The Dark Is Rising Quotes

“The snow lay thin and apologetic over the world. That wide grey sweep was the lawn, with the straggling trees of the orchard still dark beyond; the white squares were the roofs of the garage, the old barn, the rabbit hutches, the chicken coops. Further back there were only the flat fields of Dawson's farm, dimly white-striped. All the broad sky was grey, full of more snow that refused to fall. There was no colour anywhere.”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“They walked as old friends walk, without often speaking, sharing the kind of silence that is not so much silence as a kind of still communication.”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“It is a burden...(M)ake no mistake about that. Any great gift or power or talent is a burden and this more than any, and you will long to be free of it. But there is nothing to be done. If you were born with the gift, then you must serve it, and nothing in this world or out of it may stand in the way of that service, because that is why you were born and that is the Law."
- Susan Cooper ("Merriman" The Dark is Rising)”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“The strange white world lay stroked by silence. No birds sang. The garden was no longer there, in this forested land. Nor were the out-buildings nor the old crumbling walls. There lay only a narrow clearing round the house now, hummocked with unbroken snowdrifts, before the trees began, with a narrow path leading away.”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“When the dark comes rising, six shall turn it back;
Three from the circle, three from the track;
Wood, bronze, iron; water, fire, stone;
Five will return, and one go alone.”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“Too many!' James shouted, and slammed the door behind him.”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark is Rising

“So it will go,” Merriman said. “He will have a sweet picture of the Dark to attract him, as men so often do, and beside it he will set all the demands of the Light, which are heavy and always will be.”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“There was something about Christmas Eve, they both felt, that demanded company; one needed somebody to whisper to, during the warm beautiful dream-taut moments between hanging the empty stocking at the end of the bed, and dropping into the cosy oblivion that would flower into the marvel of Christmas morning.”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“He was woken by music. It beckoned him, lilting and insistent; delicate music, played by delicate instruments that he could not identify, with one rippling, bell-like phrase running through it in a gold thread of delight. There was in this music so much of the deepest enchantment of all his dreams and imaginings that he woke smiling in pure happiness at the sound.”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“Expect nothing and fear nothing, here or anywhere. That’s your first lesson.”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“The Walker is abroad,” he said again. “And this night will be bad, and tomorrow will be beyond imagining.”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“every man has a last choice after the first, a chance of forgiveness. It is not too late. Turn. Come to the Light.”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“The Herdsman passed, nodding, the bright star Arcturus at his knee; the Bull roared by, bearing the great sun Aldebaran and the small group of the Pleiades singing in small melodic voices, like no voices he had ever heard.”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“He was among trees then, spring trees tender with the new matchless green of young leaves, and a clear sun dappling them; summer trees full of leaf, whispering, massive; dark winter firs that fear no master and let no light brighten their woods. He learned the nature of all trees, the particular magics that are in oak and beech and ash.”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“CHRISTMAS EVE. It was the day when the delight of Christmas really took fire in the Stanton family. Hints and glimmerings and promises of special things, which had flashed in and out of life for weeks before, now suddenly blossomed into a constant glad expectancy.”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“water was the one element that could in some measure defy all magic; for moving water would tolerate no magic whether for evil or good, but would wash it away as if it had never been made.”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“Any great gift or power or talent is a burden, and this more than any, and you will often long to be free of it. But there is nothing to be done. If you were born with the gift, then you must serve it, and nothing in this world or out of it may stand in the way of that service, because that is why you were born and that is the Law.”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“They are English,” Merriman said. “Quite right,” said Will’s father. “Splendid in adversity, tedious when safe. Never content, in fact. We’re an odd lot.”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“the sky dark with wheeling birds.”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“The snow lay thin and apologetic over the world.”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“Half the sky was thick and dreadful with the silent raging of the Dark and its whirling tornado power; but now riding towards it”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“For the Walker was standing tall now”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“When the Dark comes rising”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“Two black rooks were perched on the lych-gate as Will and Paul drew close; they rose into the air slowly”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“It was giant carnival head”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“Will said impulsively”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“Oldway Lane. Yes. And it was not named for some distant Mr. Oldway. The name simply tells you what the road is”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“The Lady is beyond their power. Beyond any power. You will not ask a question like that when you have learned a little. She has gone away for a time”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“And the gift he most wished for on his birthday was something nobody could give him: it was snow”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

“Funny," Will said, as they picked their way through. "Things are absolutely awful, and yet people look much happier than usual. Look at them all. Bubbling."

"They are English," Merriman said.

"Quite right," said Will's father. "Splendid in adversity, tedious when safe. Never content, in fact. We're an odd lot.”
― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising