Jonathan Renshaw Quotes

Aedan picked it up, looked around, and groaned. It was the biggest, most important-looking office he had ever found, which meant more trouble than he had yet managed to harvest.

If you care about people and you really love them, you should get angry at the things that put them in danger or hurt them.

There is most certainly a good time to run, just as there is a bad time. When the nation has more to gain by your getting away and living than by your standing proud and dying, then you run.

Prejudice creates blindness; it is too busy hating to think. No matter how justified it might feel, prejudice will shackle you." "But

Understanding a society means understanding the whole society, not just the part that dresses well.

Dorothy's cooking was legendary. It had once been said that she could turn soil to cake. William, her husband, had remarked that he could achieve the reverse, earning himself a sharp smack with the rolling pin.

He could not afford to indulge misery, to live in the past and stumble through life facing backwards.

Been in the river, haven't you?"
Aedan nodded.
"A sad day for everyone downstream," she said

You won't win like that Aedan. Remember what Dun taught us – fear and rage can both make a man stupid.

bad for me. I thought I'd made a huge mistake at the time, but I don't anymore. I would rather be the person who steps in front of a whole gang to defend someone and gets beaten up for it than the person who watches from a safe hiding. There were times I hid, and I think the shame hurts more than the bruises would have.

Without imagination, things were only as they appeared - and that was blindness. Things were more than they appeared, so much more. When he considered an oak tree, it was not just a tree. To someone small, like an ant, it was a whole landscape of rugged barky cliffs and big green leaf-plains that quaked when the sky was restless, a place of many strange creatures where fearsome winged beasts could pluck and devour someone in a blink.

Think boys, think! I cannot do it for you.

You tried to establish a fact from a lack of evidence. Unless the inquiry has been so exhaustive as to explore every possibility, the lack of evidence should never be used to ground a statement of fact. Unlikelihood certainly, but no more. A prematurely assumed fact blocks further inquiry." "Can

Aedan had never felt embarrassed about his imagination. Without it there was no magic.

One thing he shared with the singing bird was a love of rain and especially of storms. He always felt a deep thrill of awe when the pale sapphire cloaks of sky were flung aside and dark raging heavens roared and plunged and cast fire and water and ice upon the earth. Something

what use am I to anyone like this?" "Use is a poor word, a small word. You are of great worth to many just as you are.

I always hated...all sad songs. I thought they made happy people miserable. Now I think I understand them better. Bards write them because they can't hold them back. Sadness has got to flow out or it gets stuck and turns bitter.

People who seek answers are often not looking for truth.

Love opens the gate to the deepest hurt." "That

I hate mysteries that are forbidden. They are like meals you have to watch other people eat.

Kind and sweet people are kind and sweet to everyone, not just the people they like.

It was peace, deeper and broader than the starfields around him. It was belonging. It was freedom. Kneeling before the one who could only be the Ancient had not been the cost of freedom, but the means. For a long time he laughed and wept and laughed again, released.

I pity him, that he has been called by age to surrender his strength." "Old

Slightly whittled, sharper, but it is still a question. In time it will be sharp enough to impale the answer.

Aedan offered a grateful smile, but he knew the weight of the nobleman's word. Facts would not be determined by truth but by power.

He knew she would never have wanted rescue at this price, just as surely as he could not have withheld it.

From this height, you have as much chance of hitting her as him," Lanor objected.
"I'm not going to throw it from here." Aedan's voice was shaking now. Both men looked at him, confused. "You said our chance might be small," he said to Lanor, "but what about her? I promised not to abandon her, and I won't." He looked at the river. The canoe was approaching the mark.
"No Aedan," Lanor said, stepping forward and reaching out with a big hand. "You won't make it. I won't let you –" But Aedan was too quick for him. With a deep breath, he clenched his jaw, slipped around Lanor and sprinted at the edge. Moonlight made it more difficult to be completely sure-footed over the broken ground. A mistake now would rob him of the speed he needed to carry him over the rocks. Instinct dug its claws in and willed him to stop. He felt sick. He didn't want to do this. But he drove himself on. Fear surged as the edge rushed forward. He placed his final step. His stomach twisted. Then he leapt.

You would think,' Aedan said, 'that I'd feel good about this-I've grown while he, my old enemy, has shrunk. Yet all I feel is a terrible ache. I pity him, that he has been called by age to surrender his strength.

They talked in the way toddlers might throw playthings around the room. There was seldom any catching of an idea and sharing it. When the lunches were over, individual opinions lay scattered about in a delicious jumble only ever one layer deep.

Revenge is a selfish pursuit full of empty promise – I would know," he said. "But you speak of justice, of defending the innocent by felling their oppressor. I see that anger is still fierce in you, but I believe you'll learn to temper it with wisdom.

Aedan paced and cradled his chin. He wasn't sure if the chin-cradling helped him think, but he had often seen William doing it when trying to solve some problem, and it had always looked so grand.

Did you tell anyone?"
"No. Neither did I tell anyone about the time you broke into the chancellor's office and used a three-century-old marble bust to open the door."
"How did you know that?"
"I know now.

An assortment of soldiers and servants hurried about, finishing their duties for the day, or beginning their duties for the night, or possibly just looking busy to avoid being given additional duties.

Giddard presented them with a collection of Sulese memorabilia and commentaries. Loosely translated, some of them would have read: "The grass sparkled with dew droppings." Warton, I am not sure if that is intended as a beautiful or a horrible image. "I was tort to extinguish riyt from rong." Bede, apparently not. "Sulese are always inviting you to go for dinner to get murdered." Kian, it would seem from this that Sulese are enthusiastically hospitable, transparent of motive, and not very good at committing murder. All are grave errors. "Sulese food on heads with never eat hats." Cayde, Sulese order word important very is. It must learn you.

I don't care how unassailable it is," Aedan said, standing. "I'm assailing it.

Do you think," Aedan said, after a while, "that anger is wrong?"
"Don't know. Maybe it depends on how you use it."
"Or where it comes from?"
"What do you mean?" Lorrimer asked.
"Well, I used to think real men turned their anger into revenge, and that's what got them to be respected. But I tried it a few times and it didn't make me feel like a man any more than swearing or kicking the chickens. But when I saw that old woman today, the anger I felt was huge and it seemed like a right kind of anger.

He would carry this burn scar through life and it was time to start accepting it. There were, doubtless, people who would see it as Malik did, but then, should he really care what people like Malik thought?

As a small-town boy, Aedan had never really made friends; he had simply grown up with them.

Aedan nodded, trying not to stare, failing.
"Supper will level your opinion of me."
It was true. There was plenty of stew to be had and Aedan went to bed hungry.

He realised how much he hated tyrants, the strong who stood on the weak.

I've always found it better to face lies than turn from them

a battle plan unable to bend would shatter

They say the princess is a stunner," said Peashot. "They also say she's eighteen and twice as tall as you," Vayle replied. "I meant the younger one." "The younger one is a boy." "Oh. Well then I meant the older one. Five years is not so much, and anyway, I'll grow." "Yes, I'm sure she thinks daily of a delinquent midget apprentice growing up to claim her hand ahead of all the nobles and princes of the realm. What could any of them possibly give that you don't have, except titles, land, wealth and all that. You don't have any of those things lying around, do you?" "You're an idiot, Vayle. What does delinquent mean?" "It means you. If anybody asks you to describe yourself, that's the word you want." "Thanks. Idiot." "My pleasure. Allisian is pretty though, but I've heard that the prince chops off the heads of men who stare at his sister." Peashot snorted.

Without realising it, she was repeating the fault she had so recently lamented. Too fearful to intervene and hold back the tormenter, she was pleading instead with the victim to be more submissive. It was a solution that would resolve the conflict while entrenching the problem.

He led them inside and began explaining the process, but there was a problem. What the boys heard was, "Over here is the clang! and if you clang! carefully you'll notice clang! bang! Can you all see it?" He was met with twenty blank stares. "Sorry Master Skeet," Hadley said. Clang! "Can we see what?" "Weren't you listening? I said this is the clang! bang! bang!" More blank stares Skeet was growing red. He turned a dangerous eye on the nearest striker, raised his voice and tried again, "The cling! bang! Oh for mercy's sake!" He whipped around and bellowed with such force that every hammer froze on its descent. "The next one of you mangy curs who uses his hammer while I'm talking is going to swallow it!" The response was impressive. Hammers were cautiously laid down. Apart from the rumble from the forges, the space was filled with a respectful silence. Aedan guessed that Skeet was known here and that he held an intimidating rank. "Now, as I said,