The Crystal Cave Quotes

“The gods only go with you if you put yourself in their path. And that takes courage.”
― Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave

“But I have noticed this about ambitious men, or men in power, that they fear even the slightest and least likely threat to it.”
― Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave

“I think there is only one. Oh, there are gods everywhere, in the hollow hills, in the wind and the sea, in the very grass we walk on and the air we breathe, and in the bloodstained shadows where men like Belasius wait for them. But I believe there must be one who is God Himself, like the great sea, and all the rest of us, small gods and men and all, like rivers, we all come to Him in the end.”
― Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave

“Then she saw me watching her. For perhaps two seconds our eyes met and held. I knew then why the ancients armed the cruellest god with arrows; I felt the shock of it right through my body.”
― Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave

“Thinking and planning is one side of life; doing is another. A man cannot be doing all the time.”
― Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave

“Someone's got to look after the devil himself, as long as he wears clothes and needs food and drink.”
― Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave

“Used every man according to his capacity.”
― mary stewart, The Crystal Cave

“A round moon stood low in the sky, pale still, and smudged with shadow, and thin at one edge like a worn coin. There was a scatter of small stars, with here and there the shepherd stars herding them, and across from the moon one great star alone, burning white. The shadows were long and soft on the seeding grasses. A”
― Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave

“the god does not speak to those who have no time to listen.”
― Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave

“Knowledge, I suppose, blocked the gates of vision.”
― Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave

“—¿Dios? ¿Dios? Te he oído hablar de muchos dioses.
Si te refieres a Mitra...
—Mitra, Apolo, Arturo, Cristo, llámalo como quieras —dije—.
¿Qué importa el nombre que le den los hombres? Es la misma luz, y los hombres deben vivir con esta luz o morir. Yo sólo sé que Dios es la fuente
de toda la luz que ilumina la tierra y que su designio está en todo el mundo y pasa por cada hombre como un gran río que no podemos detener ni desviar; solo podemos beber de él mientras vivimos y encomendar nuestros cuerpos en él cuando morimos.”
― Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave

“A robin lighted on a blackthorn at my elbow, and began to sing. The sound came high and sweet and uncaring through all the noise of battle. To this day, whenever I think of the battle for Kaerconan, it brings to mind a robin’s song, mingled with the croaking of the ravens.”
― Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave

“I have noticed that this is often the way with men who set their lives towards the distant glow of one high beacon; when the hilltop is reached and there is nowhere further to climb, and all that is left is to pile more on the flame and keep the beacon burning, why, then, they sit down beside it and grow old. Where their leaping blood warmed them before, now the beacon fire must do it from without.”
― Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave

“What does it matter what men call the light? It is the same light, and men must live by it or die.”
― Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave

“I AM an old man now, but then I was already past my prime when Arthur was crowned King. The years since then seem to me now more dim and faded than the earlier years, as if my life were a growing tree which burst to flower and leaf with him, and now has nothing more to do than yellow to the grave.”
― Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave

“But I had begun to learn that in fact power made nothing smoother; when it came it was like having a wolf by the throat.”
― Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave

“sat, chin on hand, thinking, my eyes on the bright distance. I”
― Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave

“Wait for me." It was the same farewell as always. "Wait for me. I shall come back."
And as ever, I made the same reply.
"What else have I to do but wait for you? I shall be here, when you come again.”
― Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave

“When a mans wise and gentle and good," I added bitterly”
― Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave