Home > Work > The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, #1)
121 " It moves a lot, this land. Like an old man lying restlessly abed it heaves and sighs, puckers and farts, yawns and swallows. Naturally this land's people have named it the Stillness. It is a land of quiet and bitter irony. "
― N.K. Jemisin , The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, #1)
122 " (Friends do not exist. The Fulcrum is not a school. Grits are not children. Orogenes are not people. Weapons have no need of friends.) "
123 " and not for the first time does Syenite think, If only this could last. She knows better than to wish for something so impossible. "
124 " Naughty, naughty, chides a voice in your head. The voice of your conscience, deep and male. "
125 " It's as if they're having a private contest, etiquette versus etiquette, best shit-eating grin take all. "
126 " He rolls onto his back, looking up at the sky, and she thinks that’s the end of the conversation until he says, “I think you hate me because… I’m someone you can hate. I’m here, I’m handy. But what you really hate is the world.” At "
127 " She keeps her pace unhurried, nodding to the seniors she sees whether she recognizes them or not - she does want Feldspar's job, after all - and taking the wide stairways gradually, pausing now and again to appreciate the artfully arranged patterns of light and shadow cast by the narrow windows. She's not sure what makes the patterns so special, actually, but everyone says they're stunning works of art, so she needs to be seen appreciating. "
128 " She has never heard so much hate put into one word before. But standing here, with the ultimate proof of the world's hatred dead and cold and stinking between them, she can't even flinch this time. "
129 " The woman draws herself up, almost swelling in her fury. 'I know better than to pay attention to those fools at the University. I'm not stupid. "
130 " Rust this. This woman doesn't deserve the effort of her explanation. Syen decides to save that for someone who matters. "
131 " They are not masters of themselves; allow them no mastery of others. "
132 " Earth our father knewHe would need clever life, so He used the Seasons to shapeus out of animals: clever hands for making things and cleverminds for solving problems and clever tongues for workingtogether and clever sessapinae to warn us of danger. Thepeople became what Father Earth needed, and then morethan He needed. Then we turned on Him, and He has burnedwith hatred for us ever since. "
133 " I have been waiting for you both. We saved good stories for you. "
134 " Mother isn’t ashamed of anything she’s done. If she was, why would she do it? "
135 " The words are almost cold, but she knows that tone, because she's used it herself. Any time she's needed to hold on to her dignity with fingernails and pent breath. "
136 " You understand these moments, I think instinctively. It is our nature. We are born of such pressures, and sometimes, when things are unbearable.... sometimes, even we...crack. "
137 " Casa è ciò che porti con te, non ciò che lasci indietro. "
138 " You lick your lips. "
139 " Inverno, Primavera, Estate, Autunno; La morte è la quinta e la padrona di tutte "
140 " ...it’s like tasting a page of a book and noticing the minute differences between the ink and the bare page and using that to read. "