Storm Glass Quotes

“To fully master your mind, you must learn not to react to being observed by others. We naturally seek to please. To be acceptable. And in so doing, we give others—even our loved ones—power over our minds.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“There was a feeling in her heart. No, it wasn’t a feeling. It was a whole jumble of them all crowding in on her at once. Gratitude, respect, admiration, loyalty, concern, compassion, and the desire to please. For the first time in her life, she realized what that special mixture was called. Love.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“To fully master your mind, you must learn not to react to being observed by others. We naturally seek to please. To be acceptable. And in so doing, we give others—even our loved ones—power over our minds.” He shook his bald head and gave her a fierce look. “Never let another person have control over your thinking. It is yours by right and by destiny.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“No one truly belongs anywhere, Cettie. We each are given a life to live. And we live it as best we can.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“That I haven’t told you the parable of the man, the boy, and the mule.” Cettie nodded eagerly. He stared down at the book, thumbing through its pages. “I heard this one when I first went away to study the Mysteries. It was shared with all of us, but I don’t think all of us heard it the same way. That’s the thing about stories. They can touch on truths that some people just are not ready to hear. The tale goes like this. Long before the first flying castles and sky ships and cauldrons of molten steel—before the Fells—life was simpler. A man and his son needed to sell their mule to buy food to last the winter. So they started walking to get to the market, which was very far. They met a fellow traveler along the way who criticized them for not riding the mule. So the man, realizing that his beast of burden wasn’t being used for its purpose, put his son on it to ride. But when they arrived at the first village on their path, some men in the square scoffed and said how inconsiderate the son was for making his father walk. They stopped and watered the beast, and so the father ordered the boy to walk while he rode. Again, they reached the next village, and what did they hear? Some washerwomen complained that the father must be evil to force his son to walk while he rode. Ashamed by their words, the father decided to change yet again. Do you know what he did?” Cettie shook her head no, eager for him to continue. Fitzroy wagged his finger at her. “So they both rode the mule into the next town. By this time, the mule was getting very tired, and when they reached the next village, they were ridiculed for being lazy and working the poor beast half to death! The market was in the very next town, and they feared they’d not be able to sell the poor creature, now it was so spent. And so the father and son cut down a sapling, lashed the mule to the pole, and carried it to the next town. You can imagine what the townsfolk thought as they saw the father and son laboring and exhausted as they approached the town. Who were these country bumpkins who carried a mule on their own shoulders? As they crossed the bridge into town, suffering the jeers and taunts of passersby, one of the ropes broke loose, and the mule kicked free. The boy dropped his end of the pole, and the beast fell into the river and drowned.” “No!” Cettie said, mouth wide open. Fitzroy nodded sagely. “A man with a crooked staff had been following them into town. As”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“That’s the thing about stories. They can touch on truths that some people just are not ready to hear.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“Never let another person have control over your thinking. It is yours by right and by destiny.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“In their touch was unseen energy, binding them together. He seemed so familiar to her in that moment, as if she’d known him all her life. As if she’d held his hand a hundred times before. What a queer feeling, like the entire future had spilled out before them, shocking in its intensity, its reality. They both felt it. She could see it in his eyes. For a moment, they just stared at each other, caught in a singular moment that defied explanation. “If I can,” he whispered hoarsely.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“He had always taught her, from earliest childhood, that she could choose her actions, not the consequences of those actions.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“Never, never, never explain yourself. Not to anyone, even to me. First, it will get you into trouble in the law.” He gave her a cunning smile. “Second, you owe no one an explanation. It’s none of their business. You are who you are, and that’s that. End of story. Point. End. Finished.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“interest never sleeps, sickens, or dies. It neither visits nor travels, it takes no pleasure, and it is never discharged from its employment. Interest has no kinfolk to watch over and care for.” He chuckled to himself. “He was almost gleeful when he said this next part. It is the soul of the Mysteries of Law. Once in debt”—he wagged his finger at her—“interest is your companion every moment of the day and night. You cannot shun it or slip away from it. You can never dismiss it. It yields neither to entreaties, demands, or orders, and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“longer”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“To fully master your mind, you must learn not to react to being observed by others. We naturally seek to please. To be acceptable. And in so doing, we give others—even our loved ones—power over our minds.” He shook his bald head and gave her a fierce look. “Never let another person have control over your thinking. It is yours by right and by destiny. My”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“Is it wicked that I said it, or is it wicked that it’s true?”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“Many of the consequences we face are delayed.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“Just as thoughts are powerful, so are spoken words.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“One of the things I have noticed in life is how others use the bludgeon of ridicule and shame to beat us off our intended track.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“you”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“A certain type of woman will always have an impersonal contempt for other women. This woman deems all others as competition. Competition for affection. Competition for attention. Competition for reputation. Competition for power.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“Just because something doesn’t happen constantly doesn’t mean it won’t happen at all. Many of the consequences we face are delayed. This principle governs so much in this world.” Yes, she had heard him preach this many times. A person can be dishonest once and get away with it. Twice even. Maybe a dozen times. But then the law finds out, and the punishment comes swift and fierce, paying in interest from the past. He had always taught her, from earliest childhood, that she could choose her actions, not the consequences of those actions.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“You fall off a bridge by going off either edge. Try to steer in the middle.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“tattered dress, or collided with her again. “Watch yerself!” scolded a worker angrily. She retreated from him, lest he take a swing at her. Even so, as soon as she was a good distance from him, her gaze found the zephyr again. It was one of her dreams to steal aboard a sky ship and be taken to one of the floating manors. Though none of them were located directly above the Fells, she’d heard people from the City speak about what it was like to live underneath the upper class’s hulking sky manors. They hovered over the City in an interconnected maze, leaving the area below in shadow come noonday. There was a risk that whatever magic upheld the manors might fail and those living below would be crushed, yet people still swarmed to live in the City, willing to take that risk in the hopes of a better life. Cettie had never set foot outside of the Fells, but she dreamed of leaving. If she proved herself capable and useful and a hard worker, she hoped to one day qualify for the lottery and earn a position at one of the floating manors. The slant of the sun on the street warned her that time was running out. Maybe Joses was already back at Miss Charlotte’s? Could they have missed each other? Cettie hated being away from the younger children for so long. No doubt some of the littlest ones were already crying for want of food, and if their guardian awoke from her drunken stupor, there would be beatings.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“We naturally seek to please. To be acceptable. And in so doing, we give others - even our loved ones - power over our minds." He shook his bald head and gave her a fierce look. "Never let another person have control over your thinking. It is yours by right and by destiny.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“If she hadn’t, she likely wouldn’t be riding a zephyr into the sky in the middle of the night with a vice admiral.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“There are many worlds. Yet we constantly separate ourselves, by degrees, from the others. We create arbitrary distinctions to set ourselves apart. But let me speak first of the two main worlds that orbit each other. There are those who live in estates and cities that have mastered the clouds and sit on their perch of air to overlook the vast landscapes below. That is the upper world. The world of the wealthy. The world of the gifted. The world where the Mysteries hold sway. The other world is darker. There are neighborhoods of extreme poverty. Winding alleys and street urchins and gangs. This is a world of fog. It is a world of coughing, sickness, and pestilence. It is a world where industry beckons the ambitious to risk their all—and where the mighty and rich descend in shame after their fortunes have been ruined by games of chance and power. These are very different worlds. And yet, they are much the same.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“But of all the phenomena observable to society and students, the relationships between people are not unknowable. Just as a plum will drop to the ground after falling off a table, so our fellow creatures respond in predictable, even self-injurious ways. Women, above all, want to be perceived as desirable above other women. They will go to great lengths to ensure this. True, our society has prescribed this, but this tension has always existed. That is why there is fashion and why the milliners and dressmakers and hairdressers will never lack employment. And it is why fashion will never stand still. It must change. It always changes. Men, above all, desire power. Either for public office or simply, as in the case of my husband, to be known as the wealthiest of them all. Power is a heady thing, and men will put themselves in desperate circumstances in order to achieve it. For who can resist the whispered urge of feeling important?”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“Please all, and you will please none.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“SERA One of the most powerful tools in the influencing of human beings is praise. While we all disdain flattery, and its self-seeking motivation, the well-earned praise of someone we admire can lift the weight of a burdensome obligation and grant courage in dark hours. Withhold it, however, and you may drive a man nearly mad to attain the smallest morsel. This is the power that society wields. It shapes the destinies of empires. A little praise can end a war. Exposing a fault can start one. —Lady Corinne of Pavenham Sky”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“Just because something doesn’t happen constantly doesn’t mean it won’t happen at all. Many of the consequences we face are delayed.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass

“In my country, they call hurricanes typhoons. If you are at peace with yourself in your center”—he tapped his heart with his spread fingers—“then you can stand on a beach during a typhoon and it will only rustle your hair. If you have any.” He winked at her. “If you are not at peace, then the typhoon will blow you away.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Storm Glass