49 Inspiring Will Herondale Quotes

Will Herondale, a character who captivates readers with his wit, depth, and complex emotions, has become a favorite among fans of Cassandra Clare's "The Infernal Devices" series. His poignant, often profound reflections on love, friendship, and duty resonate with many, making him a source of inspiration for countless fans. Whether you're drawn to his brooding charisma or his flashes of humor, Will offers words that linger in the mind long after the last page is turned. In this collection, we present 49 of the most inspiring Will Herondale quotes, carefully chosen to highlight the layers of his character and the universal truths he often stumbles upon. Prepare to be moved, amused, and inspired as you delve into the captivating world of one of literature's most enchanting characters.

1. “under his dripping hair, he was as white as parchment, his hands clenched at his sides so tightly that they were shaking. It seemed clear that some terrible turmoil was ripping him apart from the inside out.” - Cassandra Clare

2. “Sometimes, when I have to do something I don't want to do, I pretend I'm a character from a book. It's easier to know what they would do.” - Cassandra Clare

3. “Do reasons matter when there's nothing that can be done to change things.” - Cassandra Clare

4. “Never mind that,” said Will. “I’m boasting of my investigative skills, and I would prefer to do it without interruption. Where was I?” - Cassandra Clare

5. “Will has always been the brighter burning star, the one to catch attention — but Jem is a steady flame, unwavering and honest. He could make you happy.” - Cassandra Clare

6. “If love is great, then it is worth fighting for.” - Cassandra Clare

7. “He bent to put his cheek against hers. His breath against her ear made her shudder with each deliberately spoken word. "I have wanted to do this," he said, "every moment of every hour of every day that I have been with you since the day I met you.” - Cassandra Clare

8. “Sometimes," said Will, "they're even supposed to blow up.” - Cassandra Clare

9. “We live and breathe words. It was books that kept me from taking my own life after I thought I could never love anyone, never be loved again. It was books that made me feel that perhaps I was not completely alone. They could be honest with me, and I with them.” - Cassandra Clare

10. “Niches set back in the walls contained polished marble statues of entwined bodies. Will looked away from them hastily, and then back. It wasn't as if Magnus seemed to be paying attention to what Will was doing, and he'd honestly never imagined two people could get themselves into a position like that, much less make it look artistic.” - Cassandra Clare

11. “Hang Mortmain," said Will. "And I mean that literally, of course, but also figuratively.” - Cassandra Clare

12. “Tess, Tess, Tessa. Was there ever a more beautiful sound than your name? To speak it aloud makes my heart ring like a bell. Strange to imagine that, isn’t it – a heart ringing – but when you touch me that is what it is like: as if my heart is ringing in my chest and the sound shivers down my veins and splinters my bones with joy.Why have I written these words in this book? Because of you. You taught me to love this book where I had scorned it. When I read it for the second time, with an open mind and heart, I felt the most complete despair and envy of Sydney Carton. Yes, Sydney, for even if he had no hope that the woman he loved would love him, at least he could tell her of his love. At least he could do something to prove his passion, even if that thing was to die.I would have chosen death for a chance to tell you the truth, Tessa, if I could have been assured that death would be my own. And that is why I envied Sydney, for he was free.And now at last I am free, and I can finally tell you, without fear of danger to you, all that I feel in my heart.You are not the last dream of my soul.You are the first dream, the only dream I ever was unable to stop myself from dreaming. You are the first dream of my soul, and from that dream I hope will come all other dreams, a lifetime’s worth.With hope at least,Will Herondale” - Cassandra Clare

13. “I am brave," Will said..."Yes, you are," Magnus said, and kissed him. It wasn't the most dramatic kiss, but Will failed his free arm as if a bee had landed on him; Magnus had to hope Camille would assume this was passion. When they broke apart, Will looked stunned. So did Camille, for that matter....Will swung sideways...He dashed across the room, retrieved it, and tucked it into Magnus's waistcoat pocket. Then, with a wink at Camille that, Magnus thought, God alone knew how she would interpret, he sauntered out of the room.” - Cassandra Clare

14. “In Will's experience, when someone who ought to be afraid wasn't, the reason was rarely bravery. Usually it meant that they knew something you didn't.” - Cassandra Clare

15. “He seemed to realize she was staring at him, because the cursing stopped. "You cut me," he said. His voice was pleasant. British. Very ordinary. He looked at his hand with critcal interest. "It might be fatal." Tessa looked at him with wide eyes. "Are you the Magister?" He tilted his hand to the side. Blood ran down it, spattering the floor. "Dear me, massive blood loss. Death could be imminent.” - Cassandra Clare

16. “Jem gave her a wistful look. “Must you go? I was rather hoping that you’d stay and be a ministering angel, but if you must go, you must.” “I’ll stay,” Will said a bit crossly, and threw himself down in the armchair Tessa had just vacated. “I can minister angelically.” “None too convincingly. And you’re not as pretty to look at as Tessa is,” Jem said, closing his eyes as he leaned back against the pillow. “How rude. Many who have gazed upon me have compared it to gazing at the radiance of the sun.” Jem still had his eyes closed. “If they mean that it gives you a headache, they aren’t wrong.” - Cassandra Clare

17. “It’s that I think Will is angry with me,” Tessa explained. “So whatever he told you—”He laughed. “Will is angry with everyone,” he said. “I don’t let it color my judgment.” - Cassandra Clare

18. “She warned me about Mr. Herondale, though, said he’d likely be rude to me, and familiar. She said I could be rude right back, that nobody would mind.”“Someone ought to be rude to him. He’s rude enough to everyone else.” - Cassandra Clare

19. “It is always better to live the truth than to live a lie. And that lie would have kept him alone forever. He may have had nearly nothing for 5 years, but now he can have everything. A boy who looks like that... Magnus.” - Cassandra Clare

20. “Tess?” A soft voice at the door; she looked up and saw Will there, silhouetted in the light from the corridor.” - Cassandra Clare

21. “Tessa craned her head back to look at Will. “You know that feeling,” she said, “when you are reading a book, and you know that it is going to be a tragedy; you can feel the cold and darkness coming, see the net drawing tight around the characters who live and breathe on the pages. But you are tied to the story as if being dragged behind a carriage and you cannot let go or turn the course aside.” His blue eyes were dark with understanding — of course Will would understand — and she hurried on. “I feel now as if the same is happening, only not to characters on a page but to my own beloved friends and companions. I do not want to sit by while tragedy comes for us. I would turn it aside, only I struggle to discover how that might be done.”“You fear for Jem,” Will said.“Yes,” she said. “And I fear for you, too.”“No,” Will said, hoarsely. “Don’t waste that on me, Tess.” - Cassandra Clare

22. “If Jem dies, I cannot be with Tessa,” said Will. “Because it will be as if I were waiting for him to die, or took some joy in his death, if it let me have her. And I will not be that person. I will not profit from his death. So he must live.” He lowered his arm, his sleeve bloody. “It is the only way any of this can ever mean anything. Otherwise it is only —”“Pointless, needless suffering and pain? I don’t suppose it would help if I told you that was the way life is. The good suffer, the evil flourish, and all that is mortal passes away,” Magnus said.“I want more than that,” said Will. “You made me want more than that. You showed me I was only ever cursed because I had chosen to believe myself so. You told me there was possibility, meaning. And now you would turn your back on what you created.” - Cassandra Clare

23. “There's always the dinner rolls," said Will, pointing to a covered basket. "Though I warn you, they're as hard as stones. You could use them to kill black beetles, if any beetles bother you in the middle of the night.” - Cassandra Clare

24. “By the Angel, Bridget’s depressing,” said Henry, setting down his newspaper directly on his plate and causing the edge to soak through with egg yolk. Charlotte opened her mouth as if to object, and closed it again. “It’s all heartbreak, death and unrequited love.”“Well, that is what most songs are about,” said Will. “Requited love is nice, but it doesn’t make much of a ballad.” - Cassandra Clare

25. “Though Will was saying earlier,” Tessa added, “that heroes all come to bad ends, and he could not imagine why anyone would want to be one, anyway.”“Ah.” Jem’s hand squeezed hers briefly, and then let it go. “Well, Will is looking at it from the hero’s viewpoint, isn’t he? But as for the rest of us, it’s an easy answer.”“Is it?”“Of course.” His voice was almost a whisper now. “Heroes endure because we need them. Not for their own sakes. If Will …” - Cassandra Clare

26. “If I might ask--," she began.Will sighed. "You know you'll ask whether I say it's all right or not.” - Cassandra Clare

27. “Will smirked, clearly pleased at the effect he was having. "I've no idea. I lost consciousness about then. I was having a lovely dream about a young woman who had mislaid all her clothes...” - Cassandra Clare

28. “I am not a certified idiot—" "Lack of certification hardly proves intelligence," Will muttered.” - Cassandra Clare

29. “That the wall is coming down.” - Cassandra Clare

30. “You may be right. I think it was round about Christmas when I got my Welsh dragon tattoo.”At that, Tessa had to try very hard not to blush. “How did that happen?”Will made an airy gesture with his hand. “I was drunk…”“Nonsense. You were never really drunk.”“On the contrary—in order to learn how to pretend to be inebriated, once must become inebriated at least once, as a reference point. Six-Fingered Nigel had been at the mulled cider—“ “You can’t mean there’s truly a Six-Fingered Nigel?” - Cassandra Clare

31. “Forsooth, I no longer toil in vain,To prove that demon pox warps the brain.So though 'ti pity, it's not in vainThat the pox-ridden worm was slain:For to believe in me, you all must deign.” - Cassandra Clare

32. “All my life, since I came to the Institute, you were the mirror of my soul. I saw the good in me in you. In your eyes alone I found grace. When you are gone from me, who will see me like that?” - Cassandra Clare

33. “I thought perhaps that when you told me you did not love me that my own feelings would fall away and atrophy, but they have not. They have grown every day. I love you now more desperately, this moment, than I have ever loved you before, and in an hour I will love you more than that” - Cassandra Clare

34. “I can't - I'll chop off my own foot!" "If you're going to chop off anyone's foot, chop off Benedict's," Will muttered.” - Cassandra Clare

35. “If there is a life after this one", he said, "let me meet you in it, James Carstairs.” - Cassandra Clare

36. “I think there is hope for you yet, Will Herondale.I will try to learn how to have it, without you to show me. Tessa, Jem said. She knows despair, and hope as well. you can teach each other. Find her, Will, and tell her that I loved her always. My blessings, for all that it is worth, is on you both.” - Cassandra Clare

37. “And you should not be out and about in your nightgown. There are Lightwoods wandering these halls.” - Cassandra Clare

38. “She did not belong to Will-she was too much herself to belong to anyone, even Jem-but she belonged with them, and silently he cursed the Consul for not seeing it.” - Cassandra Clare

39. “Indeed." Will let his cutlery clatter onto his plate. "The Consul? Breaking up our breakfast time? Whatever next? The Inquisitor over for tea? Picnics with the Silent Brothers?""Duck pies in the park," said Jem under his breath, and he and Will smiled at each other, just a flash, before the door opened and the Consul swept it.” - Cassandra Clare

40. “I want you to say dreadfully mad, funny things and make up songs and be--' The Will I fell in love with, she almost said. "And be Will," she finished instead. "Or I shall hit you with my umbrella."***"You would make a very ugly woman.""I would not. I would be stunning."Tessa laughed. “There,” she said. “There is Will. Isn’t that better? Don’t you think so?” “I don’t know,” Will said, eyeing her. “I’m afraid to answer that. I’ve heard that when I speak, it makes American women wish to strike me with umbrellas.” - Cassandra Clare

41. “The Will I fell in love with, she almost said."And be Will," she finished instead. "Or I shall hit you with my umbrella.” - Cassandra Clare

42. “Dw i'n dy garu di am byth," he said. "I love you. Always.” - Cassandra Clare

43. “I feel like you can look inside me and see all the places I am odd or unusual and fit your heart around them, for you are odd and unusual in just the same way. We are the same.” - Cassandra Clare

44. “Cuando estás leyendo un libro, y sabes que habrá una tragedia; puedes sentir el frió y la oscuridad llegando, ver la red tejiéndose cerca de los personajes que viven y respiran en las páginas. Pero estas tan atado a la historia como si fueras tirado detrás de un carruaje, y no puedes dejarlo pasar o cambiar el rumbo haciéndose a un lado.” - Cassandra Clare

45. “Mi consciencia, –susurró Will. –Tú eres mi consciencia. Siempre lo has sido, James Carstairs. Haré esto por ti, pero primero voy a conseguir una promesa. –¿Qué clase de promesa? –Me pediste hace años que cese de buscar una cura para ti, –dijo Will. –Quiero que me liberes de esa promesa. Déjame mirar, al menos. Libérame para buscar. Jem miró con cierto asombro.–Justo cuando creo que te conozco perfectamente, me sorprendes de nuevo.” - Cassandra Clare

46. “Come back to me, Tessa. Henry said that perhaps, since you had touched the soul of an angel, that you dream of Heaven now, of fields of angels and flowers of fire. Perhaps you are happy in those dreams. But I ask this out of pure selfishness. Come back to me. For I cannot bear to lose all my heart.” - Cassandra Clare

47. “There's nothing you could have done that would cause me to cease loving either of you. Will is myself, my own soul, and if I am not to have the keeping of your heart, then there is not other I would rather have that honor.” - Cassandra Clare

48. “You said I am a good man," he said. "But I am not that good a man. And I am--I am catastrophically in love with you.” - Cassandra Clare

49. “It felt like being shot with an arrow, and Will jerked back. His wineglass crashed to the floor and shattered. He lurched to his feet, leaning both hands on the table. He was vaguely aware of stares, and the landlords anxious voice in his ear, but the pain was too great to think through, almost too great to breathe through. The tightness in his chest, the one he had thought of as one end of a cord tying him to Jem, had pulled so taut that it was strangling his heart. He stumbled away from his table, pushing through a knot of customers near the bar, and passed to the front door of the inn. All he could think of was air, getting air into his lungs to breathe. He pushed the doors open and half-tumbled out into the night. For a moment the pain in his chest eased, and he fell back against the wall of the inn. Rain was sheeting down, soaking his hair and clothes. He gasped, his heart stuttering with a misture of terror and desperation. Was this just the distance from Jem affecting him? He had never felt anything like this, even when Jem was at his worst, even when he'd been injured and Will had ached with sympathetic pain.The cord snapped.For a moment everything went white, the courtyard bleeching through as if with acid. Will jackknifed to his knees, vomiting up his supper into the mud. When the spasms had passed , he staggard to his feet and blindly away from the inn, as if trying to outpace his own pain. He fetched up against the wall of the stables, beside the horse trough. He dropped to his knees to plunge his hands into the icy water-and saw his own reflection. There was his face, as white as death, and his shirt, and a spreading stain of red across the front. With wet hands he siezed at his lapels and jerked the shirt open. In the dim light that spilled from the inn, he could see that his parabati rune, just over his heart, was bleeding. His hands were covered in blood, blood mixed with rain, the same ran that was washing the blood away from his chest, showing the rune as it began to fade from black to silver, changing all that had been sense in Will's life into nonsense.Jem was dead.” - Cassandra Clare