69 Inspiring Quotes By Cassandra Clare

Delving into the world of literature, few authors have captivated readers' imaginations quite like Cassandra Clare. Known for her intricate storytelling and richly developed characters, Clare has garnered a devoted following through her series like "The Mortal Instruments" and "The Infernal Devices." Her works are not only filled with adventurous plots and fantastical settings but are also interwoven with profound and inspiring reflections on life, love, and human nature. In this article, we have curated a collection of 69 of the most inspiring quotes by Cassandra Clare, each one offering unique insights and serving as a testament to her literary genius. Whether you're seeking motivation, wisdom, or simply a new perspective on the world, Clare's words promise to leave a lasting impression.

1. “She could ask for anything, she thought dizzily, anything--an end to pain or world hunger or disease, or for peace on earth. But then again, perhaps these things weren't in the power of angels to grant, or they would already have been granted. And perhaps people were supposed to find these things for themselves.” - Cassandra Clare

2. “Well, when I was five, I wanted my mother to let me go around and around inside a dryer with the clothes,” Clary said. “The difference is, she didn’t let me.”“Probably because going around and around in a dryer can be fatal,” Jace pointed out, “whereas pasta is rarely fatal. Unless Isabelle makes it.” - Cassandra Clare

3. “You have something on your neck. What Looks like a bite mark, what were you doing out all night, anyway? Nothing. I went walking in the park. Tried to clear my head. And ran into a vampire What? No! I fell. On your neck?” - Cassandra Clare

4. “And Jessamine-Jessamine was gazing at her in abject horror, like someone who has seen a vision of their own ghost. For a moment Tessa felt a stab of guilt.It lasted only a moment, though. Slowly Jessamine lowered her hand from her mouth, her face still very pale. "Goodness, my nose is enormous," she exclaimed. "Why didn't anyone tell me?” - Cassandra Clare

5. “Fate is never fair. You are caught in a current much stronger than you are; struggle against it and you'll drown not just yourself but those who try to save you. Swim with it. and you'll survive” - Cassandra Clare

6. “And when I saw him[my father] lying dead in a pool of his own blood, I knew then that I hadn't stopped believing in God. I'd just stopped believing God cared. There might be a God, Clary, and there might be not. Either way, we're on our own.” - Cassandra Clare

7. “Jace threw his hands up. "So it doesn't work.""Not necessarily," Luke said. "There might simply be nothing going on that might activate it. Perhaps there isn't anything here that Alec is afraid of."Magnus glanced at Alec and raised his eyebrows. "Boo," he said.Jace was grinning. "Come on, surely you've got a phobia or two. What scaresyou?"Alec thought for a moment. "Spiders," he said.Clary turned to Luke. "Have you got a spider anywhere?"Luke looked exasperated. "Why would I have a spider? Do I look like someone who would collect them?""No offense," Jace said, "but you kind of do.” - Cassandra Clare

8. “Mother." Alec's voice as he interrupted his mother was firm, implacable, and notunkind. "Father. There's something I have to tell you." He smiled at them. "I'm seeing someone."Robert Lightwood looked at his son with some exasperation. "Alec," he said."This is hardly the time.""Yes, it is. This is important. You see, I'm not just seeing anyone." Wordsseemed to be pouring out of Alec in a torrent, while his parents looked on inconfusion. Isabelle and Magnus were staring at him with expressions of nearly identical astonishment. "I'm seeing a Downworlder. In fact, I'm seeing a war—"Magnus's fingers moved, quick as a flash of light, in Alec's direction. There was a faint shimmer in the air around Alec — his eyes rolled up — and he dropped to the floor, felled like a tree.” - Cassandra Clare

9. “I don't hate you, Jace.""I don't hate you, either."She looked up at him, relieved. "I'm glad to hear that—""I wish I could hate you," he said. His voice was light, his mouth curved in an unconcerned half smile, his eyes sick with misery. "I want to hate you. I try to hate you. It would be so much easier if I did hate you. Sometimes I think I do hate you and then I see you and I—"Her hands had grown numb with their grip on the blanket. "And you what?""What do you think?" Jace shook his head. "Why should I tell you everythingabout how I feel when you never tell me anything? It's like banging my head on awall, except at least if I were banging my head on a wall, I'd be able to make myself stop."Clary's lips were trembling so violently that she found it hard to speak. "Do you think it's easy for me?" she demanded.” - Cassandra Clare

10. “Hate is nothing when weighed against survival. (Valentine)” - Cassandra Clare

11. “Jace slammed his hand down on the stele. “Clary-““She said she doesn’t want it,” said Simon. “Ha-ha.”“Ha-ha?” Jace looked incredulous. “That’s your comeback?” - Cassandra Clare

12. “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, and then throw it in the face of the person who gave you the lemons until they give you the oranges you originally asked for.” - Cassandra Clare

13. “It was odd, (Tessa thought), what brought out tenderness in people.” - Cassandra Clare

14. “The Law is hard, but it is the Law.” - Cassandra Clare

15. “A sort of good-bye without saying good-bye," he said. "It is a reference to a passage in the Bible. 'And Mizpah, for he said, the Lord watch between me and thee when we are absent one from another.” - Cassandra Clare

16. “Don't order any of the faerie food," said Jace, looking at her over the top of his menu. "It tends to make humans a little crazy. One minute you're munching a faerie plum, the next minute you're running naked down Madison Avenue with antlers on your head. Not," he added hastily, "that this has ever happened to me.” - Cassandra Clare

17. “Simon looked from one of them to the other, and shook his head. “ When did you two get so buddy-buddy? Last night it was all, ‘I’m the most elite warrior!’ ‘ No, I’m the most elite warrior!’ And today you’re playing Halo and giving each other props for good ideas.” - Cassandra Clare

18. “Simon stepped between them. “I’m not going to let you fight with each other.”“And what are you going to do about it if . . . Oh.” Jace's gaze trailed up to Simon’s forehead, and he grinned reluctantly. “ So basically you’re threatening to turn me into something you can sprinkle on popcorn if I don’t do what you say?” - Cassandra Clare

19. “If you're texting Magnus to say 'I think u r kewl' I'm going to kill you” - Cassandra Clare

20. “How rude. Many who have gazed upon me have compared the experience to gazingat the radiance of the sun."Jem still had his eyes closed. "If they mean it gives you a headache, they aren't wrong.” - Cassandra Clare

21. “Gideon Lightwood said he was at the Institute in Madrid. What on earth was he doing there?''Faffing about, most likely', said Will.” - Cassandra Clare

22. “WHO CALLS UPON THE HIGH WARLOCK?” - Cassandra Clare

23. “But the name Magnus Bane made him think of a towering sort of figure, with huge shoulders and formal purple warlock’s robes, calling down fire and lightning. Not Magnus himself, who was more of a cross between a panther and a demented elf.” - Cassandra Clare

24. “As Luke knelt down beside his corpse, Clary couldn’t help but remember what he had said about having loved Valentine once, about having been his closest friend. Luke, she thought with a pang. Surely he couldn’t be sad — or even grieved?But then again, perhaps everyone should have someone to grieve for them, and there was no one else to grieve for Valentine.” - Cassandra Clare

25. “Isabelle," she said, lightening her tone with an obvious effort, "your loyalty to your friend is understandable --""He's not my friend." Isabelle looked over at Jace, who was staring at her in a sort of daze. "He's my brother.” - Cassandra Clare

26. “You can take your Law," she said in a measured tone, "and shove it right up your-” - Cassandra Clare

27. “When you love someone, you don't have a choice. Love takes your choices away.- Clary Fray” - Cassandra Clare

28. “I was trying to make you jealous!" Simon screamed, right back. His hands were fisted at his sides. "You're so stupid, Clary. You're so stupid, can't you see anything?"She stared at him in bewilderment. What on earth did he mean? "Trying to make me jealous? Why would you try to do that?"She saw immediately that this was the worst thing she could have asked him."Because," he said, so bitterly that it shocked her, "I've been in love with you for ten years, so I thought it seemed like the time to find out whether you felt the same about me. Which, I guess you don't.” - Cassandra Clare

29. “I'm not unhappy," he said. "Only people with no purpose are unhappy. I've got a purpose.” - Cassandra Clare

30. “I'm trying to figure out how someone could live in a brothel for a month and not notice. You must be terribly dull-witted." Tessa glared."If it helps at all, it seemed to be quite a high-class establishment. Nicely furnished, fairly clean...""Sounds as if you've visited your fair share of brothels," Tessa said, sourly. "Making a study of them?""More of a hobby," said Will, and smiled like a bad angel.” - Cassandra Clare

31. “Jem’s knees gave out, and he sank to the trunk at the foot of his bed, still playing. He played Will breathing the name Cecily, and he played himself watching the glint of his own ring on Tessa’s hand on the train from York, knowing it was all a charade, knowing, too, that he wished that it wasn’t. He played the sorrow in Tessa’s eyes when she had come into the music room after Will had told her she would never have children. Unforgivable, that, what a thing to do, and yet Jem had forgiven him. Love was forgiveness, he had always believed that, and the things that Will did, he did out of some bottomless well of pain. Jem did not know the source of that pain, but he knew it existed and was real, knew it as he knew of the inevitability of his own death, knew it as he knew that he had fallen in love with Tessa Gray and that there was nothing he or anyone else could do about it.” - Cassandra Clare

32. “Will you stay no longer? nor will you not that I go with you? Sebastian: By your patience, no. My stars shine darkly over me; the malignancy of my fate might, perhaps, distemper yours; therefore I shall crave of you your leave that I may bear my evils alone. It were a bad recompense for your love to lay any of them on you.” - William Shakespeare

33. “Being Jem, Tessa reflected, must be a great deal like being the owner of a thouroughbred dog that liked to bite your guests. You had to have a hand on his collar constantly.” - Cassandra Clare

34. “As the carriage whipped forward, they passed the alley she had spent so many days staring at—it was there, and then gone as they careened around a corner, nearly knocking over a costermonger pushing a donkey cart piled high with new potatoes. Tessa screamed.Will reached past her and yanked the curtain shut. "It's better if you don't look," he told her pleasantly."He's going to kill someone. Or get us killed.""No, he won't. Thomas is an excellent driver."Tessa glared at him. "Clearly the word excellent means something else on this side of the Atlantic.” - Cassandra Clare

35. “Sed lex, dura lex” - Cassandra Clare

36. “LondonThe InstituteYear of Our Lord 1878 “Mother, Father, my chwaer fach,It’s my seventeenth birthday today. I know that to write to you is to break the law, I know that I will likely tear this letter into pieces when it is finished. As I have done on all my birthdays past since I was twelve. But I write anyway, to commemorate the occasion - the way some make yearly pilgrimages to a grave, to remember the death of a loved one. For are we not dead to each other?I wonder if when you woke this morning you remembered that today, seventeen years ago, you had a son? I wonder if you think of me and imagine my life here in the Institute in London? I doubt you could imagine it. It is so very different from our house surrounded by mountains, and the great clear blue sky and the endless green. Here, everything is black and gray and brown, and the sunsets are painted in smoke and blood. I wonder if you worry that I am lonely or, as Mother always used to, that I am cold, that I have gone out into the rain again without a hat? No one here worries about those details. There are so many things that could kill us at any moment; catching a chill hardly seems important.I wonder if you knew that I could hear you that day you came for me, when I was twelve. I crawled under the bed to block out the sound of you crying my name, but I heard you. I heard mother call for her fach, her little one. I bit my hands until they bled but I did not come down. And, eventually, Charlotte convinced you to go away. I thought you might come again but you never did. Herondales are stubborn like that.I remember the great sighs of relief you would both give each time the Council came to ask me if I wished to join the Nephilim and leave my family, and each time I said no and I send them away. I wonder if you knew I was tempted by the idea of a life of glory, of fighting, of killing to protect as a man should. It is in our blood - the call to the seraph and the stele, to marks and to monsters. I wonder why you left the Nephilim, Father? I wonder why Mother chose not to Ascend and to become a Shadowhunter? Is it because you found them cruel or cold? I have no fathom side. Charlotte, especially, is kind to me, little knowing how much I do not deserve it. Henry is mad as a brush, but a good man. He would have made Ella laugh. There is little good to be said about Jessamine, but she is harmless. As little as there is good to say about her, there is as much good to say about Jem: He is the brother Father always thought I should have. Blood of my blood - though we are no relation. Though I might have lost everything else, at least I have gained one thing in his friendship.And we have a new addition to our household too. Her name is Tessa. A pretty name, is it not? When the clouds used to roll over the mountains from the ocean? That gray is the color of her eyes.And now I will tell you a terrible truth, since I never intend to send this letter. I came here to the Institute because I had nowhere else to go. I did not expect it to ever be home, but in the time I have been here I have discovered that I am a true Shadowhunter. In some way my blood tells me that this is what I was born to do.If only I had known before and gone with the Clave the first time they asked me, perhaps I could have saved Ella’s life. Perhaps I could have saved my own. Your Son,Will” - Cassandra Clare

37. “Simon snorted. "If you ever meet the man who could take advantage of Isabelle, you'll have to let me know. I'd like to shake his hand. Or run away from him very fast, I'm not sure which.” - Cassandra Clare

38. “The cord pulled taut and she rebounded, flying back up before falling again. As her velocity slowed, she opened her eyes and found herself dangling at the end of the cord, about five feet above Jace. He was grinning. "Nice," he said. "As graceful as a falling snowflake.""Was I screaming?" She asked, genuinely curious. "You know, on the way down."He nodded. "Thankfully no one's home, or they would have assumed I was murdering you.""Ha. You can't even reach me." She kicked out a leg and spun lazily in midair. Jace's eyes glinted. "Want to bet?"Clary knew that expression. "No," she said quickly. "Whatever you're going to do-"But he'd already done it. When Jace moved fast, his individual movements were almost invisible. She saw his hand go to his belt, and then something flashed in the air. She heard the sound of parting fabric as the cord above her head was sheared through. Released, she fell freely, too surprised to scream- directly into Jace's arms. The force knocked him backward, and they sprawled together onto one of the padded floor mats, Clary on top of him. He grinned up at her."Now," he said, "that was much better. You didn't scream at all.""I didn't get the chance." She was breathless, and not just from the impact of the fall. Being sprawled on top of Jace, feeling his body against hers, made her hands shake and her heart beat faster.” - Cassandra Clare

39. “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

40. “Church was doing what he often did when dropped - lying on his back with all four legs in the air, pretending to be dead in order to induce guilt in his owners.” - Cassandra Clare

41. “No one blames her.""That never matters," said Alec. "Not when you blame yourself.” - Cassandra Clare

42. “He seemed only ... annoyed. Annoyed, and sweaty, and hot. "Yeah, well," he said, "the next time you decide to sneak out of our magically warded apartment through a door that shouldn't really exist, leave a note.” - Cassandra Clare

43. “Take off your shirt."Jace raised his eyebrows. "I'm not going to attack you," she said impatiently. "I can take the sight of your naked chest without swooning.""Are you sure?" he asked, obediently sliding the shirt off his shoulders. "Because viewing my naked chest has caused many women to seriously injure themselves stampeding to get to me.” - Cassandra Clare

44. “The door buzzer sounded again. The two boys exchanged a single look before both bolting down the narrow hallway to the door. Jordan got there first. He grabbed for the coatrack that stood by the door, ripped the coats off it, and flung the door wide, the rack held aboe his head like a javelin. On the other side of the door was Jace. He blinked. "Is that a coatrack?"Jordan slammed the coatrack down on the ground and sighed. "If you'd been a vampire, this would have been a lot more useful.""Yes," said Jace. "Or, you know, just someone with a lot of coats.” - Cassandra Clare

45. “Simon turned to Jordan, who was lying down across the futon, his head propped against one of the woven throw pillows. "How much of that did you hear?""Enough to gather that we're going to a party tonight," said Jordan. "I heard about the Ironworks event. I'm not in the Garroway pack, so I wasn't invited.""I guess you're coming as my date now." Simon shoved the phone back into his pocket. "I'm secure enough in my masculinity to accept that," said Jordan. "We'd better get you something nice to wear, though," he called as Simon headed back into his room. "I want you to look pretty.” - Cassandra Clare

46. “I have a feeling you're right, Sherwin.''Simon. My name is Simon.” - Cassandra Clare

47. “Do you remember what I told you that first time at Taki's? About faerie food?""I remember you said you ran down Madison Avenue naked with antlers on your head", said Clary, blinking silver drops off her lashes.” - Cassandra Clare

48. “How she still thought of Max every day and it was like someone had emptied her lungs of air, and she would catch at her heart, afraid she was dying.” - Cassandra Clare

49. “She knew how breakups went from hearing other girls complain about them. First the pulling away, the gradual refusal to return notes or phone calls. The vague messages saying nothing was wrong, that the other person just needed a little space. Then the speech about how "It's not you, it's me." Then the crying part.She'd never thought any of that would apply to her and Jace. What they had wasn't ordinary, or subject to the ordinary rules of relationships and breakups. They belonged to each other totally, and always will, and that was that.But maybe everyone felt that way? Until the moment they realized they were just like everyone else, and everyone they'd thought was real shattered apart.” - Cassandra Clare

50. “wanting what you could not have led to misery and madness” - Cassandra Clare

51. “No one can say that death found in me a willing comrade, or that I went easily.” - Cassandra Clare

52. “There are ways in which we’re so alike. We’re reckless. We don’t think before we act. We’ll do anything for people we love. And I never thought how scary that was for the people who loved me until I saw” - Cassandra Clare

53. “Never trust a duck.” - Will Herondale

54. “Isabelle waved a hand. "No need to worry, big brother. Nothing happened. Of course," she added as Alex's shoulders relaxed, "I was totally passed-out drunk, so he could really have done whatever he wanted and I wouldn't have woken up.""Oh, please," said Simon. "All I did was tell you the entire plot of Star Wars.""I don't think I remember that," said Isabelle, taking a cookie from the plate on the table."Oh, yeah? Who was Luke Skywalker's best childhood friend?""Biggs Darklighter," Isabelle said immediately, and then hit the table with the flat of her hand."That is so cheating!” - Cassandra Clare

55. “Enormous? Did you just call me FAT? I am not fat. - Jace” - Cassandra Clare

56. “Cassandra Clare“Malachi scowled. "I don't remember the Clave inviting you into the Glass City, Magnus Bane.""They didn't," Magnus said. "Your wards are down."Really?" the Consul's voice dripped sarcasm. "I hadn't noticed."Magnus looked concerned. "That's terrible. Someone should have told you." He glanced at Luke. "Tell him the wards are down.” - Cassandra Clare

57. “Zhe shi jie shang, wo shi zui ai ne de. In all the world, you are what I love the most.” - Cassandra Clare

58. “It is a very strange thing, to be in love. It changes you.” - Cassandra Clare

59. “There are so many worse things than death. Not to be loved or not to be able to love: that is worse.” - Cassandra Clare

60. “One can love two children. But your heart can be given romantic love to only a single other, said Woolsey.” - Cassandra Clare

61. “For I wondered that others, subject to death, did live, since he whom I loved, as if he should never die, was dead; and I wondered yet more that myself, who was to him a second self, could live, he being dead. Well said one of his friend, "Thou half of my soul"; for I felt that my soul and his soul were "one soul in two bodies": and therefore was my life a horror to me, because I would not live halved. And therefore perchance I feared to die, lest he whom I had much loved should die wholly.” - Augustine of Hippo

62. “I always loved you, Will, whatever you did. And now I need you to do for me what I cannot do for myself. For you to be my eyes when I do not have them. For you to be my hands when I cannot use my own. For you to be my hear when mine is done with beating.No, said Will wildly. No, no, no. I will not be those things. Your eyes will see, your hands will feel, your hear will continue to beat.But if not, Will-If I could tear myself in half, I would-that half of me might remain with you and half follow Tessa-Half of you would be no good to either of us, said Jem.” - Cassandra Clare

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

64. “But what of you?” Gabriel said, and theywere very close now, almost touching. “It isyour choice to make now, to stay or return.”“I will stay,” Cecily said. “I choose thewar.”Gabriel let out the breath he hadn’t realizedhe was holding. “You will give up yourhome?”“A drafty old house in Yorkshire?” Cecilysaid. “This is London.”“And give up what is familiar?”“Familiar is dull.”“And give up seeing your parents? It isagainst the Law …”She smiled, the glimmer of a smile.“Everyone breaks the Law.”“Cecy,” he said, and closed the distancebetween them, though it was not much, andthen he was kissing her—his hands awkwardaround her shoulders at first, slipping on thestiff taffeta of her gown before his fingersslid behind her head, tangling in her soft,warm hair. She stiffened in surprise beforesoftening against him, the seam of her lipsparting as he tasted the sweetness of hermouth. When she drew away at last, he feltlight-headed. “Cecy?” he said again, hisvoice hoarse.“Five,” she said. Her lips and cheeks wereflushed, but her gaze was steady.“Five?” he echoed blankly.907/1090“My rating,” she said, and smiled at him.“Your skill and technique may, perhaps, requirework, but the native talent is certainlythere. What you require is practice.”“And you are willing to be my tutor?”“I should be very insulted if you chose another,”she said, and leaned up to kiss himagain.” - Cassandra Clare

65. “For five years it had been his absolute truth. Jem and Will. Will and Jem. Will Herondale lives, therefore Jem Carstairs lives also.” - Cassandra Clare

66. “What I do know is that if we are born again, I will meet you in another life, and if there is a river, you will wait on the shores for me to come to you, so that we can cross together.” - Cassandra Clare

67. “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

68. “Will closed his eyes. He could not hear Jem go, not anymore; he did not want to know the moment when he left and Will was alone, did now want to know when his first day as a Shawdowhunter without a parabatai truly began. And if the place over his heart, where his parabatai rune had been, flared up with a sudden burning pain as the door closed behind Jem, Will told himself it was only a stray ember from the fire.” - Cassandra Clare

69. “I need someone who can keep up with me, not some sickly creature that looks as if he’s doddering off to the grave.” - Cassandra Clare