Karen Raven Quotes & Sayings

He didn't care that he'd be punished. Punishments always came to an end eventually. [Felix] — Karen Maitland

I was about to add it was as likely a friendship as Lucifer and the Archangel Michael sharing a jug of ale, but I stopped myself. [Vincent] — Karen Maitland

Maybe that is what Hell is, being trapped for ever in your own nightmares and never being able to wake. [Gisa] — Karen Maitland

That is the art of being a good librarian. You must always be able to lay hands on anything your master requires. Keep everything, chiot, throw away nothing, however insignificant or old. You never know when it might be needed. "The cornerstone which the builders rejected", that is what an ancient book is, Vincent, a cornerstone. Many might consider it worthless, but one day it may prove to be the very stone upon which the whole house stands. Words, Vincent, always hoard the written words as if they were royal jewels. [Gaspard] — Karen Maitland

He will not tell them that it lives, that it escaped them, That will be his treasured secret. — Karen Maitland

Those who kill can never be forgiven, for their victims cannot forgive them. And they go, drenched in guilt, to their graves. [Sylvian] — Karen Maitland

There is no higher soul than that of man and it is from man that the stone of eternal life must be drawn. Therefore the book that contains the knowledge of that stone must be wrapped in human flesh. No matter how sick a man might be, no matter what his deformities, his healing lies within these pages. [Sylvian] — Karen Maitland

Don't you have faith in your Saviour that He will raise you to life again? (...) Isn't that what you teach those grieving widows and bereft parents? (...) But you don't really believe that. You see nothing beyond the grave, so you are determined never to enter it. You want eternal life for yourself now, here in the flesh. You want to remain just as you are now, while all around you wither and die. (...) You crave the power that will come only when you can outlive them all. [Sylvian] — Karen Maitland

Curiosity was always my weakness and, once more, it got the better of me. [Vincent] — Karen Maitland

For a moment there was an expression of greedy excitement in his eyes, like you see in the eyes of men when they are looking at woman who arouses their lust. — Karen Maitland

You know that all things are composed of four elements. Tell me their qualities", he orders, his smile suddenly vanished. "Fire is hot a dry. Air is dry and moist. Water cold and moist. Earth cold and dry." [Gisa] — Karen Maitland

I have been wronged by so many men that I find it hard to trust anyone and see only greed and malice in every heart. [Sylvian] — Karen Maitland

You will sleep till the stars fall from the heavens ans the seas turn into dust. [Father Arthmael] — Karen Maitland

There was a man with the sun in the place of his head and a woman with the moon instead of a face. — Karen Maitland

Both the vessel and the receiver must be chosen carefully according to the nature of the ting to be distilled. — Karen Maitland

His words burn like acid. — Karen Maitland

If they don't utter the words, it cannot happen. But words, once spoken, seal a man or maid for life or death. [Gisa] — Karen Maitland

Edah Amsellah - The Tears of the Dragon — Karen Maitland

She was like an outline of the painting of the Holy Virgin that an artist has sketched in black and white, but not yet filled with colour. — Karen Maitland

You bear the mark of the ouroboros, the sign of eternal life. And what is that circle, but the shadow of the sun itself. — Karen Maitland

I gazed back up the dome of the heavens painted on the ceiling above. It was only then that I noticed somethings else in the painted sky, directly above the bed. The sun, moon and stars were positioned in swirls around some object in the centre, like angels clustered round the throne of God. But this was no throne, nor was it God. [Vincent] — Karen Maitland

If I had killed someone, it would certainly have come as no surprise to him, since he was always telling I'd end my days on the gallows. [Vincent] — Karen Maitland

His gaze was fixed so intently on me that, though I had been determined to look him in the eye as his equal, I found myself having to stare down at the corner of the table in order to stammer out a word. — Karen Maitland

How long have I been here? I haven't been able to tell day from night with eyes covered." [Vincent]
"Nor could you anyway, in here. There are no windows and the walls are so thick you cannot hear the church bells. It was built so that the one who prayed here would not be aware of the passage of time or the world outside. When we reach into the higher planes, we pass beyond time. Only the body is governed by time, but that too, I will change". [Sylvian] — Karen Maitland

Even when you're terrified, or because fear sharpens the mind, you get flashes of blinding comprehension. [Vincent] — Karen Maitland

You are the sacred consummation of the sun and the moon and the shadow and you will become the poison of death. [Sylvian] — Karen Maitland

Some of what you see, my child, may make you affraid, revolted even, but you must remember that all life is born of corruption. The reborn can rise only from death and decay. Resurrection springs only from the tomb. — Karen Maitland

It was a mark of just how saintly I was that I hand't smothered him to death long ago. [Vincent] — Karen Maitland

Et moriendo docebo - I will teach you how to die. — Karen Maitland

On the other hand, curiosity was eating me up, and curiosity is a demon who will not relinqish its hold on you until its voracious appetite has been satisfied. — Karen Maitland

The earth makes creatures well again. When you are sick you are put to bed, and when you are very sick, you are put into the earth to make you well. — Karen Maitland

The essence of the moon, gathered by a virgin, added to the death of innocence. [Sylvian] — Karen Maitland

Yet the ink on the page was ancient, faded. (...) Fresh iron-gall ink was as black as Beelzebub's beards. — Karen Maitland

On the shelves of her uncle's shop a jar contains the powdered skull of a suicide, a well-known cure for the falling sickness. — Karen Maitland

Sometimes I feared I'd turn into a bat myself, stuck up there night and day, scrathing away. [Vincent] — Karen Maitland