Sabaa Tahir, A Torch Against the Night
17 quotes
"So long as you fight the darkness, you stand in the light."
"Your emotions make you human. Even the unpleasant ones have a purpose. Don't lock them away. If you ignore them, they just get louder and angrier."
"Mercy is weakness. Offer it to your enemies and you might as well fall upon your own sword."
"I should just build a bleeding house here," I mutter as I pick myself up off the snow-covered ground. "Maybe get a few chickens. Plant a garden."
"Don't lock yourself away from those who care about you because you think you'll hurt them - or they'll hurt you. What point is there in being human if you don't let yourself feel anything?"
"You fool, Helene. When you love, there is always more pain."
"Perhaps grief is like battle: After experiencing enough of it, your body’s instincts take over. When you see it closing in like a Martial death squad, you harden your insides. You prepare for the agony of a shredded heart. And when it hits, it hurts, but not as badly, because you have locked away your weakness, and all that’s left is anger and strength."
"Failure doesn't define you. It's what you do after you fail that determines whether you are a leader or a waste of perfectly good air."
"It takes only a split second for life to go horribly wrong. To fix the mess, I need a thousand things to go right. The distance from one bit of luck to the next feels as great as the distance across oceans. But, I decide in this moment, I will bridge that distance, again and again, until I win. I will not fail."
"Don't lock yourself away from those who care about you because you think you'll hurt them or they'll hurt you. What point is there in being human if you don't let yourself feel anything?"
"So you've made a few bad decisions. So have I. So has Elias. So has everyone attempting to do something difficult. That doesn't mean that you give up, you fool. Do you understand?"
"Failure doesn't define you. It's what you do after the failure that determines whether you are a leader or a waste of perfectly good air."
"You’re sure this is what you want?” I search her eyes for doubt, fear, uncertainty, but all I see is that fire. Ten hells“I’m sure”“Then I’ll find a way"
"Elias and Laia are each other’s countermelodies. I am just a dissonant note."
"The rest is just wishes and hope, the most fragile of things."
"Disappear! I scream the word in my mind, queen of the desolate landscape therein, ordering her ragged troops to a last stand."
"Children are born to break their mothers’ hearts, my boy."