining upon a sleek settee. One upholstered in satin, or possibly velvet brocade. Whichever fabric most clearly told observers I am a woman of both ineffable power and ineffable pettiness, and thus bought a fancy elongated chair-thing.”
― Olivia Dade, At First Spite

“had to love a child with every ounce of your being, care for them and protect them, and try your damnedest to help them become what they were meant to be, rather than what you might have expected or wanted from them. Try your damnedest to help them become an adult capable of navigating the world in pursuit of their own happiness, independently of you. Only to watch them become an adult navigating the world in pursuit of their own happiness. Independently of you.”
― Olivia Dade, At First Spite

“He took a moment to gather himself, because this was what a parent did. You had to love a child with every ounce of your being, care for them and protect them, and try your damnedest to help them become what they were meant to be, rather than what you might have expected or wanted from them. Try your damnedest to help them become an adult capable of navigating the world in pursuit of their own happiness, independently of you.”
― Olivia Dade, At First Spite