Mary E. Pearson Quotes & Sayings

There is something about her eyes. Eyes don't breathe. I know that much. But hers look breathless. — Mary E. Pearson

Weaknesses? You have no weaknesses? It skips through me. Catches. Weakness. Please, Jenna. We need you. Why do I see Kara's and Locke's faces? They couldn't have been my weaknesses. They feel more like my strengths. "And no weaknesses?" "I didn't write them down." "Would you like to share?" Share? I'm afraid. I'm lost. I have no friends. It keeps coming back to that. Why does it bother me so? I have no friends. Which weakness shall I tell her? "I walk funny," I say, and she is satisfied with that. Morning — Mary E. Pearson

Being like everyone else is highly overrated. — Mary E. Pearson

For we must not just be ready,
for the enemy without,
but also for the enemy within.
And so shall it be,
Sisters of my heart,
Brothers of my soul,
Family of my flesh,
For evermore. — Mary E. Pearson

Choice
I needed it like I needed air.
Bit no one could hear me.
No one could listen.
No words. No sound.
No voice.
I couldn't even dream myself away.
Choices were made.
None of them mine.
At first I wondered if it was hell.
And then I knew it was. — Mary E. Pearson

This was something I'd never been trained for. There were no military strategies or drills to prepare me for the daily torment of not killing someone. — Mary E. Pearson

People will notice the beauty of what they usually ignore ~ — Mary E. Pearson

We all have a dark place in us. It's what we do with it and the choice we make. — Mary E. Pearson

Love's always a messy affair better left to young hearts — Mary E. Pearson

Continued From Previous Quote
I Wondered if His Interest Had Began When I Tended His Shoulder. I Remembered His Odd Look of Surprise When I Touched Him,as If No One Had Shown Him a Kindness Before. If
Gruz,Finch abd Malich Were Any Indication of His Past. Maybe No-One Had. They Showed a Certain Steely Devotion to One Another.That In No Way Resembled Kindness. And Then There Were Those Scars on His Back. Only Cruel Savages Could Have Delievered That. Yet Somewhere Along The Way,Kaden Had Learned Kindness,Tenderness Even.It Surfaced in Small Actions. He Seemed Like He Was Two Separate People,The Intensely Loyal
Venden Assassin and Someone Else Far Different,Someone He Had Locked Away. A Prisoner Like Me. — Mary E. Pearson

He shook his head. "I'm not like your kind." And then more sharply, almost as an accusation: "Why don't you carry weapons?"
I bristled, pulling back my shoulders. "We have weapons. We just don't use them on people."
"Maybe if you did, you wouldn't be so weak."
Weak? My fingers curled to a fist, and swifter than a hare, I punched him in the stomach. He grunted, doubling over.
"Does that seem weak to you, mighty scavenger?" I taunted. "And remember, our numbers are twice that of yours. Maybe it is you who should follow our ways. — Mary E. Pearson

White
There was a moment in the darkness when the fear lifted.
A moment where white surrounded me.
Hope.
Lily, and someone else, and a sprinkling of water.
"Holy water, Jenna."
"You can let go if you need to."
"Forgiveness, Jenna."
But I couldn't let go.
It wasn't in my power.
I was already swirling, flying, falling.
To someplace deep I didn't understand.
Where all the sounds buy my own voice disappeared.
Only me.
For so long.
I don't want to be alone anymore. (120) — Mary E. Pearson

From the seed of the thief
The Dragon will rise,
the gluttonous one,
feeding on the blood of babes,
Drinking the tears of mothers.
- Song of Venda — Mary E. Pearson

But I am more than a name. More than they tell me — Mary E. Pearson

Lay down your arms, and we will create a hope that lasts — Mary E. Pearson

Crown Prince Walther of Morrighan was dead ... Silence choked the crowd for a moment and then mother after mother, sister, father, wife, brother, fell to their knees. — Mary E. Pearson

the center as well. He laid his cards out. A fortress of lords. The governors threw down their cards, unable to beat him. Everyone waited, breathless, for Lia to lay her cards out. She frowned and shook her head. Then looked at me. Blinked. A slow blink as long as a thousand miles. Then back at Malich. A long sigh, contrite. She laid out her cards. Six black wings. A perfect hand. "I think this beats yours, doesn't it, Malich?" Malich — Mary E. Pearson

Maybe the impossible is possible when you take everything else away.
When nothings left, maybe you can reach for something that no one knew existed.
Or maybe we became something new.
Maybe we made it exist. — Mary E. Pearson

I continued to shower, in no hurry to join back up with the guards who waited for me. I wondered when and if I would see Lia again. Rafe wouldn't make it easy, especially now that he was -
I shoved my head back under the water. I hadn't even gotten used to the idea of him being a prince, and now he was a blazing king. — Mary E. Pearson

My timing is off. But I had to get it out. Some things you have to tell, no matter how stupid they may sound. Some things you can't save for later. There might not be a later. — Mary E. Pearson

So you approve of what I did?" I asked hesitantly. "Let's just say I wasn't overly surprised." "And Bryn and Regan?" He sat beside me and looped his arm over my shoulder, pulling me close. "My dear sweet sister, your brothers all love you as much as we ever did, and none of us blame you for wanting more from a marriage, though we've all been worried for your well-being. It's only a matter of time before someone discovers you." I — Mary E. Pearson

I wished that love could be simple, that it was always given and returned in the same measure, equally and at the same time, that all the planets aligned in a perfect way to dispel all doubts, that it was easy to understand and never painful. — Mary E. Pearson

I suppose if we're going to fall in love all over again, kissing will be part of it. — Mary E. Pearson

Things I can feel. Hard. Soft. Rough. Smooth. But the inside kind of feel, it is all the same, like foggy mush. Is that the part of me that is still asleep? (9) — Mary E. Pearson

What good would one last good-bye do? Wouldn't it just prolong the pain? — Mary E. Pearson

But last night - I swallowed, remembering how they looked together when I went to check on Lia during the night. I had seen his hand resting on her bed and her hand curled over his. Both of them were asleep, peaceful. I backed out of the room quietly so they wouldn't see me. Maybe that was what had given me the courage to tell her the truth. — Mary E. Pearson

I used to be someone. — Mary E. Pearson

I felt something wet trickle down the side of my face. I reached up and swiped the salty wetness away.
How quaint.
How very quaint.
Like believing some things last forever.
A tear. As if that could make a difference. — Mary E. Pearson

Like it better, nothing like sunshine dried right into your clothes. — Mary E. Pearson

Multiple closets for different needs. Overkill. — Mary E. Pearson

It's not every day one has a first kiss,' I said.
'May I remind you that it wasn't your first kiss?'
'It felt like it was. It was the first one that mattered. — Mary E. Pearson

And yet, when we stopped at the last hamlet and I saw him embrace the elders and leave gifts, saw the hope that he left behind, and remembered it was he who had saved Kaden from the savagery of his own kind, I wondered if anything I felt in my gut really mattered. — Mary E. Pearson

It is good to have many strengths, Natiya...Do not sacrifice one kind of strength for another — Mary E. Pearson

It doesn't matter how many universes come and go, I will always remember who we were together. — Mary E. Pearson

Maybe staying on the surface keeps her from returning to a place where she can't breathe. — Mary E. Pearson

How can you be sure?"
"I'm a doctor, Jenna. And a scientist."
"Does that make you an authority on everything? What about a soul, Father? When you were so busy implanting all your neural chips, did you think about that? Did you snip my soul from my old body, too? Where did you put it? Show me! Where? Where in all this groundbreaking technology did you insert my soul? — Mary E. Pearson

I left and went to the roof, where it was only me, a thousand blinking stars, and the beauty of darkness stretched to the ends of the universe, snuffing out the endless games of courts and kingdoms. — Mary E. Pearson

There are many ways to feed people. — Mary E. Pearson

The angels threw glitter up there, just for you, Zoe, Daddy had told her. They celebrated almost as much as I did the day you were born. Every time you look up there you remember how special you are - so special the angels threw a big party. — Mary E. Pearson

I beg your forgiveness, Your Eminence. I would not truly feed your face to the hogs. It might make them sick. — Mary E. Pearson

My anger spiked. I should have stabbed the Komizar again. Carved him up like a holiday goose, then brought his head back skewered on a sword and showed it to the crowds as proof that I had no love for the tyrant. — Mary E. Pearson

I don't want five hundred billion neural chips. I want guts. — Mary E. Pearson

Desperate pieces of string that hold us up but at the same time keep us from being anything other than what we have always been. — Mary E. Pearson

But I would always see her. Until I drew my last breath, it would always be her face I saw when I closed my eyes at night, and her face again when I woke each morning. I would force myself to forget the last words I heard from her lips. I would remember others. I love you, Jafir de Aldrid. Words that, now, I was sure I had never deserved. I — Mary E. Pearson

Or maybe I'm a masochist and I like girls who are as annoying as hell! Don't try to analyze me, Jenna. I am what I am. — Mary E. Pearson

I still cry on waking. I'm not sure why. I feel nothing. Nothing I can name, anyway. It's like breathing - something that happens over which I have no control. (6) — Mary E. Pearson

I decide that sometimes definitions are wrong. Even if they're written in a dictionary. Identities aren't always separate and distinct. Sometimes they ARE wrapped up with others. Sometimes, for a few minutes, maybe they can even be shared. And if I am ever fortunate enough to return to Mr. Bender's garden, I wonder if the birds will see that piece of him that is wrapped up in me. — Mary E. Pearson

Percentages! Those are for economists, polls, and politicians. Percentages can't define your identity. — Mary E. Pearson

I was becoming stronger in some ways but weaker in others. — Mary E. Pearson

I used to be someone.

Someone named Jenna Fox.

That's what they tell me. But I am more than a name. More than they tell me. More than the facts and statistics they fill me with. More than the video clips they make me watch.

More. But I'm not sure what. — Mary E. Pearson

I thought grandmothers had to like you. It's a law or something. — Mary E. Pearson

'cause only the Lord knows the heart of a man. ain't our job to be second-guessing. — Mary E. Pearson

I trust you all slept well," I said, deliberately keeping my tone light. I returned Malich's glare with a tight-lipped grin.
"Yes, we did," Kaden answered quickly.
"I'm sorry to hear that. — Mary E. Pearson

Once upon a time, there was a man as great as the gods ...
But even the great can tremble with fear.
Even the great can fall — Mary E. Pearson

The scrutiny was smothering. Right now it seemed that being Vendan within these outpost walls was preferable to being the impudent royal who had abandoned their precious prince at the altar. — Mary E. Pearson

These memories descend out of nowhere, giving me pieces of who I was, but their significance is lost. I sigh and resume my walk, not knowing if this memory is important, or just more of the jumbled trivia of Jenna's life, like sock shopping. Maybe that is all any life is composed of, trivia that eventually adds up to a person, and maybe I just don't have enough of it yet to be a whole one. — Mary E. Pearson

I know what it feels like to have my choices taken away. I pray no daughter of your kingdom will ever have to fight for her voice to be heard as I have had to do — Mary E. Pearson

His bite will be cruel, but his tongue cunning,
His breath seductive, but his grip deadly.
The Dragon knows only hunger, never sated,
Only thirst, never quenched.
- Song of Venda — Mary E. Pearson

The thought weaves into her unexpectedly, as so many thoughts do, time again. How do you make the remembering stop? — Mary E. Pearson

Change doesn't happen overnight-it's molded by people who don't give up — Mary E. Pearson

I know you have the patience of a rapidly decomposing turd. — Mary E. Pearson

Sometimes it's the smallest and most innocent things you have to watch out for — Mary E. Pearson

Regroup. Move forward. — Mary E. Pearson

There is one true history And one true future. Listen well, For the child sprung from misery Will be the one to bring hope. From the weakest will come strength. From the hunted will come freedom. - Song of Venda — Mary E. Pearson

But remember, child, we may all have our own story and destiny, and sometimes our seemingly bad fortune, but we're all part of a greater story too. One that transcends the soil, the wind, time ... even our own tears. Greater stories will have their way. — Mary E. Pearson

I just think perfection and lasting through the ages is for Greek statues, not us mere humans. — Mary E. Pearson

I finally pushed away and wiped my eyes. I looked at him, expecting to see his own embarrassment, but instead I only saw concern in his eyes. "You have a sister, don't you?" I asked.
"Three," he answered.
"I could tell. Maybe that's why I-" I shook my head. "I don't want you to think I do this a lot."
"Cry? Or get abducted?"
I smiled. "Both. — Mary E. Pearson

The house is still, like the breath has been punched out of it. — Mary E. Pearson

Sometimes the enemy is just one person who will bring down a kingdom. — Mary E. Pearson

Words have longer lives than people. — Mary E. Pearson

Maybe there was no one way to define it. Maybe there were as many shades of love as the blues of the sky, — Mary E. Pearson

He was a habit in my thoughts, not any more welcome than a rash, but I'd find myself thinking of him before I even realized what I was doing. Banishing him from my thoughts was like learning to breathe in a new way. it was a conscious effort. — Mary E. Pearson

Dreams and knowing are two different things. — Mary E. Pearson

Yes, I could turn away and ignore everything in my heart. Leave it to someone else! Maybe hundreds have! But maybe I choose to step forward, instead of stepping back. — Mary E. Pearson

Am I less because I have fewer, or do the few I have mean more? — Mary E. Pearson

There are a lot of memories we imagine. We play them over and over in our minds, trying to orchestrate our movements and words to perfection. Or maybe it's just that I've lived inside of my head more than any other person in the history of the world. Maybe none of us can really predict how we will act at any give moment. Maybe we're all at the mercy of circumstance in spite of our well-laid plans. — Mary E. Pearson

My memory is coming back. It is curious how it comes. Each day, a rush of pieces, loosely connected, unimportant bits, snake through me. They click, click, click into my brain, like links being snapped together. And then they are done. A small chain of memories that fill in one tiny part of my life. They come out of nowhere, and most are not important. — Mary E. Pearson

Observing and understanding are two different things. — Mary E. Pearson

Eyes don't breath. I know that much. But her eyes look breathless — Mary E. Pearson

Maybe there were a hundred different ways to fall in love. — Mary E. Pearson

Whatever you choose for your stationery is your favorite color because it's where you pour your heart out. — Mary E. Pearson

I don't care what mistakes I made or what mistakes you made. I'd make every single one again, if that was the only way to be with you — Mary E. Pearson

My strengths are not your strengths. — Mary E. Pearson

Who was this girl who thumbed her nose at two kingdoms and did as she pleased? — Mary E. Pearson

And today, like each time they have landed on my hand for the past two hundred years, I wonder at the weight of a sparrow. — Mary E. Pearson

We all have our different skills. You're patient to a fault, which sometimes doesn't work to your advantage. I, on the other hand, have the patience of a wet cat. Only on rare occasions does that come in handy. — Mary E. Pearson

What we think is ethical today, we may not have thought ethical five or 10 years ago. Cloning, stem cell research? However we feel about those things today, we may feel differently 10 years from now. — Mary E. Pearson

I shan't make a fuss over the babe's father. — Mary E. Pearson

I think that maybe forgiveness is like change - it comes in small steps. (256) — Mary E. Pearson

It felt like I had been punched in the gut - a feeling I wasn't accustomed to. I usually guarded myself well in that regard. Wounds in the field were one thing, but these kind, they were sheer stupidity. I may have had the air knocked out of me, but Rafe looked like he had been trampled. Stupid sot.
When I turned to leave, he was standing just a dozen feet away, not even trying to hide his presence. He had seen it all. Apparently the smitten jackass had followed us. He didn't speak when I saw him. I suspected he couldn't.
I brushed past him. "It seems she's true to her word. She isn't the innocent sort, is she?"
He didn't reply. A reply would have been redundant. His face already said it. Maybe now he'd be on his way once and for all. — Mary E. Pearson

Pieces"
Isn't that what all of life is anyway?
Shards. Bits. Moments.
Am I less because I have fewer, or do the few I have mean more?
Am I just as full as anyone else? Enough?
Pieces.
Allys saying "I like you"
Gabriel snorting out bread freeing me to laugh.
And Ethan reminding me how much I do know.
Pieces.
I hold them likethey are life itself.
They nearly are. — Mary E. Pearson

Our fingers unlace so slowly that I am certain some part of me has been left behind on her fingertips. — Mary E. Pearson

A sacrifice ever remembered.
Never forgotten.
Another day we live.
A sacrifice for you. Only for you.
And so shall it be,
For evermore.
Paviamma — Mary E. Pearson

The world has changed. It's gotten better. It's gotten worse. After all these years, Jenna's words still echo is my head, 'just as one problem is solved, a new one is created.' The work never ends. If there's one thing you can always count on in this world, it is change. I don't fear it the way I used to. I try to be read for it. One day, maybe, all the changes will be only for the good. I can dare to dream. I can always hope for more. — Mary E. Pearson

I created an icicle sculpture in the snow. White on white. — Mary E. Pearson

The old men shall dream dreams,
The young maids will see visions,
The beast of the forest will turn away,
They will see the child of misery coming,
And make clear the path.
- Song of Venda — Mary E. Pearson

Chance. It weaves through our lives like a golden thread, sometimes knotting, tangling, and breaking along the way. Loose threads are left hanging, but the in and out, the back and forth continues, the weaving goes on. It doesn't stop. — Mary E. Pearson

When I was halfway between one world and another, a moment of clarity broke through. This is what it was to die. * — Mary E. Pearson

I would never betray Venda."
"Sometimes we're all pushed to do things we thought we could never do. — Mary E. Pearson

Once upon a time,
Long, long ago,
Seven stars were flung from the sky.
One to shake the mountains,
One to churn the seas,
One to choke the air,
And four to test the hearts of men.
Your hearts are to be tested now.
Open them to the truths,
For we must not just be ready
For the enemy without,
But also the enemy within. — Mary E. Pearson