Lifemarked Quotes

“There was a time for learning from one’s errors, Falcon knew, but it wasn’t now. Now the boy should be congratulated on how far he’d come in the tournament.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“Look. I’ve said hurtful things to people who didn’t deserve it. But I’ve learned it’s never too late to make amends, and most people are open to forgiveness.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“We don’t forget. We honor them with our laughter. I would want them to do the same for me.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“there was no honor in war, and death was death regardless of the manner of the act.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“Gwen wanted to plead with them to stay, to fight, but she’d learned recently that you could not change the mind of another. They had to change it for themselves.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“I may only be a scholar, but I will fight. There comes a time when we all must fight.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“We will defend the lives of the next generations, for this world is not ours, but theirs. It is the only gift we have left to give them. Our heirloom shall be peace.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“Hate is something taught and learned and passed down from generation to generation like an heirloom. But you know what? Each generation has a choice. They can clutch that bloody heirloom to their chest, clinging to its precepts, believing what it stands for. Or…they can cast it in the fire along with all the hate.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“Why keep fighting when one kept losing? She knew to voice such a thought, even to her closest friend, Sonika Vaid, would label her as weak. And she wasn’t weak—not by a long shot. She was simply tired, weary to the core of her heart, the marrow of her bones. And, she was beginning to believe, the world was exhausted too.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“He was tired of all the animosity between races and cultures. Tired of the hate. The east was built on trust and friendship between two vastly different races, the humans and Orians. They’d survived because of their differences, not in spite of them.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“Me too. We all have things in our past we want to forget, to change, but if we did we’d be but shadows of ourselves.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“He turned his attention back toward the dark peaks rising overhead. The range was enormous, with more nooks and crannies than a fluffy northern roll just pulled from the oven.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“How do we go on?” he asked after a few moments of silence. “We start with one second,” Gwen said. “There. We’ve made it. Now let’s try another. Good. Once the seconds become easier, we take things one minute at a time. Then by the hour. When the hours are bearable, we focus on each day. We make life better for our people. We carry on the great work Roan started. Soon the days will become weeks will become months will become years. And he will be proud of us.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“the purpose of all the challenges. How could one laugh if they’d never cried? How could one experience true joy if they’d never looked true loss in the eye? How could one love if they hadn’t experienced the darkness of hate?”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“love was a priceless, shattered vase, and once you dropped it there was no way to restore it to its original value.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“if this was to be his last act, he would go out the way his daughter had all those years ago: with courage, fearless to the end. He didn’t want to die, but if he did, he would do it the right way.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“Though he knew it was absurd, unfounded in scientific study, he knew he had a soul—that all who walked the earth had souls—and that his was connected to this woman’s in a way that was as unexplainable as anything he’d ever experienced in his life.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“Focus on the survivors, Annise reminded herself. For if her mind lingered too long on the dead, she would surely fall into madness and despair and would be of no use to anyone. You can mourn the dead later, when the rest are safe.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“Oh ye of little faith,”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“One soldier’s arm had been ripped free, the arterial spray like a crimson rainbow.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“The scales of justice are not borne on one man’s shoulders alone. No, by necessity they must be supported by all who walk the earth, or there shall never be justice for any of us.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“The world is a harsh, ugly place at times, but that only makes it easier to see the beauty in it.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“How could one laugh if they’d never cried? How could one experience true joy if they’d never looked true loss in the eye? How could one love if they hadn’t experienced the darkness of hate?”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“A coin has been flipped and it need not land on one side—life or death. There is another option, a world of sadness and joy, a world of loss and hope, a world that shares the good with the evil, the war with the peace, a place where hope flowers grow in the north and gods share the adoration in the south, where the sun rises and falls and the moons and stars paint pictures in the night sky. This is the world I was born into, but it doesn’t exist without us, and it doesn’t come for free. There is always a cost.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“If our enemies are bold enough to attack us directly, then we shall end them. Otherwise, let them do as they wish.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“Peace isn’t some mystical force that happens to us. We are peace, all of us.” Roan Loren”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“Once he’d thought peace was about preventing war, but now he knew that was only part of it. The other part was ending war, which sometimes meant you had to win the day, defeat your enemies. Not everyone could be your ally or your friend. Evil had to be snuffed out before it burned the world to the ground.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“Fire is as beautiful as it is deadly. Those who seek to tame it will find themselves burned.” Empress Fire Sandes, deceased”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“She felt…happy, which immediately made her feel selfish which immediately made her feel sad.”
― David Estes, Lifemarked

“in this place with this man with these feelings—so many feelings—running through her…her dreams from before felt colorless next to the true vibrancy of being”
― David Estes, Lifemarked