A Splendid Ruin Quotes

“we despise most those who know us at our worst. It’s true. It’s so true.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“The echo of my thought startled me. The weight of the future it contained frightened me more than anything else”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“I’ve invented it, because there is no other word that celebrates the genius that is me.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“The earth had set me free. The city was at my feet. I forgot where I was and that I had not touched a pencil in months.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“I looked again at the library, my vision made real, beautiful yes, but a terrible betrayal. I would never be able to come here again, I knew. Goldie and my uncle had been cruel and avaricious, but their greed was not so personal as Ellis’s. Not so intimate. And yet, I knew also, in a way I had not known before, that its very intimacy made me stronger. I would not forgive him this,”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“The earth giveth, and the earth taketh away.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“All facade, all vacant, enjoyment without sustenance, celebration without boundaries or purpose.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“My ever-present loneliness only grew worse. How could I complain? I’d come from nothing. I was the luckiest girl in the world. I had a family now. How ungrateful I was, to want anything more.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“There are many opportunities in a life. It’s not a failing to take whatever comes one’s way. In fact, I rather think it a strength.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“Now here was beautiful, vibrant Goldie, saying that we would be the best of friends, and I was foolish enough to think it was what I wanted above all else.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“One day you’ll want for nothing. You don’t belong here. You are meant for something finer than this.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“Life is short. No need for it to be boring too.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“And yet . . . after all my longing for this life, it felt strangely empty, beautiful but hollow. I did not want to admit that I found it boring, or that I was floundering in its shallows. How little they thought about anything but their own amusement. Their lives were so easy, so full of beauty and money. How much they could do with it, and how disappointing to find them so vacant.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“How I trusted her from the start. How wholly I gave myself over to my cousin. The lure of beautiful things, of a friend . . . I was vulnerable without knowing it, having never had either.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“Remember who you are, May.” The balm of my mother’s oft-repeated words and the softness of memory banished my unease. I flew down the stairs to the party.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“Mama had never said anything of her family having such wealth, not once, in all our years of suffering. But then again, neither had she told me she had a sister. I should not be surprised. She’d kept so many secrets. But this . . . Why had she said nothing of this?”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“Heat and wind and poisonous smoke.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“Postum”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“lingering over her name, polishing it like a smooth stone in his mouth, I knew suddenly and completely that this man had a relationship with my cousin that I did”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“roseate”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“Parvenus.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“we despise most those who know us at our worst.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“And yet . . . after all my longing for this life, it felt strangely empty, beautiful but hollow. I did not want to admit that I found it boring, or that I was floundering in its shallows. How little they thought about anything but their own amusement. Their lives were so easy, so full of beauty and money. How much they could do with it, and how disappointing to find them so vacant.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“Then, at last, I had what I didn’t know I was looking for: the antidote to my loneliness, which shriveled and withered away. Until that moment, I hadn’t realized how much of me it had been.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“City hall was a disaster. My uncle’s fault, and China Joe had the proof of it.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“Remember who you are.” “The Sullivans have stolen from me, and I want back what’s mine.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“Look at what I am, Miss May. No one here believes a Chinaman. You will be putting yourself in your uncle’s hands once more. Is that what you wish? Better to be dead.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“A ghost. Smoke and dust and shadow. Nothing substantial until I chose to be, and when I did, no one would ever underestimate me again.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“I knew then how I would destroy them if I ever got out of Blessington. I would give Dante LaRosa the information he wanted.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin

“My inheritance had become available, my aunt—my only champion—had been killed, and my uncle had been given power over my person and my money.”
― Megan Chance, A Splendid Ruin