Pennyroyal Academy Quotes

“You get to decide who you want to be. No one else.”
― M.A. Larson, Pennyroyal Academy

“A Princess of the Shield is courageous. She is compassionate. She is kind, and she is disciplined. Without these four core values, a girl may have all the crowns and castles she wants, but she will no more be a princess than she will a dragon.”
― M.A. Larson, Pennyroyal Academy

“All she wanted was for him to leave, yet all she wanted was for him to stay.”
― M.A. Larson, Pennyroyal Academy

“Taking pride in your appearance is not the same as vanity. It is vitally important that you understand the difference.”
― M.A. Larson, Pennyroyal Academy

“Bravely ventured is half won.”
― M.A. Larson, Pennyroyal Academy

“You are not a victim in this world unless you choose to be. And if that’s your choice, then you’ll never be more than a frightened girl lost in the woods.” He”
― M.A. Larson, Pennyroyal Academy

“Each of us is blessed with the ability to control our own decisions,” she continued, “but cursed with the inability to control the decisions of others.”
― M.A. Larson, Pennyroyal Academy

“The witch’s weapon is fear. She aims to put as much into your heart as she can before she takes it. Either that or she’ll simply turn you to stone. If that sounds preferable to death, it is not. The skin hardens to rock. The blood stops flowing. The living flesh is petrified, but the mind is not.” The dull patter of rain was the only sound in the cavernous Armory. None of the girls moved. Most stared at the discarded weapons strewn across the floor. “The witch uses fear, but so do we. And there’s nothing she fears more than love.” She continued her slow patrol, locking eyes with whichever cadet was in front of her. “She has no answer for it. That is the magic of a Princess of the Shield. That is how you defeat a witch. Whoever scares the other in the core of her heart first, wins. That’s the game.”
― M.A. Larson, Pennyroyal Academy

“You’ve simply got to allow yourself the chance to be great.” He”
― M.A. Larson, Pennyroyal Academy

“At times I feel such unbearable sadness . . . For a world with so much beauty, there is just so much cruelty.” She”
― M.A. Larson, Pennyroyal Academy

“she already knew this would be one of her most revisited memories, one she’d want to examine from all angles and one whose afterglow she’d want to enjoy for a long time to come. They”
― M.A. Larson, Pennyroyal Academy

“My little girl, five years old already. All our plans will one day come and go, won’t they?”
― M.A. Larson, Pennyroyal Academy

“Revealing her secret to her friends had lightened her burden. She found herself better able to focus, and her mind became a dry sponge soaking up knowledge. Lieutenant Volf may have been a brittle”
― M.A. Larson, Pennyroyal Academy

“may yet be sent away, but at least it will be because I’m not good enough, and not because I was too scared to try. She”
― M.A. Larson, Pennyroyal Academy

“Bloody hell, is”
― M.A. Larson, Pennyroyal Academy

“All of it pointed to one simple fact: to be a princess was to battle witches.”
― M.A. Larson, Pennyroyal Academy

“Curses happen to even the most seasoned of princesses from time to time—” “But”
― M.A. Larson, Pennyroyal Academy

“Flares of light began to pulse from Evie’s chest, just as they had when her father’s scale sank into the cauldron. She glared at Hardcastle with fierce righteousness, and found that she was no longer alone on that black tower. She stood in a vast, sun-washed meadow of flowing grass and tiny yellow flowers. A figure materialized from the crisp, clear air behind her, a woman in an ethereal violet gown with a lily in her hair. The same princess she had seen the first time she looked into the dragon’s blood. “You are not alone,” she said. “Who are you?” “I am Princess Middlemiss. And I am always with you. We are all always with you.” A sheet of air glistened behind her, and dozens of others appeared. They were princesses of all ages, all shapes and shades and types. She saw a woman with black hair and sharp blue eyes and knew her instantly as Princess Snow White. There were others she recognized from Volf’s books: Blackstone and Rose-Red and Chambéry. The great princesses of the past and present, all standing with her now. “As long as there is goodness in your heart, you are never alone.”
― M.A. Larson, Pennyroyal Academy

“But you have fought and you have scraped and you have committed in a way that very few can. No one in any company has come as far as you have this year. No one. There’s a princess in you, Evie, and a cracking good one. You’ve simply got to allow yourself the chance to be great.” He began to pack away sewing supplies into wooden tubs. “Surviving the Academy only becomes more difficult next year. If you’re planning to be here through the end, there is one thing you must absolutely understand. No victim has ever graduated from this Academy.” She studied his bulbous back as he shuffled to the storeroom, letting his words linger. “You are not a victim in this world unless you choose to be. And if that’s your choice, then you’ll never be more than a frightened girl lost in the woods.” He paused in the doorway, rubbing his back with the heel of his hand. “But the nature of choices is that there is always another.” And a great, mischievous smile crawled across his face.”
― M.A. Larson, Pennyroyal Academy

“Mirrors show what our eyes cannot see. Mirrors reveal the truth.” There was something more to this new person in the mirror than her hair. Something unseeable. Something had changed deep inside the girl in the spiderweb dress. She looked, somehow, more herself, like the wolf pup that has learned to hunt its own meal. “You get to decide who you want to be. No one else.”
― M.A. Larson, Pennyroyal Academy

“Perhaps there’s something inside her we haven’t seen yet.” The delicate comb clinked on the stone, and she started to pull Evie’s hair into loose strands. “That’s the way it is with people, you know. When I was a girl, my mother died quite unexpectedly. She meant the world to me. To my father as well. But in his grief, he consented to marry another. She was a dreadful woman, and her dreadful daughters became my stepsisters. They lived to torment me. Each morning I’d wake and wonder what I’d done to make them hate me so. Eventually I came to see that I hadn’t done anything at all. Something somewhere in their lives had hurt them—I could see that even if they couldn’t—and I made up my mind to treat them decently, as others so clearly hadn’t.” Evie studied her in the mirror. She could live to be a thousand years old and she’d never be as kind as Hazelbranch. It seemed to come naturally, as though it was a part of her, like hair or skin. “Each of us is blessed with the ability to control our own decisions,” she continued, “but cursed with the inability to control the decisions of others. I couldn’t do a thing about the way they treated me, but I got to choose the way I treated them. And do you know what happened? As we grew into adulthood, one of those wicked stepsisters became the best friend I’ve ever had.” Evie scowled and looked to the floor. She had no interest in being the bigger person. She despised Malora, and was comfortable in her anger. “It isn’t fair. Of all the people here . . .” “Life isn’t fair, Evie. It never has been and it never will be. You can sit back and moan about its unfairness while the witches roll across the countryside, or you can pick yourself up and get on with it.”
― M.A. Larson, Pennyroyal Academy

“A Princess of the Shield is courageous. She is compassionate. She is kind, and she is disciplined. Without these four core values, a girl may have all the crowns and castles she wants, but she will no more be a princess than she will a dragon. “You must prepare for battle as any soldier would, though yours are not the weapons of the soldier. Your weapons are pure hearts and steel spines. Your weapons are already inside you. And the only way to wield them is to know yourself. Which is precisely what we will teach you here.”
― M.A. Larson, Pennyroyal Academy