Jacqueline Carey Quotes

When Love cast me out, it was Cruelty who took pity upon me

There is no fulfillment that is not made sweeter for the prolonging of desire

To have a traitor for an ally is to have an enemy in waiting

Beauty is at its most poignant when the cold hand of Death holds poised to wither it imminently.

That which yields is not always weak.

Why is there ever this perverse cruelty in humankind, that makes us hurt most those we love best?

It's funny, how one can look back on a sorrow one thought one might well die of at the time, and know that one had not yet reckoned the tenth part of true grief.

All knowledge is worth having

The pain of the flesh is naught to that of the heart

And having once chosen, never to seek to return to the crossroads of that decision-for even if one chooses wrongly, the choice cannot be unmade.

After you, it's all cheap tequila.

It is my observations, though, that happiness limits the amount of suffering one is willing to inflict upon others

If you will not die for us, you cannot ask us to die for you.

It is a fine line, in all of us, between civilization and savagery. To any who think they would never cross it, I can only say, if you have never known what it is to be utterly betrayed and abandoned, you cannot know how close it is.

We are all these things [...]. Pride, desire, compassion, cleverness, belligerence, fruitfulness, loyalty...and guilt. But above it all stands love. And if we desire to be more than human, that is the star by which we must set our sights.

Love child!" What else? You will find it and lose it, again and again. And with each finding and each loss, you will become more than before. What you make of it is yours to choose.

I wondered if he could ever understand that it was a blessing, not a sin, to be graced with more than one love. It could be complicated; of course it could be complicated. And it opened one up to the possibility of more pain and loss. Still, it was a blessing I would never relinquish. Love, genuine love, was always a cause for joy.

I would that I could have stopped time and preserved that day forever. It was a perfect day. There was the shadow of sorrow, yes. It would always be there. But that was the nature of life. The bright mirror and the dark, reflecting one another. And today there was so much brightness.

Your dreaming self seeks to tell you something your waking ears will not hear

There are patterns which emerge in one's life, circling and returning anew, an endless variation of a theme

Oh love and hate are two sides of the same blade

There's more to clothing than just adornment. It does more than merely change how the world perceives us. It changes how we perceive ourselves.

To recongnize that the treachery of one member of a house does not taint all born within it

There are patterns which emerge in one's life, circling and returning anew, an endless variation on a theme. So musicians say the greatest sonatas are composed; whether or not it is true, I do not know, but of a surety I have seen it emerge in the tapestry of my life.

If you thought better of me, you would not be so surprised

I had begun to think my ripening body would wither untasted on the vine.

Sidonie, I know you don't remember it, but you once promised to trust me beyond all reason. And I swear to you that all that I am, all that I possess, including this gem-stone, is yours. I need you. I can't do this alone. Forget your memories. Look into your heart. And if you can find somewhere there, some lingering spark of trust that owes naught to reason, I beg you to speak the word written here.

I can see patterns in events, and behaviors; in mathematics, I follow slower

Grief heals ... unshed tears fester like a canker in the soul.

It's the same questions we ask of our existence, and the answer is always the same. The mystery lies not in the question nor the answer, but in the asking and answering themselves, over and over again, and the end is engendered in the beginning.

And for a price, I will pretend absolutely nothing.

Nothing spoils idle pleasure like too much awareness

A little truth seasons a lie like salt.

Joscelin, is love supposed to make you feel like you’re sick and dying, and mad enough to hit someone and drunk with joy, and your heart’s a boulder n your chest trying to burst into a thousand pieces all at once?” “Mm-hmm.” He finished his ale. “That would be love.

All exiles carry a map within them that points the way homeward.

Well, I was living it, but a shared dream half-lived is a hollow thing

There are those who are awkward in the face of sorrow, fearing to say the wrong thing; to them, I say, there is no wrong in comfort, ever. A kind word, a consoling arm ... these things are ever welcome.

Surely if we knew what bitterness fate held in store, we would shrink back in fear and let the cup of life pass us by untasted.

Soon never comes soon enough to a young child.

Let the warriors clamor after gods of blood and thunder; love is hard, harder than steel and thrice as cruel.

Clearly, Im drawn to characters with inner conflicts.

Those that yield are not always weak

Pain obliterates everything else. In pain, there is only the eternal present.

And Kushiel sends no punishment that we are not fit to bear.

Battle for the sake of honor may be a fine thing for bards to sing of, but it is no way to preserve one's homeland

A nervous silence loosens tongues

Some chains are forged for us - those are the hardest to bear.

Stupid to speak of blame when the wills of the immortals are involved.

What is fear but courage's shadow?

Truly, it is in loss that we learn a thing's true value.