Quotes from Kate Elliott

The history of the world begins with a seed. The seed is the kernel of what you are, but it is also the promise of what you can become.

No one can fall in love at first sight. Love is built over years, not snapped into existence like a flame that can be as easily extinguished.

Do not mourn over the happiness you were fortunate enough to possess, lest you turn that joy into grief. Be glad that you had what others may never in their lives experience. The gods have dealt kindly with you, Daughter.

I shall bury the blade in your skull, just above your right eye. That's what I love about you. Your precision.

Why do you ask me questions to which you already know the answer? She tapped me on the arm with her painted fan. To annoy you, dearest.

We must all learn the measure of our strength. Otherwise we exhaust ourselves striving for that which we can never gain.

We'll smell of fish forever," I said. "That would be nice.

I think that when small-minded people envy and despise, then they will mock, thinking it their only weapon. I am not, I hope, a small-minded person. I will not mock you. I'll tell you straight to your face that I don't trust you and can't trust you...

We are none of us one thing alone and unchanging. We are not static, or at rest. Just as a city or a prince's court or a lineage is many people in one, so is a person many people within one, always unfinished and always like a river's current flowing onward ever changing toward the ocean that is greater than all things combined.

This is still less stressful than working in publishing.

Never let it be said that I could not talk my way out of any trouble that I could not punch.

Naturalists claim that however much the female may be said to love the accoutrements of fashion and furnishings, it is the male who is driven to display himself.

We don't have to accept the things we might change.

The skin of frozen snow crunched satisfyingly beneath my boots as I smashed each step into the ground just as I planned to smash my foes.

He had such a kind voice, that of a man who sees his own faults and forgives himself for them--not arrogantly or leniently but with wisdom--knowing he, as are all humans, is hopelessly flawed.

The landing pads and stevedore platforms spread to either side behind the arrivals center, punctuated by drab warehouses and a squat control tower painted so dull a beige it was insulting.

Even having only two arms he had a lean, powerful symmetry and grace of form.

She had never looked to see what lay beneath the surface, because the surface was easy enough to polish and keep bright.

You have too high an opinion of the high command

Will we ever know what became of her? he asked wistfully. Only if we can trust dreams. I fear they lie as often they tell the truth.

In truth what had drawn my eye was the rear view of a young man stripped to the waist and plying an adze along a beam. I could not help but admire his muscled back.

Then he strode toward me as if certain I was about to bolt and he must catch me before I did so.

He, who the sword of heaven will bear Should be as holy as severe; Pattern in himself to know, Grace to stand, and virtue go; More nor less to others paying Than by self offenses weighing. Shame to him whose cruel striking Kills for faults of his own liking!

Words flooded like the storm's surge in a wild burst of anger that took me utterly by surprise.