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81 " I laughed; I couldn’t help it. It wasn’t mirth, it was bitterness. “So the fairy silver brought you a monster of fire for a husband, and me a monster of ice. We should put them in a room together and let them make us both widows. "
― Naomi Novik , Spinning Silver
82 " I can't," I said. "I have a crown. If it means anything, it means this.""Then leave it," she said. "Leave it, Irinushka. It's only sorrow on sorrow."I bent and kissed her cheek. "Help me put it on," I said softly, and she went and took it with tears in her eyes "
83 " The Staryk didn’t know anything of keeping records: I suppose it was only to be expected from people who didn’t take on debts and were used to entire chambers wandering off and having to be called back like cats. "
84 " It made me angry, because being angry was better than being afraid. "
85 " Gifts, and thanks—we’ll accept from someone what they can give then, and make return to them when it’s wanted, if we can. And there are some cheats, and some debts aren’t paid, but others are paid with interest to make up for it, and we can all do the more for not having to pay as we go. "
86 " ... I ate it all she gave me another piece and when I ate all of that she gave me another with honey. My stomach was so full I could feel it with my hand. "
87 " But the world I wanted wasn’t the world I lived in, and if I would do nothing until I could repair every terrible thing at once, I would do nothing forever. "
88 " But the world I wanted wasn't the world I lived in, and if I would do nothing until I could repair every terrible thinf at once, I would do nothing forever. "
89 " The memory of the story the way they’d told it in the village square so many times, about a girl who made herself a queen with someone else’s gold, and never paid her debts. "
90 " high magic: magic that came only when you made some larger version of yourself with words and promises, and then stepped inside and somehow grew to fill it. "
91 " Was a lesson to everyone that being a witch was not the same thing as being wise. "
92 " Spend one and save one; you remember the wise man’s rule, "
93 " Think on it with a clear head. Lords and kings often don’t ask for what they want, but they can afford to have bad manners. "
94 " And I was so tired of being afraid all the time. It felt like I had been afraid and afraid without stopping forever. "
95 " Better to make no bargain than a bad one, and be thought of forever as an easy mark. "
96 " No one had cared what I wanted, or whether I was happy. I’d had to find my own way to anything I wanted. I’d never been grateful for that before now, when what I wanted was my life. "
97 " Their law didn’t seem to allow for mistakes, and if you couldn’t make what you said true, they’d repair the fault in the world by putting you out of it. "
98 " I knew that no matter what there would be no mercy to it, no kindness allowed. You couldn’t return a kindness after you were dead. "
99 " I’m not a fool, to take gifts from monsters. Where do you think its power comes from? Nothing like that comes without a price. "
100 " I didn’t want to die, and I didn’t want to kill; I didn’t want to go to death a murderer with bloody hands. I wanted that more than I didn’t want to be a liar. But he was going to die anyway, die worse, and they would all die with him. There were a thousand ways to die, and not all of them were equally as bad. "