Cordelia Carstairs Quotes

Charles had climbed on a bench and was calling out that he had something to say, creating a racket that quickly got the attention of the room. Everyone looked immensely surprised, including Tessa and Will. Sona frowned, clearly thinking Charles was very rude. She didn't know the half of it, Cordelia thought darkly.
"Let me be the first to raise a glass to the happy couple!" said Charles, doing just that. "To James Herondale and Cordelia Carstairs. I wish to add personally that James, my brother's parabatai, has always been like a younger brother to me."
"A younger brother he accused of vandalizing greenhouses across our fair nation," muttered Will.
"As for Cordelia Carstairs - how to describe her?" Charles went on.
"Especially when one has not bothered to get to know her at all," murmured James.
"She is both beautiful and fair," said Charles, leaving Cordelia to wonder what the difference was, "as well as being brave. I am sure she will make James as happy as my lovely Grace makes me." He smiled at Grace, who stood quietly near him, her face a mask. "That's right. I am formally announcing my intention to wed Grace Blackthorn. You will all be invited, of course."
Cordelia glanced over at Alastair; he was expressionless, but his hands, jammed into his pockets, were fists. James had narrowed his eyes.
Charles went on merrily. "And lastly, my thanks go out to the folk of the Enclave, who supported my actions as acting Consul through our recent t ~ Cassandra Clare

A broad smile spread across Will's face. "Then we have no choice but to give our blessing too. Cordelia Carstairs," he said, "the Carstairs and the Herondales will be bonded even more closely now. If James could have chosen his wife from all the women in all the worlds that are or ever were, I would wish for no other."
Tessa laughed. "Will! You cannot compliment our new daughter only on the chance of her last name!"
Will was grinning like a boy. "Wait until I tell Jem - ~ Cassandra Clare

At any moment, Cordelia knew, her mother would notice that she was drifting in the middle of the dance floor like an abandoned tugboat and charge toward her, and then Cordelia would die. She would die of the humiliation. ~ Cassandra Clare

I simply cannot see why one would wish to picnic in the nude. There would be ants in dreadful places. ~ Cassandra Clare

A blond vampire in a garnet-red frock. She was lovely, and pale as new snow: Cordelia thought of the mundane women who paid to have their faces enameled white to preserve their youth and keep their fashionable pallor.
They ought to just become vampires, she thought. It would be less expensive. ~ Cassandra Clare

I appreciate the scientific rigor with which you've approached this project, Anna," said Christopher, who had gotten jam on his sleeve. "Though I don't think I could manage to collect that many names and also pursue science. Much too time-consuming."
Anna laughed. "How many names would you want to collect, then?"
Christopher tilted his head, a brief frown of concentration crossing his face, and did not reply.
"I would only want one," said Thomas.
Cordelia thought of the delicate tracery of the compass rose on Thomas's arm, and wondered if he had any special person in mind.
"Too late for me to only have one," declared Matthew airily. "At least I can hope for several names in a carefully but enthusiastically selected list."
"Nobody's ever tried to seduce me at all," Lucie announced in a brooding fashion. "There's no need to look at me like that, James. I wouldn't say yes, but I could immortalize the experience in my novel."
"It would be a very short novel, before we got hold of the blackguard and killed him," said James.
There was a chorus of laughter and argument. The afternoon sun was sinking in the sky, its rays catching the jeweled hilts of the knives in Anna's mantelpiece. They cast shimmering rainbow patterns on the gold-and-green walls. The light illuminated Anna's shabby-bright flat, making something in Cordelia's heart ache. It was such a homey place, in a way that her big cold house in Kensington was not.
"What about you, C ~ Cassandra Clare

You look ill," Matthew observed. "Is it my dancing? Is it me personally?"
"Perhaps I'm nervous," she said. "Lucie did say you didn't like many people."
Matthew gave a sharp, startled laugh, before schooling his face back into a look of lazy amusement. "Did she? Lucie's a chatterbox."
"But not a liar," she said.
"Well, fear not. I do not dislike you. I hardly know you," said Matthew. "I do know your brother. He made my life miserable at school, and Christopher's, and James's."
"Alastair and I are very different," Cordelia said. She didn't want to say more than that. It felt disloyal to Alastair. "I like Oscar Wilde, for instance, and he does not."
The corner of Matthew's mouth curled up. "I see you go directly for the soft underbelly, Cordelia Carstairs. Have you really read Oscar's work?"
"Just Dorian Gray," Cordelia confessed. "It gave me nightmares."
"I should like to have a portrait in the attic," Matthew mused, "that would show all my sins, while I stayed young and beautiful. And not only for sinning purposes - imagine being able to try out new fashions on it. I could paint the portrait's hair blue and see how it looks."
"You don't need a portrait. You are young and beautiful," Cordelia pointed out.
"Men are not beautiful. Men are handsome," objected Matthew.
"Thomas is handsome. You are beautiful," said Cordelia, feeling the imp of the perverse stealing over her. Matthew was looking stubborn. "James is beautiful too, ~ Cassandra Clare

Emma Cordelia Carstairs," he said. He looked both very young and very old at the same time. There was blood at his throat where his faded rune stood out, but it wasn't his. He seemed to be searching her face, though for what, she couldn't tell. "Stay with your parabatai ~ Cassandra Clare

That's everyone's dream, isn't it, really? Instead of many who give you little pieces of themselves-one who gives you everything. ~ Cassandra Clare

So, Jessamine," said Lucie. "Can ghosts lie?"
"Certainly not!" Jessamine looked shifty. "Ghosts are completely honest. I keep telling you, it was mice who knocked your silver mirror behind the desk and broke it."
"It appears clear that if ghosts are liars, they are terrible liars," said James.
Matthew sighed. "It is very strange to see you conversing with the invisible."
"Humph," said Jessamine. She wobbled a bit and firmed up, her outlines clearing as she drifted down toward the floor. Shadowhunters, having the Sight, could generally see ghosts who wanted to be seen, but Lucie knew it was an effort for Jessamine to make herself visible to all eyes.
"Oh!" said Cordelia. "It's very nice to meet you, Jessamine. Lucie speaks of you often."
Jessamine beamed.
"You are a very attractive ghost," said Matthew, tapping his ringed fingers against his chest. "I do hope Lucie and James have mentioned as much."
"They have not," Jessamine noted.
"Very remiss," said Matthew, his eyes sparkling.
"You are not at all like Henry," said Jessamine, eyeing Matthew speculatively. "He was forever setting things on fire, and not a compliment to be heard."
"Jessamine," Lucie said. "This is important! Do tell us, can ghosts lie? Not you, of course, my dear."
"Ghosts can lie," Jessamine conceded. ~ Cassandra Clare

Cordelia frowned seeing Anna's expression. "Anna? What's wrong?"
Anna scowled. "I had come here to horsewhip Charles, but it appears that he is elsewhere."
"Charles Fairchild?" Cordelia echoed blankly. "I believe he's at home - he called a gathering at his house for high-ranking Enclave members. You could go horsewhip him there, but it would make for a very strange meeting."
"High-ranking Enclave members?" Anna rolled her eyes. "Well, no wonder I don't know about it. So I suppose I'll have to wait until later to puncture him like the pustulant boil he is. ~ Cassandra Clare

Sona looked slightly horrified. "Cordelia has a tendency to throw herself into every situation headlong," she said to Tessa and Will. "I'm sure you understand."
"Oh, we do," said Will. "We're always speaking very sternly to our children about that very thing. 'If you don't throw yourself into situations headlong, James and Lucie, you can expect bread and water for supper again.'  "
Alastair choked on a laugh. Sona stared at Will as if he were a lizard with feathers. ~ Cassandra Clare

The point of stories is not that they are objectively true, but that the soul of the story is truer than reality. Those who mock fiction do so because they fear the truth.
-Cordelia Carstairs ~ Cassandra Clare

Will glanced over at Cordelia and smiled. "We could ask for no lovelier girl to be his wife."
Alastair looked as if he wished to edge away. Cordelia didn't blame him. "Thank you, Mr. Herondale," she said. "I hope to live up to your expectations."
Tessa looked surprised. "Why would you ever worry about that?"
"Cordelia worries," Alastair said unexpectedly, "because of the idiots who mutter about our father, and our family. She should not let them bother her."
Tessa laid a gentle hand on Cordelia's shoulder. "The cruel will always spread rumors," she said. "And others who take pleasure in that cruelty will believe them and spread them. But I believe that in the end, truth wins out. Besides," she added with a smile, "the most interesting women are always the most whispered about. ~ Cassandra Clare

I hear you have come to London to be parabatai with our Lucie," said Cecily. She looked nearly as young as Tessa, though since she wasn't an immortal warlock, one wondered how she managed it. "I am pleased - it is high time more girls became parabatai. It has been a state monopolized by men for far too long."
"Well, the first parabatai were male," Will pointed out, in a manner that made Cordelia wonder if Cecily had once found him insufferable, as she found Alastair. ~ Cassandra Clare

As the carriage rolled under the Institute's gates, James saw his parents standing in the courtyard.
"And where have you been?" Will demanded as James clambered out of the carriage. The others leaped down behind him, the girls, being in gear, needing no help to dismount. "You stole our carriage."
James wished he could tell his father the truth, but that would be breaking their sworn promise to Ragnor.
"It's only the second-best carriage," James protested.
"Remember when Papa stole Uncle Gabriel's carriage? It's a proud family tradition," said Lucie, as the group of them approached the Institute steps.
"I did not raise you to be horse thieves and scallywags," said Will. "And I recall very clearly that I told you - "
"Thank you for letting them borrow the carriage to come and get me," said Cordelia. Her eyes were wide, and she looked entirely innocent. James felt an amused stab of surprise: she was an interestingly skilful liar. "I had very much wanted to come to the Institute and see what I could do to help."
Will softened immediately. "Of course. You are always welcome here, Cordelia. ~ Cassandra Clare

Where are we going?" Cordelia whispered, as they hurried along the corridors of the Institute. "Lucie. You cannot simply abduct me, you know."
"Nonsense," said Lucie. "If I wished to abduct you, you can be sure that I would do it quite expertly, no doubt beneath the veil of silence and darkness. ~ Cassandra Clare

The brave princess Lucretia raced through the marble halls of the palace. "I must find Cordelia, " she gasped. "I must save her."
"I believe Prince James holds her even now, captive in his throne room!" Sir Jerrod exclaimed. "But Princess Lucretia, even though you are the most beautiful and wise lady that I have ever met, surely you cannot fight your way through a hundred of his stoutest palace guard!" The knight's green eyes flashed. His straight black hair was is disarranged, and his white shirt entirely undone.
"But I must!" Lucretia cried. ~ Cassandra Clare

Anna's attention was focused on a single patient. Ariadne Bridgestock lay quietly against the white pillows. Her eyes were shut, and her rich brown skin was ashen, stretching tightly over the branching black veins beneath her skin.
Anna slipped in between the screens surrounding Ariadne's cot, and Cordelia followed, feeling slightly awkward. Was she intruding? But Anna looked up, as if to assure herself that Cordelia was there, before she knelt down at the side of Ariadne's bed, laying her walking stick on the floor.
Anna's bowed shoulders looked strangely vulnerable. One of her hands dangled at her side: she reached out the other, fingers moving slowly across the white linen sheets, until she was almost touching Ariadne's hand.
She did not take it. At the last moment, Anna's fingers curled and dropped to rest, beside Ariadne but not quite touching. In a low and steady voice, Anna said, "Ariadne. When you wake up - and you will wake up - I want you to remember this. It was never a sign of your worth that Charles Fairchild wanted to marry you. It is a measure of his lack of worth that he chose to break it off in such a manner."
"He broke it off?" Cordelia whispered. She was stunned. The breaking off of a promised engagement was a serious matter, undertaken usually only when one of the parties in question had committed some kind of serious crime or been caught in an affair. For Charles to break his promise to Ariadne while she lay unconscious was appalling. ~ Cassandra Clare

Cristina, of all the people I know, you're the most generous, and you spend the most time thinking about what makes other people happy. I think you should do whatever makes you happy. You deserve it. ~ Cassandra Clare

You don't have to do this for me," Emma was saying, softly but earnestly, in a voice Cristina had never heard her use before.
I think I do," said Julian. "I think I remember making a vow to that effect."
"'Whither thou goest, I will go, whatever stupid thing you do, I will do also?'" Emma said. "Was that the vow? ~ Cassandra Clare

...for a moment, Julian saw John Carstairs looking at Emma, or his own mother looking at him, the mixture of love for what is and sorrow for what cannot be kept... ~ Cassandra Clare

The strangeness of the Barrayaran government system with all its unwritten customs, pressed on Cordelia not so much as first glance but gradually. And yet it seemed to work for them somehow. They made it work, pretending a government into existence.
Perhaps all governments were all consensus fictions at their hearts. ~ Lois McMaster Bujold

She was standing in front of all of them in just her bra and jeans. She didn't care. She didn't feel naked- she felt clothed in rage and fury, like a warrior from one of Arthur's tales. ~ Cassandra Clare

It's a very strange thing to fall in love, it changes you. ~ Cassandra Clare

Being a vampire is not a curse. It's a disease," Tessa filled in. "But they still can't enter hallowed ground, then? Does that mean they're damned?"
"That depends on what you believe," said Jem. "And whether you believe in damnation at all."
"But you hunt demons. You must believe in damnation!"
"I believe in good and evil," said Jem. "And I believe the soul is eternal. I don't believe in the fiery pit, the pitchforks, or the endless torment. I do not believe you can threaten people into goodness. ~ Cassandra Clare

Will has always been the brighter burning star, the one to catch attention - but Jem is a steady flame, unwavering and honest. He could make you happy. ~ Cassandra Clare

That sounds almost practiced, James Carstairs. How many girls have you made swoon with that observation?"
"There is only one girl I care to make swoon," he said. "The question is, does she?"
She smiled at him. "She does. ~ Cassandra Clare

If you've got nothing to dance about, find a reason to sing. ~ Melody Carstairs

You call me afraid?" demanded Mark. "Insult me again and find your blood spilled, girl."
"Mark, this is Emma," Julian said. " Emma Carstairs."
Mark pressed himself farther back into the wall. "Lies," he said. "Lies and dreams. ~ Cassandra Clare

I'm not afraid of seeing Cordelia. I'm afraid of being Cordelia. Because in some way we changed places, and I've forgotten when. ~ Margaret Atwood

That the wall is coming down. ~ Cassandra Clare

Julian?" Emma called. "Julian, is that you? ~ Cassandra Clare

I thought I would walk with you a little way, my parabatai. ~ Cassandra Clare

Doyle: "What is it now, then?"
Cordelia: "Isn't java supposed to be a coffee?"
Doyle: "Ready to abandon the the Web project?"
Cordelia: "No way. We have a chance here to make contact with the millions of people out there who are glued to their computers."
Doyle: "All those millions, shunning human contact. I'll never understand it. Call me old-fashioned, if you like, but I want to interface with a face, not a hunk of plastic and glass."
Cordelia: "Climb out of the Dark Ages, Munchkin man."
Doyle: "It's leprechaun, and either way, I don't appreciate the insult. ~ John Passarella

You hear that, James Carstairs? We are bound, you and I, over the divide of death, down through whatever generations may come. Forever. ~ Cassandra Clare

With each daunting step, the armor I'd always worn like a protective cloak unraveled, and my footing faltered. ~ E.R. Pierce

You don't even like poetry," Tessa said, her voice catching on a half laugh of relief.
"No. But you make me want to write it. Does that not count for anything? ~ Cassandra Clare

I only regret that it came too soon. I
I would have wanted to
to court your first. To take you driving, with a chaperon." (Jem)
"A chaperon?" (Tessa)
"To tell you my feelings first, before I showed them. To write poetry for you
" (Jem)
"You don't even like poetry," (Tessa)
"No. But you make me want to write it. Does that not count for anything?" (Jem) ~ Cassandra Clare

I hope you can break that protection before tomorrow night, or I wouldn't say much about our chances."
"Will" Jem chided "Don't say that."
"You're right." Will said, "I shouldn't underestimate my own skills. Should Tessa make a mess of things, I'm sure I'll be able to fight our way through the slavering masses of vampires to freedom. ~ Cassandra Clare

And that, she realized, fully encompassed the Carstairs family's last and most important rule of life: no matter what, never forget that everything generations of their family had accomplished could vanish in an instant. ~ Shelley Gray

Cordelia! stay a little. Ha! What is't thou say'st? Her voice was ever soft. ~ William Shakespeare

He hadn't wanted to leave Emma, but at the same time he'd thought it would help. Like an addict getting away from the source of his addiction. ~ Cassandra Clare

Not that I want to be thin. Heaven forbid. I do not want to take up less space in the world. I should like to take up more... ~ Ellen Hart

Well of course it did and it would have made any man feel just as I did! I told Mama - perfectly politely! that it was enough to make me jump on the Bristol coach, and ship aboard the first packet bound for America, or anywhere else that Bristol boats sail to,because I would rather live in the Antipodes than have Cordelia hanging around my neck... ~ Georgette Heyer

Will? Will is that you?"

"Tessa? Tessa is that you?"

"Will? Is that you Will? ~ Cassandra Clare

In response to an article in the New York times that claimed from an fMRI study that 'a mother's impulse to love and protect her child appears to be hard-wired into her brain' one neuro-curmudgeon put out a plea to 'take experience and learning seriously. Just because you see a response [in the brain] - you don't get to claim it's hard-wired. ~ Cordelia Fine

Blatant, intentional discrimination against women is far from being something merely to be read about in history books. ~ Cordelia Fine

C-68 has little to do with gun control or crime control, but it is the first step necessary to begin the social re-engineering of Canada. ~ Sharon Carstairs

Yeah, but I kill myself training. It's just about all I do. I get up and train, and run and I split my hands on the punching bag, and I train for hours into the night, and I have to, because there is nothing else special about me and nothing else that matters. All there is, is training and finding out who killed my parents. Because they were the ones who thought I was special, and whoever took them away from me...What I have is trying. I can try harder than anyone else in the world. I can make revenge the only thing I have in my life. I can do that, because I have to. But it means it's all I have. ~ Cassandra Clare

Their closeness wouldn't break, but it would bend and stretch into a new shape. ~ Cassandra Clare

...'Loving children is what teachers do for extra credit. It's not the main assignment.'
'Seems to me that the extra credit is more important than the main assignment,' observed Cordelia. ~ Esme Raji Codell

I take your hand, brother, so that you may go in peace. ~ Cassandra Clare

Once you dissolve dye in water, you can't take it back out. It's like that. I can't take you out of me. It means cutting out my heart, and I don't like myself without my heart. ~ Cassandra Clare

She remembered what it felt like to have her hands in that hair, how holding him had anchored her not just to the world, but to herself. ~ Cassandra Clare

She'd heard of people having butterflies in their stomaches, and she knew what they meant. That flapping, uneasy feeling deep in your gut. But she had it now everywhere. Butterflies under all of her skin, fluttering, sending shivers that moved in waves up and down her body. ~ Cassandra Clare

He began it, Cecily said, jerking her chin at Will, though she knew it was pointless. Jem, Will's parabatai, treated her with the distant sweet kindness reserved for the little sisters of one's friends, but he would always side with Will. Kindly, but firmly, he put Will above everything else in the world.
Well, nearly everything. ~ Cassandra Clare

How long have you been drawing me?"
He sighted. A moment later his hand came to rest in her hair. His fingers twined in the strands. "My whole life. ~ Cassandra Clare

Mourn for Ophelia, if you like. Put ashes on your head because Cordelia was strangled. Cry out against Heaven because the daughter of Brabantio died. But don't waste your tears over Sibyl Vane. She was less real than they are. ~ Oscar Wilde

Biology can be said to define possibilities but not determine them; it is never irrelevant but it is also not determinant. ~ Cordelia Fine

Cordelia looked at Edric. "Which way will lead to our respite, think you?"
"I don't know, my lady," he admitted.
There was a pause.
"This way," Tania decided, heading off to the left and pulling him with her.
"Why?"
"It's downhill. ~ Allan Frewin Jones

But if you're foolish enough to want me then I will not question my good fortune. ~ Cassandra Clare

Come with me," she said. "Stay with me. Be with me. See everything with me. I have traveled the world and seen so much, but there is so much more, and no one I would rather see it with than you. I would go everywhere and anywhere with you, Jem Carstairs. ~ Cassandra Clare