Dragon Haven Quotes

“He felt her dim groping towards him, a plea for companionship and comfort. He didn’t want to give it. But he had never been a hard-hearted man. When she invaded his mind, pleading, he had to reach back. ‘You are stronger than you know,’ he told her. ‘Keep moving. Follow the other ones, my copper beauty. Soon there will be better days for you, but for now you must be strong.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven

“She did not understand why humans longed for so much intense contact. Were their own thoughts never sufficient for them? Why did they look for others to fulfill their needs instead of simply taking care of themselves?”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven

“for so long I’d been told what the rules were that I couldn’t see they were just rules made by men. And if men can make rules, then other men can change them.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven

“He wished his own respect for her was enough to make her see her own worth, and he recognized the selfishness of that wish. He could not be her entire world”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven

“[...] and again, they were opposite of each other in every way, and each way was wonderful.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven

“A bad end is just a new beginning”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven

“I sometimes think that age is based more on what you’ve done and what you remember than how old you are.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven

“The whole of everything I want in this world is right here, under my hand.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven

“No hardship endured is a loss. Someone will learn from it. Someone profits from it.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven

“He’d known of love and accepted that it existed for him. But never before had he actually felt love as a physical sensation that emanated from another creature and warmed and comforted him. It was incredible.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven

“It had shocked her the first time she realized that the only way they could communicate with one another was to make noises with their mouths and then to guess what the other human meant by the noises it made in response. ‘Talking’ they called it.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven

“It all seems pretty obvious now."
"It usually is, after someone else thinks of it.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven

“No. Not tonight. Not by impulse, not without thought, No. It did not matter what others did. She had to think for herself about such things.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven

“He said nothing to any of them, and they knew better than to speak to the captain when he stood thus, deep in thought. He had a problem. He'd settle it without help from any of them. That was what captains did.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven

“Humans lived and died in a ridiculously short amount of time. Perhaps that was why they made so much noise when they were alive. Perhaps it was the only way they could convince one another of their significance.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven

“If you don’t have a partner ready to put it on the line for you, to the last drop of blood in his body, well, then you’re a fool if you spread your legs. That’s it, plain as I can say it.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven

“I didn’t deserve you, and I don’t deserve you. Unfortunately for me, I do deserve to deal with most of the messes I’ve made.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven

“A voyeuristic thrill coursed through Thymara at that thought, shocking her. What was the matter with her? Sternly she refused to imagine them locked and rocking belly to belly as Jerd and Greft had been.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven

“If you don’t have a partner ready to put it on the line for you, to the last drop of blood in his body, well, then you’re a fool if you spread your legs. That’s it, plain as I can say it.” Thymara”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven

“Sedric’s own words, coming out of her mouth.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven

“Perhaps it would only make sense to me that any changes you made in me would be useful to me!”
“You will be pretty! And interesting to other dragons. And that is enough for any Elderling, let alone a human!”
“Perhaps ‘pretty’ wings are enough for you, but if I must bear their weight and the inconvenience of having something growing out of my backbone, perhaps they should be useful. I have never understood why you don’t even try to use your wings. I see the other dragons stretching and working theirs. I’ve seen the silver almost lift himself from the water with his, and he began with a much more ungainly body and smaller wings than yours! You don’t try! I groom your wings and keep them clean. They’ve grown larger and stronger and you could try, but you don’t. All you do is tell me how lovely they are. And lovely they may be, but have you never considered trying to use them for what they are intended?”
She could see the dragon’s fury build. She’d dared to criticize her, and Sintara could not tolerate even the implication that she was lazy or self-pitying or perhaps even just a bit…”Stupid.”
Thymara said the word aloud. She had no idea what prompted her to do it. Perhaps simply to show Sintara that she’d gone too far and that her keeper would no longer be terrorized by her. How dare she put wings on her back when she could not even master the ones that had naturally on her own?
The murmur of voices from the barge was growing louder. Thymara refused to even glance in that direction. She stood, her shirt clutched over her breasts, and faces the furiously spinning eyes of her dragon. Sintara was magnificent in her wrath. She lifted her head and opened her jaws wide, displaying the brightly colored poison sacs in her throat. She opened her wings wide, a reflexive display of size that the dragons often used in an attempt to remind one another of their relative sizes and strengths, and they spread like a magnificent stained-glass panels unfolding. For a moment, Thymara was dizzied by her glory and her glamour. She nearly fell to her knees before her dragon.
Then she took a grip on herself and stood up to the blast of pure charisma that Sintara was radiating at her. “Yes. They are beautiful!” she shouted. “Beautiful and useless! As you are beautiful and useless!” A shudder passed over Thymara. She felt suddenly queasy and then realized what she had done. In a bizarre reaction to Sintara’s display, Thymara had spread her own wings. There were shouts of amazement from the keepers on the boat.
Sintara was drawing breath. Her jaws were still wide, and Thymara stood rooted before her, watching her poison sacs swell. If the dragon chose to breathe venom on her, there would be no escape. She stood her ground, frozen with terror and fury.
“Sintara!” The bellow came from Mercor. “Close your jaws and fold your wings! Do not harm your keeper for speaking truth to you!”
“Fight! Fight! Fight!” Spit was trumpeting joyously.
“Quiet, pest!” Ranculos roared at him.
“Do not spray here! The drift will burn me! Blast your own keeper if you wish, Sintara, but spray me and I swear I will burn your wings as full of holes as rotting canvas!” This from small green Fente. The dragon reared onto her hind legs and spread her own wings in challenge.
“Stop this madness!” Mercor bellowed again. “Sintara hurt not your keeper!”
“She is mine, and I’ll do as I wish!” Sintara’s trumpet was a shrill whistle of anger.
Despite herself, Thymara clapped her hands over her ears. Terror made her reckless. “I don’t care what you do to me! Look at what you’ve already done! You want to kill me? Go ahead, you stupid lizard. Someone else can clear the sucking insects from your eyes, take the leeches off your useless, beautiful wings. Go ahead, kill me!”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven

“He had a problem. He’d settle it without help from any of them. That was what captains did.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven

“Idle hands on a boat made for troubles all around.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven