Goddess Quotes

“Doesn’t matter whether you’re a baker’s wife or a whore or a princess—if you have the strength, you can take a lover, write a motet, lead an army, rule a country. Women have. Not all, granted, but some. And we adore them, don’t we? In theory. We make statues of warrior women, paint them on our ceilings—goddesses with shields and togas and one fair breast exposed so there can be no doubt. The palaces of Europe are covered in them. The Opéra stages, too, for that matter. Yet most women I know—no matter how clever, no matter how strong—are dragged down by husbands or fathers or titles or too many petticoats, or priests clutching at their hems, telling them, ‘No, you cannot do that, you cannot be that.’ I never listened. That’s rare.”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“we cannot all be stars in the firmament. Someone must be the earth.”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“I’ve never killed a man, sorely tempted though I have been at times. Humiliation is a much more lasting and effective weapon, I’ve found. There”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“All of the world’s greatest myths are told and retold—there are patterns in the telling, but sometimes the dénouement differs. We all long for Médée to stay her hand, for Hector to survive his wounds—just once. In”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“there’s not much difference between envy and hatred. In the end. They”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“I didn’t notice it in those early years—I thought I was surrounded by people who wished me nothing but good. I heard the whispers and shrugged off the notoriety, the half-hidden glances and smirks. I”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“Doesn’t matter whether you’re a baker’s wife or a whore or a princess—if you have the strength, you can take a lover, write a motet, lead an army, rule a country. Women have. Not all, granted, but some. And we adore them, don’t we? In theory. We make statues of warrior women, paint them on our ceilings—goddesses with shields and togas and one fair breast exposed so there can be no doubt. The palaces of Europe are covered in them. The Opéra stages, too, for that matter. Yet most women I know—no matter how clever, no matter how strong—are dragged down by husbands or fathers or titles or too many petticoats, or priests clutching at their hems, telling them, ‘No, you cannot do that, you cannot be that.’ I never listened. That’s rare. Even a woman like the Comtesse pretends to pay attention to the sermons and the instructions, but then does whatever she wishes. I don’t bother waiting to hear your words—any of you. You’ll only tell me what I know to be lies: you cannot do that, you cannot be that. Such words are wasted on me, as they are wasted on all women of ambition, of intellect, of power—and there are more of us than you know.”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“I never forgot it, either—who I was, where I came from, and where I might have ended up if it hadn’t been for my friends, my lovers, my protectors. I’ve been very lucky—not so much lately, I grant you, but I haven’t given up hope. I”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“She does not acknowledge hatred. A waste of time. Life”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“Yet most women I know—no matter how clever, no matter how strong—are dragged down by husbands or fathers or titles or too many petticoats, or priests clutching at their hems, telling them, ‘No, you cannot do that, you cannot be that.’ I never listened. That’s rare. Even a woman like the Comtesse pretends to pay attention to the sermons and the instructions, but then does whatever she wishes. I”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“In their arrogance lies my strength. One”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“There are some scars we carry that nobody ever sees. I believe that. Do you? We all have them, I’m sure. Sins that can never be forgiven. Hurts that will not heal. Pains that plague us in the dark hours—that mark our souls forever. And scorch our hearts?”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“I hardly know now where I wandered and what I did, and yet in that short time I met the three men who would alter forever the course of my life: Maréchal, d’Albert and, finally, Thévenard. Who can say there is no such thing as fate? Had I not fled Avignon, had I not abandoned my love to her own destiny, had I not sold my soul for a thousand livres, I might never have met any of them.”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“slowly, mile after mile, I unwound the bandages, let my wounds, my scars, crust over. They didn’t heal. But I learned to live with them, as you do. Learned how to move, talk, ride, sing, so that the pain wasn’t visible”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“I’m the way I am because this is how God made me—God and my own father—and that is how I will die.”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“my lovers had only ever tended to their own needs. I didn’t know that romance and sex were different creatures—one of the soul, one of the body. I had no idea that two souls can feel as if they are joined in one body, as it were, no matter the shape of the bodies involved. Clara”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“I don’t fear the silence. I take it into me like air. I hear the music within it. But”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“They think strength matters. It doesn’t. It helps you endure, that’s all. It doesn’t win bouts, just causes needless wounds, mostly your own.”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“Disappointment has a horrible taste—I’ve never liked it myself—the way it burns on the tongue like sulphur and turns your belly to acid. I”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“My father used to say, ‘Never let your guard down, never turn your back.’ Never”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“The strength comes only from your mind. Fingertips. Wrist. Thighs. Brain. These are your weapons. The sword is merely a beautiful accessory.”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“Your only enemy is fear,”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“The fencing masters adjust your pose, your wrist, just as singing masters try to rearrange your throat and tongue, as concert masters order the notes, the cadence. I’ve had many masters. I hear their voices. I don’t need to, anymore, but they still speak to me, through me. Always.”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“Everything is clear to me—outline, details, future, emotion. Not like the world, where everything is muddy and messed, and nothing ever works out the way you mean it to—no matter how skilful or how honourable you are, no matter how vile your enemy. When”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“There’s so much need in the world. It turns my heart to granite. They are beggars out there, every one of them—from the crippled soldier crying on the corner to the street sellers and crooks and landlords. The bewigged crowd is no different. Better dressed, but desperate nevertheless. Especially at the palace. It’s pathetic, really. I”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“In one sense. I prefer to be alone. No. That’s not true. There are a few people—five, at most—with whom I could happily spend days at a time. Otherwise I’ve always been a creature of solitude. Not an outcast—not always. But I am not at home as part of a throng, the way some people are. The”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“I don’t care what he thinks—I don’t care what you think. My sins are clear enough to me. I have my own commandments. Thou shalt not break the heart of the one you love (though you could argue I learned that a little too late for it to be useful). Thou shalt not diminish thy life for fear of the wrath of men. Thou shalt not curb thy tongue. And, of course, thou shalt never wear satin in the rain if thou can help it—ruins the fabric.”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“For years I believed they loved me for my voice, my stage presence, my courageous life. ‘Incomparable,’ they said. ‘Divine.’ I am the goddesses on the ceilings of the antechambers at Versailles, the statues in the gardens. That’s what they see in me. The huntress. The peacemaker. The Amazon. The Muse. Victory. Glory. War. I am divine. But now I wonder if I was anything more than some exotic creature in the King’s pleasure gardens—not a lion, and surely not a baboon, but perhaps—yes—a giraffe. Unlikely. Ungainly. Unique. Beautiful in parts but not particularly attractive as a concept. Alien. But compelling, nevertheless.”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess

“The truth of an orchestra is heard when they try to find their common notes before the show. All those strings and tubes and odd plunking things straining in different directions; an orchestra is merely a mob of single-minded maniacs who every so often condescend to work together, and then, mostly, they soar - they ascend - they give us wings.

Then they finish and bow and grumble and stomp off to their grotty little hovels muttering to themselves. Honestly, music is a miracle. You have no idea.”
― Kelly Gardiner, Goddess