The Isles of the Blest Quotes

“Even her radiant beauty seemed to dim as he thought of the way she had fooled him.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, The Isles of the Blest

“But my mind keeps on thinking,” Connla offered hopefully. “As long as I am thinking, I must be alive.”  The ant pondered this. “There are many who never think, yet are considered to be alive,” it said.  “Then what is ‘being alive’?”
― Morgan Llywelyn, The Isles of the Blest

“The old chieftain’s eyes were bleak. “Is that all you have left to offer me from your bag of tricks, druid? Hope?”  “Hope is priceless,” Coran assured him.  “Hope is what’s left at the bottom of the bag,” Hundred Battles said. “Like lint.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, The Isles of the Blest

“Why did you not die?”  He searched his memory, trying to find an answer for her. “When the sword bit through my neck, I thought surely I was dead. Then—then a sort of strength seemed to come to me, from somewhere. And I found myself having a strange conversation with an ant about life and death. The ant claimed one does not die as long as one is being remembered—”  “—and loved,” Blathine finished for him. “That is how it is with mortals, Finvarra! I see what has happened here. Someone in the world from which I brought Connla Fiery Hair is still thinking about him and loving him.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, The Isles of the Blest

“How do you strike fire without flint?” Connla wanted to know.  “The sun has no flints,” Blathine replied. “Yet each day it brings fire to warm the earth.”  Shaking his head ruefully, Connla said, “I see I will get no simple answers from you.”  “There are no simple answers!” she chortled. “How quickly you are learning!”
― Morgan Llywelyn, The Isles of the Blest

“As if it had heard his thoughts, the dolphin said, “You love life, that is why you sought to flee from death to a place where there is no death. If you love life, you must keep worshipping the god of life with your body, which means you must fight to stay alive even when it looks hopeless. Give up, and life will turn its back on you.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, The Isles of the Blest

“He had seen lakes and rivers, but Connla had never seen an ocean, and its very size was beyond his comprehension.  “Where does it end?” he asked Blathine.  “It does not end. The ocean is everything. All the land is merely an interruption in the sea.”  Her words made no sense; such things could not be possible.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, The Isles of the Blest