A Plague of Giants Quotes

“There is heroism to be found in great battles, it is true; warriors with stable knees who fight and know that they will die for an idea or for the safety of loved ones back home. But there are also people who spend their entire adulthood at a soulless job they despise to make sure their children have something to eat that night so that one day those kids may lead better, more fulfilling lives than their parents. The warrior and the worker both make sacrifices. Who, then, is more heroic? Can any of us judge? I don't think I'm qualified. I'll let history decide. But I do not think we should leave it all up to warriors and rulers to speak to the future.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“Oh sweet kraken tits.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“Strange how we unconsciously steer ourselves into new spectacular mistakes while trying to avoid repeating our past failures.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“He thought in silence before answering. “I don’t think loneliness is a thing that can be borne: it’s so heavy and crushing for something that is essentially emptiness. It’s like being trapped beneath a boulder, this immovable weight that presses your ribs and slowly steals your breath. And so it must simply be endured, and you do that by looking away. I hope you will not be offended if I admit that I am looking away right now. Every minute she’s out of my sight, I am looking away. But never fear—that boulder of crushing emptiness will still be there when you look back.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“The mourning of a loved one never ends with a funeral. It comes back every so often, like a stage performer eager for a curtain call and expects you to be loud about it.

...I gave it all the lung capacity I had.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“War always takes your life, sometimes not all at once.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“I think—and it is something I have thought about for a while—that there is a measure of heroism in providing safe harbor. Not actively saving anyone so much as providing the space for them to save themselves. It takes a lot of effort and patience and kindness and a resignation that while you may be thanked, you will never be celebrated for it.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“Once horrors take hold in the mind, they tend to clutch and linger, and it takes waves and waves of laughter to wash them away.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“My hens all died and my plow is broke My well is dry and my yak just croaked My farm’s all rotted straight down to the roots But I don’t care because now I can wearrrrr—!

My worldwide, superglide, yellow-dyed, verified, Certified, ratified, justified and dignified, Qualified ironside, fortified and purified, Bona fide, amplified, khernhide boots!”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“It is strange to mourn someone you know is at peace, to cry when they are clearly better off than you are. But I did it anyway.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“The mourning of a loved one never ends at the funeral. It comes back every so often like a stage performer eager for a curtain call and expects you to be loud about it. I gave it all the lung capacity I had.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“Deep in stone and mineral and lime Waiting for pressure and sufficient time Are diamonds and emeralds and sapphires; So in our fragile hearts and minds Waiting for affection of different kinds Are virtues the goddess admires; But do not passively wait to thrive, For this very moment you may strive To whatever your will aspires. —”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“Mother told me that this is the pattern of life, and I have seen nothing to contradict it yet: it slowly gets better but suddenly gets worse. And so we must always work, always build, shoring up our walls against the storms that will inevitably descend.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“My emotions are tossed like the ocean wind For my love is foremost in my thoughts And she is a rare and dangerous treasure But it is her very danger that I treasure And hearing her laugh on the ocean wind Inspires the most distracting thoughts And now there’s naught but passion in my thoughts For her favor is what I most treasure And peace never blows from the ocean wind —”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“No, I know you can’t ever forget such a huge part of yourself,” I assured her. “It’s always there, an enormous thing—like the palace. But sometimes, you can go into a tiny room, lock the door behind you, and that vast, overwhelming sadness is on the other side. It’ll always be there, and you can’t stay in that locked room forever. But maybe, while you can’t see it, you can forget about it a tiny while and discover something to smile about before you have to emerge and face the enormity again. And then, who knows? Maybe you’ll find more and more rooms to smile in, and over time the character of the palace changes until it’s the sadness that’s locked in those tiny rooms and not the happiness. Maybe that’s what healing is like.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“Peace isn’t as easy as everyone wants you to think it is.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“I’m just thinking about how our causes have trouble seeing their effects until it’s too late to do anything but mourn them.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“The future always waits until the present to reveal its plans. But the past can clarify our goals for us sometimes, help us say good-bye to those we haven’t let go, even realize that we need to change. That is the magic of stories.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“there is a measure of heroism in providing safe harbor. Not actively saving anyone so much as providing the space for them to save themselves. It takes a lot of effort and patience and kindness and a resignation that while you may be thanked, you will never be celebrated for it.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“The nature of water is to take the easiest path. Forcing it to take a path of your choosing takes a bit more effort.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“Power without control is useless.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“That which tends to cause us mental distress is either memories of the past or worries about the future. In such times we are not living in the present; we are missing the peace and fulfillment in every moment because our mind is absent in some other time that lies behind us or ahead. To amend this—to ease the distress we feel—we must train ourselves to be mindful of the now.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“It’s an airborne poison, hatred is, for I felt it filling my lungs and contaminating my thoughts. It is how violence thrives and peace withers.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“But there are spirits collected in this area. Nothing that you would be able to see and nothing that will harm us. But violence leaves its echoes.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“But do not passively wait to thrive, For this very moment you may strive To whatever your will aspires.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“But peace is something you enjoy in its season, knowing that someday it will shrivel and die. And now war is here. It will pass, too. History is full of one season or another; you know this.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“I suppose all Seekers are after peace of some kind, and make the calculation that one way or another—in death or blessing—they’ll get it.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“When your only view is one of such peace and beauty, you can believe the happy lie that the rest of the world is just so. Well, my duty—our duty, I suppose—is to make sure people look through plenty of other windows.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“so many people thought it appropriate to prune the branching of others and could not bear to watch others grow as their natures suggested.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants

“The future always waits until the present to reveal its plans. But the past can clarify our goals for us sometimes, help us say goodbye to those we haven’t let go, even realize that we need to change.”
― Kevin Hearne, A Plague of Giants