Once I Cared Quotes & Sayings

The sword was called Kaledvoulc'h, which means hard lightning, though Igraine prefers to call it Excaliber, and I shall call it so as well because Arthur never cared what name his longsword carried. Nor, did he care about his childhood, for certainly I never heard him speak of it. I once questioned him about his early days and he would not answer. "What is the egg to the eagle?" he asked me, then said that he had been born, he had lived, and he had become a soldier, and that was all I needed to know. — Bernard Cornwell

Once, I started listing off all the people that I truly cared about. When I got to number seven, Penelope told me I either needed to whittle down my list or stop making friends immediately. My mother says you should never have more people in your life than you could defend from a hungry rakshasa. — Rainbow Rowell

Once this had been the life I'd wanted. Even chosen. Now, though, I couldn't believe that there had been a time when this kind of monotony and silence, this most narrow of existences, had been preferable. Then again, once, I'd never known anything else...
My mother had to know I was unhappy. But it didn't matter: all she cared about was that I was her Macy again, the one she'd come to depend on, always within earshot or reach. I came to work early, sat up straight at my desk and endured the monotony of answering phones and greeting potential homebuyers with a smile on my face. After dinner, I spent my hour and a half of free time alone, doing accepted activities. When I came home afterwards, my mother w ould be waiting for me, stickingher head out of her office to verify that, yes. I was just where I was supposed to be. And I was. I was also miserable.
~Macy, pg 306 — Sarah Dessen

...I haven't guessed where your shirt is from yet Bane, but I don't think it'll matter once it's underwater!'
Tristan looked at Bane questioningly.
Bane rolled his eyes and stage whispered: 'She asked why I cared so much about getting her dirty, teary face all my new shirt earlier, and asked where I got it from anyway. I said: 'Guess', and then she said she didn't have a clue. And then we bumped into you before I could break it down for her.'
Tristan snorted. 'Are you serious?'
'As an earthquake', Bane smirked. — S.K. Munt

I looked across into the uninviting distance and once again came to me the question, 'Have I the soul of a slave or the soul of a free man?' Then with clearness I realized that if I had the soul of a slave, I should give up, lie down in the desert and die, a fitting end for a runaway slave. "But if I had the soul of a free man, what then? Surely I would force my way back to Babylon, repay the people who had trusted me, bring happiness to my wife who had cared for me, bring peace and contentment to my parents. — George S. Clason

You do care a little for me, I know ... but nothing to speak of, and you don't love me. I was yours once till death if you'd cared to keep me, but I'm someone else's now ... and he's mine in a way that shocks you, but why don't you stop being shocked, and attend to your own happiness. — E. M. Forster

He wasn't the type for displays of affection, either verbal or not. He was disgusted by couples that made out in the hallways between classes, and got annoyed at even the slightest sappy moments in movies. But I knew he cared about me: he just conveyed it more subtly, as concise with expressing this emotion as he was with everything else. It was in the way he'd put his hand on the small of my back, for instance, or how he'd smile at me when I said something that surprised him. Once I might have wanted more, but I'd come around to his way of thinking in the time we'd been together. And we were together, all the time. So he didn't have to prove how he felt about me. Like so much else, I should just know. — Sarah Dessen

Ner'zhul... Gul'dan. Two of the darkest names ever to sully the history of my people. And yet, Drek'thar tells me that once Ner'zhul was admired, even beloved, and truly cared for the people whos spiritual leader he was. It is hard to reconcile those words with what Ner'zhul has become, but I try. I try because I want to understand.
And yet, try as I might... I do not. — Christie Golden

I sat and looked up at the blue sky and across at the blank windows for a long time. A woman I'd once cared about had worked in anadvertising agency over there. Sometimes, when the sun came at them from a different angle, I could see through the windows across the street and watch her moving about her office. Agency was gone now. Maybe the whole building was gone, replaced by a new one. It was hard to remember. — Robert B. Parker

Did that mean she had not cared deeply for any of her husbands? I wondered. Or only that she was a woman of great strength, capable of overcoming grief, not once, but over and over again? — Diana Gabaldon

If I have to die, I'd rather die knowing someone cared about me, just once. Is that really too much to ask?"
"For us? Yes. It is. We are the gutter and the gutter is all we'll ever be. Don't reach out for the stars. They'll burn you until there's nothing left."
"Then let me burn."
Nykyrian & Syn — Sherrilyn Kenyon

I never once doubted that my parents cared about my thoughts and my ideas. And I always, always knew how deeply they loved me. That feeling of being valued and loved, that's what my mom wants for every child. — Chelsea Clinton

In my recollection, there have been many places and people I have been both blessed and cursed to know. Much joy and heartache can come from immortality, for loneliness can be lethal. I have unfortunately witnessed many I cared for, both mortal and not, perish. I have never been able to own anything that was truly mine. Once, I possessed everything, but many moons have come since that time.
Sacha Borishauski — Wynter Wilkins

Dominance and submission is an intimate binding. Those who submit must trust that those who dominate will never take more than they can give." A sardonic smile twisted Ram's lips. "Those who dominate must give those who submit everything they need but never more than they can endure."
"By your definition, the dominus has the harder role," she whispered.
"Perhaps. What is more difficult? To trust another so completely? Or to honor the responsibility to never betray such a trust once given?"
"I guess that would depend on how much the dominus cared for his slaaf."
Ram shrugged. "I suppose it would." Steffania saw a bleak pain in his eyes quickly masked. "Enough talking," he said gruffly. — Patricia A. Knight

As Confucius once said, 'He who does nothing is the one who does nothing.'"
Gabby pondered the words, the furrowed her brow. "did Confucius really say that?"
Sunglasses in place, Stephanie managed the tiniest of shrugs. "No, but who cared? The point is, they handled, and most likely they found some sort of self-satisfaction in their industrious-ness. Who am I to deprive them of that? — Nicholas Sparks

I've spent my entire life listening to people tell me why I can't be loved and how I'm nothing but a worthless piece of shit. I always told myself that I didn't care, that I didn't need anyone else. It was a lie, you know. I do care and I want Kiara. If it costs me my life to be with her, it doesn't matter. I've already lived past my prime, anyway. I get up every morning with more pain in my joints than the day before. If I have to die, I'd rather die knowing someone cared about me, just once. Is that really too much to ask? (Nykyrian)
For us? Yes. It is. We are the gutter and the gutter is all we'll ever be. Don't reach out for the stars. They'll burn you until there's nothing left. (Syn)
Then let me burn. (Nykyrian) — Sherrilyn Kenyon

Once you Ascend, you'll get all your memories back!" Isabelle shouted at him.
"If I Ascend, it will be in two years. I'm not going to be the same guy in two years, even if I do get all the memories back, because there will be so many other memories. You're not going to be the same girl. I know you believed in me, Isabelle, I know you believed because you
you cared about him. That means more than I can tell you. But, Isabelle, Isabelle, it isn't fair of me to take advantage of your belief. It isn't fair to keep you waiting for him, when he isn't ever coming back. — Cassandra Clare

I wasn't just fucking Ani. It never could have been that, and I was an idiot for assuming it could. Our lives were intertwined. I cared too much before we'd started sleeping together. There was no way I was going to be able to shut that off once I'd been inside her. — Nicole Jacquelyn

With Stephen, I had become a sour, witless bore. With others, I could be light. Men I cared nothing about called me, and every once in a while, I accepted an invitation. On them my indifference worked like an aphrodisiac, Because I didn't want anything, I felt free an jabbered away spinning out all kinds of silliness that seemed only to augment their desire. — Siri Hustvedt

I was also lucky to play for an owner, Bud Selig, who truly cared about his players. He'd call me into his office once in a while when he knew things weren't going so well. And it's funny. Every time I left there I always felt like something good was about to happen. — Robin Yount

I once heard you can't truly hate a person until you've cared about them. Until you've loved them -Mandarin — Kirsten Hubbard

You care, you really care for me!" "Of course," Eric said. "How could you doubt it?" But it was not easy to believe that anyone cared for me; I sometimes failed to realize, I think, how much my parents cared for me. It is only now, reading the letters they wrote to me when I came to America fifty years ago, that I see how deeply they did care. And perhaps how deeply many others have cared for me - was the imagined lack of caring by others a projection of something deficient or inhibited in myself? I once heard a radio program devoted to the memories and thoughts of those who, like me, had been evacuated during the Second World War, separated from their families during their earliest years. The interviewer commented on how well these people had adjusted to the painful, traumatic years of their childhood. "Yes," said one man. "But I still have trouble with the three Bs: bonding, belonging, and believing." I think this is also true, to some extent, for me. — Oliver Sacks

I am a king's daughter, And if I cared to care, The moon that has no mistress Would flutter in my hair. No one dares to cherish What I choose to crave. Never have I hungered, For that I did not have I am a kings daughter, And I grow old within The prison of my person, The shackles of my skin. And I would run away And beg from door to door, Just to see your shadow Once, and never more. — Peter S. Beagle

The tears grappled with her face.
Rudy, please, wake up, Goddamn it, wale up, I love you. Come on, Rudy, come on, Jesse Owens, don't you know I love you, wake up, wake up, wake up..
But nothing cared ...
She leaned down and looked at his lifeless face and Liesel kissed her best friend, Rudy Steiner, soft and true on his lips. He tasted dusty and sweet. He tasted like regret in the shadows of trees and in the glow of the anarchist's suit collection. She kissed him long and soft, and when she pulled hersel away, she touched his mouth with her fingers. Her hands were tremblin, her lips were fleshy, and she leaned in once more, this time losing control and misjudging it. Their teeth collided on the demolised world of Himmel Street. — Markus Zusak

In all the photos I see the boy I once knew and the man he became, a flawed but decent man whom I grew to care about in a more complicated way than I had ever cared about the boy. — Elizabeth Stone

I went away, after trying once more to rouse up Bashan by renewed calls and
encouragement. In vain. He cared as little for my going as for my coming. He seemed weighed down by bitter loathing and despair. He had the air of saying: "Since you were capable of having me put in this cage, I expect nothing more from you." And, actually,
had he not enough ground to despair of reason and justice?
[ ... ]
How could I explain to him we were treating him with great distinction, in shutting him up like a jaguar, without sun, air, or exercise, and plaguing him every day with a
thermometer? — Thomas Mann

I remember
The way you used to hold me.
I remember
The thrill we used to share.
We seem to be
Strangers passing by now.
Tell me, did you forget how
We once cared? — Alexandra Monir

Tell me if you ever cared,
if a single thought
for me was spared.
Tell me when you lie in bed,
do you think of something
I once said.
Tell me if you hurt at all,
when someone says
my name with yours.
It may have been so long ago,
but I would give
the world to know. — Lang Leav

Start being honest with her. Aidan always let her know what he was thinking. And he fairly much treated her like a queen."
Lothaire sneered, "That's the worst bloody advice I've ever heard!"
Brandr bowed his chest. "And why's that, leech? She cared for Aidan once - she will again."
"Precisely. She cared for Aidan," Lothaire said. "I knew of Aidan the Fierce - no mortal could kill that many of the Horde without my hearing about it. And I know that he was a bold, blond Viking who was like a god among men. Women wanted him and men wanted to be him." He sighed.
"Reminded me of myself. — Kresley Cole

We should educate more women and girls. Because that is the surest route to controllably, manageably reducing the human population. Educated women have fewer kids. And the kids they do have are better cared for and are more successful. As I like to say, it's not one thing that we need to focus on. It's everything all at once. — Bill Nye

And because no one answered or cared and a conversation went on without her she felt profoundly lonely, suspecting once more for herself a particular doom of exclusion. Something of the trees in their intimacy of shadow was shared by the husband and wife and their host in the tree-shadowed room. She thought of love with its gift of importance. "I must break in on all this," she thought as she looked around the room. — Elizabeth Bowen