Home > Author > Sabaa Tahir
41 " As long as there is life, there is hope. "
― Sabaa Tahir , An Ember in the Ashes (An Ember in the Ashes, #1)
42 " I miss you." I hope she hears what I'm truly saying. I love you. I'm sorry. I wish I could fix it. "I'll always miss you. Even when I'm a ghost. "
― Sabaa Tahir , A Torch Against the Night (An Ember in the Ashes, #2)
43 " Tell us a story. Something scary.” She shivers in anticipation, and Cook makes a strange sound that could be a laugh or a groan. “Life isn’t scary enough for you, girl? "
44 " Curse this world for what it does to the mothers, for what it does to the daughters. Curse it for making us strong through loss and pain, our hearts torn from our chests again and again. Curse it for forcing us to endure. "
― Sabaa Tahir , A Reaper at the Gates (An Ember in the Ashes, #3)
45 " Her hands, so steady when she stirs vats of jam or braids my hair, flutter like frantic birds, desperate for me to move faster. "
46 " Don't look so worried. Most successful missions are just a series of barely averted disasters. "
47 " Cook’s voice is nothing like a Tribal Kehanni’s: It is stern where a tale-spinner’s would be gentle, all edges where a tale-spinner’s would be mellow and curved. "
48 " Speaking to him would mean learning about him. Understanding him. Maybe befriending him. I know what it is to travel with someone, to break bread and laugh and grow close to them. And though perhaps it's foolish, that frightens me. Because I also know the pain of losing friends. "
49 " Most people...are nothing but glimmers in the great darkness of time. But you...are no swift-burning spark. You are a torch against the night - if you dare to let yourself burn. "
50 " I don't believe in the supernatural. Not when there's worse that roams the night "
51 " Contrary to what you might think, girl," Cook says, "the Commandant is not all-powerfull. She underestimated you, for one. She misread Spiro Teluman -- he is a man and so, in her mind, is onlly capable of a man's base appetites. She hasn't connected you to your parents. She makes mistakes, like everyone else. The only difference is that she doesn't make the same mistake twice. Keep that in mind and you just might be able to outwit her. "
52 " It's a trick question, Aquilla. A Mask is not made. She is remade. First she is destroyed. Stripped down to the trembling child that lives at her core. It doesn't matter how strong she thinks she is. Blackcliff diminishes, humiliates, and humbles her." "But if she survives, she is reborn. She rises from the shadow world of failure and despair so that she might become as fearful as that which destroyed her. So that she might know darkness and use it as her scim and shield in her mission to serve the Empire. "
53 " Easy. Moments after putting the willadonna in, I’m swept into the heart of the festival with a tide of Scholars. I count twelve exits and identify twenty potential weapons before I realize what I’m doing and force myself torelax. "
54 " I don't understand what you want", I say. "We're made through pain. Suffering. Through torment, blood, and tears. "
― Sabaa Tahir , An Ember in the Ashes / A Torch Against the Night / A Reaper at the Gates
55 " But you are a paragon of perfection?" Cain tilts his head, appearing genuinely curious. "You live and breath and eat and sleep on the backs of those less fortunate. Your entire existence is due to the oppression of those you view to be lesser. But why you, Blood Shrike? Why did fate see fit to make you the oppressor instead of the oppressed ? What is the meaning of your life? "
56 " I wonder if my entire life will be a series of moments in which I realize I’m an idiot long after I can actually do anything about it. Will I ever feel like I know what I’m doing? "
57 " I wish I could live a thousand lives so I could fall in love with you a thousand times "
― Sabaa Tahir , A Sky Beyond the Storm (An Ember in the Ashes, #4)
58 " You are my temple. You are my priest. You are my prayer. You are my release. "
59 " Laia and Helene: They’re so different. I like that Laia says things I don’t expect, that she speaks almost formally, as if she’s telling a story. I like that she defied my mother to go to the Moon Festival, whereas Helene always obeys the Commandant. Laia is the wild dance of a Tribal campfire, while Helene is the cold blue of an alchemist’s flame. But why am I even comparing them? I’ve know Laia a few days and Helene all my life. Helene’s no passing attraction. She’s family. More than that. She’s part of me. "
60 " How much pain exists in the world because we cannot get past what has been done to us, because we insist on inflicting pain right back? "