Kristin Cashore’s “Graceling” Quotes (32 Quotes)

Katsa sat in the darkness of the Sunderan forest and understood three truths. She loved Po. She wanted Po. And she could never be anyone's but her own.

Your brand of comfort bears some similarity to your tactical offense.

Katsa watched the long grass moving around them. The wind pushed it, attacked it, struck it in one place and then another. It rose and fell and rose again. It flowed, like water.

You're afraid of your own anger

Alone in the forest, Katsa sat on a stump and cried. She cried like a person whose heart is broken and wondered how, when two people loved each other, there could be such a broken heart.

Los amigos no te mienten. Los amigos intentan comprenderte.

And the kings were no better to their own people than they were to each others.

Maybe it was for the best that she'd been so foolish, for if she'd known how hard this would be, perhaps she wouldn't have done it.

But you're better than I am, Katsa. And it doesn't humiliate me. It humbles me. But it doesn't humiliate me.

Mercy was more frightening than murder, because it was harder.

He leaned heavily on the desk now, as if danger had strengthened him before and its lack now made him weak.

Normal. She wasn't normal. A girl Graced with killing, a royal thug? A girl who didn't want the husbands Randa pushed on her, perfectly handsome and thoughtful men, a girl who panicked at the thought of a baby at her breast, or clinging to her ankles.

He made her drunk, this man made her drunk; and every time his eyes flashed into hers she could not breathe.

Perhaps I can stay by the fire and mend your socks and scream if I hear any strange noises.

How absurd it was that in all seven kingdoms, the weakest and most vulnerable of people - girls, women - went unarmed and were taught nothing of fighting, while the strong were trained to the highest reaches of their skill.

Raff, what have you done to yourself? Your hair is positively blue.

I have no doubt that you are more than capable of bringing the Monsean queen and my son and the rest of my sons and a hundred Nanderan kittens through an onslaught of howling raiders if you chose to.

She couldn't steal herself back from Randa only to give herself away again - belong to another person, be answerable to another person, build her very being around another person

I thought it was supposed to be impossible to sneak up on you. Eyes of a hawk and ears of a wolf and all.

She groped forward, hands and feet, in search of darkness, distance and solitude.

If I wanted to stun anyone at dinner, I'd hit them in the face.

She wanted to cause him pain for taking a place in her heart she wouldn't have given him if she'd known the truth

In the end, Leck should have stuck to his lies. For it was the truth he almost told that killed him.

Still doing your best to ruin the horses, I see.

It hurt her eyes, almost, Ror City; and it didn't surprise her that Po should come from a place that shone.

The only way for you to keep your mind straight is to run from those who would confuse you.

It was a strange monster, for beneath its exterior it was frightened and sickened by its own violence. It chastised itself for its savagery. And sometimes it had no heart for violence and rebelled against it utterly.

Then she'll know I'll want to knock her senseless if she so much as looks at me.

It's as if when I open myself up to every perception, things create their own focus.

What she really loved was to hang over the edge and watch the bow of the ship slice through the waves. She loved it especially when the waves were high and the ship rose and fell, or when it was snowing and the flakes stung her face.

Katsa didn't think a person should thank her for not causing pain. Causing joy was worthy of thanks, and causing pain worthy of disgust. Causing neither was neither, it was nothing, and nothing didn't warrant thanks.

When you're a monster, you are thanked and praised for not being a monster.