Descendant of the Crane Quotes

“What is truth? Scholars seek it. Poets write it. Good Kings pay gold to hear it. But in trying times, truth is the first thing we betray.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“If you want to understand a person, peer at his heart through the window of his prejudices and assumptions.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“Equality is not the natural way of the world, whispered her father's voice. It must be nurtured.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“Missing some people was like missing air. You did yourself no favors by wondering how you survived without them.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“You can't possibly touch all the lives in this world. But if you can lift someone with your two hands, that is enough.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“No night was perfect for treason, but this one came close.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“This fate had chosen her. It was only now, seventeen years later, that she chose it back.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“Anger is a form of confidence - a hope that the ones we admire will change for the better.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“To learn, her mind had needed to unlearn.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“ Knowledge is truth, Little Bird. Those who refuse to learn live in a world of falsity.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“Passage 3.4.2: 'Justice is a muscle. Without faith it weakens. Without use, it decays. Without challenges it does not strengthen.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“Her, against a seasoned court. Her, against the tides of war. Her, against the king's assassin.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“You don't owe the people some better version of yourself. In fact, you owe this world nothing.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“But tonight, Hesina let herself miss her father. She missed him. She missed him a lot. As the distant chords flowed into their little clearing, winding with the strings of her heart, she imagined herself riding on a chariot to face the Kendi'an Crown Prince. And later, when she slept, she dreamed she died, but her father read her back to life, and together they flew to the lunar palace on the backs of their giant cranes.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“ What is power? Hesina had thought it was wielding the knife, or getting someone to wield it for her. Now she realized it was neither. Power was yielding. It was taking the bloodstained knife out of a thousand frenzied hands and making it hers alone.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“ The best way of controlling a person is by reading his heart. And the clearest window to any heart is prejudice and assumption.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“There were no simple questions, or simple answers, Hesina decided bitterly. There were only truths sacrificed for other truths.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“Then let's have a demonstration." Akira gestured for a page.
"I never expected you to take me seriously," said the same marquis who'd invoked the imperial troupe.
Akira scratched his head. "Would you prefer to be taken as a joke next time?”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“In the times ahead, you may not know whom to trust. So trust in yourself, and trust in your beliefs.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“Knowledge is truth, Little Bird. Those who refuse to learn live in a world of falsity.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“Thud. Her father was immortal. Thud. The face she’d known all her life was a lie, aged forward by a sooth. Thud. How? Thud. How? Thud. Thud. Thud.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“ I taught her to love the truth. You taught her to love learning. Your sister taught her to fight for what is right. Her mother taught her the pain of not being accepted for something she can't control.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“The mind is a timeless teacher . . . And the heart. The past must be filtered through both to mean anything in the present.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“She didn't mind that he blamed her, or that they only knew how to make each other whole when they were broken. For once, she didn't want anything more than just to hold him.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“Memories are short. History plays out in cycles. Tables turn; the sufferers rise and make their oppressors suffer. This is simply human nature.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“She raised a hand, struggling to reach Hesina’s cheek. “Promise… you’ll finish this… in style.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“So breathe. And again. And again, until you forget you are deliberately breathing. Search until you forget you are deliberately searching.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“It should have healed without a scar. But no queen had time to apply tiger balm twice a day, and a bumpy seam of new skin gleamed under the lantern light.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“With a twist of unease, Hesina sank against the pillows at her back. “It was never fine. The Eleven freed the oppressed by oppressing their oppressors.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane

“Her father had gifted her this pin as he’d gifted his love: from the moment of her birth, when her hands had been too small to grasp its form.”
― Joan He, Descendant of the Crane