Alison Croggon

“Joy bubbles on a fountain of doubt."-Alison Croggon”

“You said that love could not be feigned and could not be stolen" she said passionately. "And now you say I am to be your queen. And yet you imprison me and give me no freedom. You know what it is like to be caged, It is a death. You tell me I cannot hide from you and yet you punish me for hiding.You say you do not want me to fear you and you treat me like I am a slave. Forgive me my Lord"-and here she bowed her head sadly, contrite and meek-"I don not understand why you are punishing me for something you say I cannot do. I do not understand your love, if this is the love you offer me.”

“For almost as long as she could remember Maerad had been imprisoned behind walls. She was a slave”

“It's not your fault there is evil in the world" Cadvan to Maerad”

“There come a few times in a person's life where there is a clear choice," Cadvan said. "The difference between one person and another is how they meet that choice,”

“You are the Fire Lily", said the Winterking softly. "And I am the Ice King. Does fire melt ice? Or ice melt fire? Or may they come together, fire and ice, neither melted nor quenched?”

“There is a great force in renunciation of power that those who are blinded by the lust for domination cannot understand because those who truly love do not desire power.”

“Your future is uncertain, and I can tell you nothing that can help you. You are singular and dangerous, and so it is that you are sought by both the Dark and the Light.”

“To love is never wrong. It may be disastrous; it may never be possible; it may be the deepest agony. But it is never wrong.”

“What difference, being a pawn for the Light or a pawn for the Dark?" "There is a great difference. One difference is that for the Dark, certainly, you are a pawn. For the Light, you are a free human being, free to make mistakes, to do wrong, even. You are free to choose, whether or not you believe it.”

“I would rather die than stay there." "Well, you might die.”

“It is far better to put away fear than to be driven by it.”

“Light blooms the brighter in the darkest places.”

“Old friend,' said Cadvan, filling another glass for himself and sniffing its rich smell. 'If we do not trust one another, we are already defeated.”

“The only good thing about being frightened half to death, she thought, is that it makes me forget all about being seasick.”

“You have a great heart, but will only find it to be so through great pain. This is the wisdom of love, and its doubtful gift. . . . I have endured much suffering and still remain unbitter and unclosed.”

“And all meet in singing, which braids together the different knowings into a wide and subtle music, the music of living. ”

“Some say an army of horsemensome an army on footothers say ships laden for warare the fairest things on earth.But I say the fairest sighton this dark earthis the face of the one you love.Nor is it hard to understand:love has humbled the heartsof the proudest queens.And I would rather see you now stepping over my thresholdthan any soldier greaved in gold or any iron-beaked ship.”

“Never be ashamed of your love," he said gently. "The only thing to be ashamed of is denying your love. That is what makes the shadow grow within your heart; that is the darkening of the Light. And we all have many loves.”

“Love is never easy. We begin by loving the things we can, according to our stature, but it is not long before we find that what we love is other than ourselves and that our love is no protection against being wounded. Do we then speak to dominate what we love, to make it bend to our will, to stop it from hurting us even though to do so is to betray love? And that is only where the difficulty begins..”

“While the heart beats, hope lingers.”

“We are all mistaken sometimes; sometimes we do wrong things, things that have bad consequences. But it does not mean we are evil, or that we cannot be trusted ever afterward.”

“They obey older laws.”

“It is good to dress in fair clothes to dine with friends. It honors your host, if you are a guest; and your guest if you are a host. And both adorn the feast, and so celebrate the gifts of the world.”

“Many forgotten things live still in children's tales.”

“I think you are a liar because you think you know what is true. You think you feel what is true. But you do not yet know what you do feel and what you do know. Your desire and do not take; you love and are too afraid to feel your love; you conceal your vanity and pettiness from yourself; you are afraid to look into your soul and see what you are. That iis why i think you are a liar.”

“I tried to become a hawk, it didn't work. I think I got -stuck”

“Triple tongued is triple named”

“There is no shame in not knowing something. The shame is in not being willing to learn.”

“And then like thunder broke the frost,The chill wall fell, and morrowlessImmortal maid and man embraced,Their light and shadow mingling.”

“No es ninguna vergüenza no saber nada. La vergüenza es no tener ansias de aprender.”

“...todos a los que cuidamos y amamos han de morir. ¿Y no es todo nuestro canto un lamento porque todo lo que es verde y bello ha de pasar, como las sombras sobre una llanura, sin dejar rastro? ¿Qué canción, por bella que sea, puede aliviar esta angustia?”

“Hay muchas mentes imaginativas aquí, que en ausencia de hechos se inventarán una historia interesante para rellenar el vacío. De forma que nuestra fuerza es nuestra debilidad.”

“You see aright. I am both Queen and Elidhu, here and there, wildfire and hearthfire, forgetting and remembrance. But do no yet speak of this, for men are impatient with such things and do not brook contradiction.”

“By the light," he said, when he had mastered himself. "I think that beats singing a lullaby to a stormdog for simplicity and economy, Maerad. But I wish I had known that you simply had to blow at Hulls to get rid of them. It would have saved me a few scars.”

“It is not given to us to know what difference we can make, and perhaps we can make no difference at all. But that is no reason not to make the attempt," said Saliman quietly. "The Light shines more brightly in the darkness.”

“Elednor,' he said, 'Elednor, why have you betrayed me? Come back to me. Come back to were you belong. I alone need you...”

“Nothing is ever truly gone... Not for me, nor for any human being. We can only go forward, unless we are guests in some enchantment that is not is ours. We are condemned to an endless present, and we can never go back-the source of all our joy, and all our sorrow." -Hem at Zelika's grave”

“It is only the darkness in our own hearts that will defeat us, in the end.”

“Love is one of the true mysteries,' he said at last. 'The truest and the deepest of all. One thing, Maerad: to love is never wrong. It may be disastrous; it may never be possible; it may be the deepest agony. But it is never wrong.”

“Not even I can see all ends, but I have been in this world long enough to know that a choice is not choice and breeds slow ills, even were it done for the highest reasons.”

“Drunk with beauty, I tore downArmfuls of blossoms.How desolate the marred sky!”