Home > Work > Crown Duel (Crown & Court, #1-2)
1 " Except. What is normal at any given time? We change just as the seasons change, and each spring brings new growth. So nothing is ever quite the same. "
― Sherwood Smith , Crown Duel (Crown & Court, #1-2)
2 " But I will never ask anyone from our village-from any village in Tlanth-to risk his or her life unless I'm willing to myself. "
3 " Who in the universe halts when the enemy tells them to? "
4 " If your opponent is better armed and has longer reach, then surprise is your only ally. And then you'd better hope he's half asleep. "
5 " Because you showed one face to all the rest of the world, and another to me. "
6 " One doesn't lose a self, like a pair of gloves or a pine. We learn and change, or we harden into stone. "
7 " If more people recognized the difference between friendship and mere attraction, and how love must partake of both to prosper, I expect there'd be more happy people. "
8 " I had seen ardency in men's eyes, but I had only felt it once. With Flauvic, false and therefore easy to dismiss. I suddenly wished that I could feel it now. No, I did feel it. I did have the same feeling, only I had masked it as restlessness, or as the exhortation to action, or as anger. I thought how wonderful it would be to see that spark now, in the right pair of eyes. "
9 " The more one has, the less one desires. "
10 " Some of it was wrong decisions made for the right reasons, and a little of it was right decisions made for the wrong reasons; but most of what I did was wrong decisions for the wrong reasons. "
11 " Who can ever know what turns the spark into flame? Vidanric's initial interest in me might well have been kindled by the fact that he saw my actions as courageous, but the subsequent discovery of passion, and the companionship of the mind that would sutain it, seemed as full of mystery as it was of felicity. As for me, I really believe that the spark had been there all along, but I had been too ignorant--and too afraid--to recognize it. "
12 " But I'd also learned that the self might want one thing, but that didn't mean it was right. "
13 " You don't look at the problem all at once, or it's like being caught in a spring flood under a downpour. You tackle the problem in pieces... "
14 " the stubborn little countess—so unlike anyone Vidanric had ever met—trampled her determined, well-meaning way not only over his plans, but his thoughts. "
15 " It is a shame that so few have the time or inclination for scholarship these days. There is much entertainment to be afforded in perusing the mistakes of our forbears. "
16 " Except, what is normal at any given time? We change just as the seasons change, and each spring brings new growth. So nothing is ever quite the same. I realize now that what I wanted was comfort, but that, too, does not often come with growth and change. "
17 " I can see her struggling to make what she considers courtly banter, but if she’s ever been kissed before, I’ll eat my hat. I’ll eat your hat, which has more lace on it. "
18 " I’d learned something, all right, about the power of attraction, and Nee was right, it was potent. But I’d also learned that the self might want one thing, but that didn’t mean it was right. Isn’t that why we have minds? "
19 " Suddenly I felt an overwhelming desire to be home. I wanted badly to clean out our castle, and replant Mama’s garden, and walk in the sunny glades, and think, and read, and learn. I no longer wanted to face the world in ignorance, wearing castoff clothing and old horse blankets. "
20 " You're drunk as four skunks, you idiot. "
