Cressida Quotes

You do have to listen to the stories, for stories always mean something. The question that worries me is: WHAT exactly do they mean? ~ Cressida Cowell

February turned into March and Hiccup was still thinking. A few flowers made the mistake of appearing and were immediately blasted out of existence by a couple of hard frosts that had kept themselves back for this very purpose. ~ Cressida Cowell

Once, when I was a child, I dreamed that Grimbeard the Ghastly, on the deck of his ship The Endless Journey, threw the sword Endeavor up into the air. Up and up it spun, through the inky blackness, across the cavernous span of a hundred years, until, entirely of its own accord, my own left hand sprang out of space and stars and never-ending time and caught it. Now that I am so very old, I am dreaming once again. And in my dream, I am the one throwing the sword. It is spinning now, in the black starlit waters of my dream, right above your head, dear reader. A sword that may look second-best, and secondhand, but but carries the memories of a thousand lost fights, a history lesson in itself. Reach out, and catch it by the hilt. Swear by its name, Endeavor, to do your utmost to make the world a better place than when you arrived in it. For look! There will be dragons all around you, as camouflaged as a Stealth Dragon. ~ Cressida Cowell

History, you see, is like the interlocking wheels turning in a ticking-thing. Something unexpected happens, some sort of hiccup... the wheels are jogged... and then they set off again, beating out the time in a new pattern. ~ Cressida Cowell

Sometimes a King has to do terrible things in order to protect those he has sworn to look after. When the stakes are so high, dreadful decisions have to be taken. It is the responsibility of a King to take on that burden, that guilt. ~ Cressida Cowell

Long ago, on the wild and windy isle of Berk, a smallish Viking with a longish name stood up to his ankles in snow. ~ Cressida Cowell

Norbert the Nutjob may have been a maniac, but lunacy and genius are very close together, and it had to be admitted, he was a great Dreamer.
Perhaps the inventor-madmen of the Future will dream its like again. ~ Cressida Cowell

Aren't there going to be any refreshments?" Tharamn interrupted. "I always think better with a little snack to keep me going."
"I'm with you there," said Grishmak. "Bring on the nibbles!"
"There aren't any!" Cressida snapped. "This is all far too important, and besides, once you lot start easting, it'll only turn into a party."
"Can't say I have a problem with that myself," said Tharaman. "What about you, Grishy?"
"None at all. Bit of food and fun helps the boring bits along, in my opinion. Let's call a chamberlain and order some grub."
"No!" Cressida insisted. "We all need to concentrate, and I for one find it difficult to think one you and Tharaman start cracking bones and spitting out gristle."
"I never spit out gristle!" said Tharaman in miffed tones. "A terrible wast of protein. It just needs a little extra chewing, that's all."
Thirrin had watched the exchange in silence, but now she sat forward in her chair. "Actually I wouldn't mind a sandwich myself."
Cressida looked at her thunderously. ~ Stuart Hill

Follow me, reader, if you dare. Take my hand, for we can fly swifter than the Deadly Shadow; we can follow the sound of ticking teeth faster than they can, and trace the Hero back to where he lies, on the little isle of Hero's End. ~ Cressida Cowell

Was it possible that Warriors had been mistaken in their view of Magic all along? Could there be another way of looking at things, other than the Warrior way?....Wish's world view was spinning upside down, and that is always a difficult moment. ~ Cressida Cowell

A GIANT heart
Needs a GIANT life!
GIANT arms
Can hold a world!

Let me lead a GIANT'S life!
No little steps, no holding back!
A GIANT'S way, a GIANT'S track!

Let my mistakes
Be GIANT ones!

For I can't live in little worlds!

I need the space to run my fill
I need to jump from hill to hill

And if you take my woods from me
I'll wander out into the sea
And try to find another world

So I can live a GIANT'S life! ~ Cressida Cowell

One, the search for the fang-free dragon taught me that fear and intimidation might not be the best way to train dragons. Two, the sword: that sometimes best is second-best. Three, the shield: that sometimes freedom must be fought for. Four, the ticking-thing: that when you fight for your friend, you are also fighting for yourself. Five, the ruby heart's stone: that love never dies. Six, the arrow from the land-that-does-not-exist: that you must make things right in the Old World before you go looking for the New, and sometimes the things that you are looking for are right at home. Seven, the key-that-opens-all-locks: that accidents happen for a reason. Eight, the Throne: that power can corrupt. Nine, the Crown: that you have to keep on trying even though you are beaten before you even star. And Ten, the dragon Jewel," finished Hiccup. "You need to know what it is to be a slave, before you can be a King. ~ Cressida Cowell

Sometimes it is not until the Final Chapter that you realise what a quest has REALLY been about all along. ~ Cressida Cowell

A HERO... IS... FOREVER.
Adieu, Snotlout.
I could not have done this without you.
I carry you with me, every step I take, every decision I make. You are part of my blood, and I would never have gotten this far without you.
We shall meet again, in a better world than this one. ~ Cressida Cowell

Imagine if you had spent the whole first part of your life trying to walk on your hands. The clumsiness of it, always falling over, always stumbling, always the last at everything. Imagine the joy of discovering that in fact you could walk on your feet after all. ~ Cressida Cowell

You cannot fight time itself, slay the minutes and hours with your blade, wipe the bleeding seconds on your shirt. Time cannot be fought. ~ Cressida Cowell

The thing about grown ups is that they're always wanting you to be this Great Hero and Leader. What's wrong with being NORMAL, for Thor's sake? What's wrong with just being SO-SO at stuff? They're just totally unrealistic ... ~ Cressida Cowell

OUTCASTS! R-R-RUN FOR YOUR LIVES, YOU S-S-SSTUPID H-H-HUMANS!!! ~ Cressida Cowell

Books were despised by the Viking Tribes, as they were seen as a horrible civilizing influence and a threat to the barbarian culture. ~ Cressida Cowell

And long after Kings are forgotten, and their names have fallen into dust, the good deeds and the actions of the Heroes live on in glory. ~ Cressida Cowell

It's impossible to be the Mockingjay. Impossible to complete even this one sentence. Because now I know that everything I say will be directly taken out on Peeta. Result in his torture. But not his death, no, nothing so merciful as that. Snow will ensure that his life is much more worse than death.

"Cut," I hear Cressida say quietly.

"What's wrong with her?" Plutarch says under his breath.

"She's figured out how Snow's using Peeta," says Finnick.

There's something like a collective sigh of regret from that semicircle of people spread out before me. Because I know this now. Because there will never be a way for me to not know this again. Because, beyond the military disadvantage losing a entails, I am broken.

Several sets of arms would embrace me. But in the end, the only person I truly want to comfort me is Haymitch, because he loves Peeta, too. I reach out for him and say something like his name and he's there, holding me and patting my back. "It's okay. It'll be okay, sweetheart." He sits me on a length of broken marble pillar and keeps an arm around me while I sob.

"I can't do this anymore," I say.

"I know," he says. ~ Suzanne Collins

Shakespeare's bitter play [Troilus and Cressida] is therefore a dramatization of a part of a translation into English of the French translation of a Latin imitation of an old French expansion of a Latin epitome of a Greek romance. (p. 55) ~ Gilbert Highet

Why else is politics the perfect refuge for every liar, cheat, and self-serving toad that was ever born? All you need is a good set of teeth and the ability to smile convincingly with them.
Cressida ~ Stuart Hill

The Hero cares not for a wild winter's storm. For it carries him swift on the back of the storm. All may be lost and our hearts may be worn, but a Hero fights forever. ~ Cressida Cowell

I have never cared for Castles
or a Crown that grips too tight,
Let the night sky be my starry roof
and the moon my only light,
My Heart was born a Hero,
my storm-bound sword won't rest,
I left the Harbour long ago
on a Never-ending Quest,
I am off to the horizon,
where the wild wind blows the foam,
Come get lost with me, love,
and the sea shall be our home! ~ Cressida Cowell

Courage what is within is more important than what is without. ~ Cressida Cowell

He that is proud eats up himself: pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle. ~ William Shakespeare

WARNING
Any Relationship to any historical fact WHATSOEVER is entirely coincidental. You have been WARNED ~ Cressida Cowell

That is a terrible plan." "Hiccup's plans are always t-terrible." "Hey! You're still here, aren't you? ~ Cressida Cowell

Great things are only made out of love and out of pain. A great sword must be made out of the very best steel. But what truly makes the sword great, is what happens to the sword after it is made. We call this the 'testing' of the sword. The sword is bashed and hammered and hollered into shape by the bright hammer. It is thrust into the fierce heat of the fire, where it softens, and then it is quickly quenched in water, where it hardens again. The higher the temperature, the fiercer the fire, the tougher and the greater the sword eventually becomes. The whole testing process can make a sword, or break it. The same could be said for the making of a Hero. ~ Cressida Cowell

Are you the stuff that hero's are made of? Or are you a jellyfish in a skirt? ~ Cressida Cowell

good at.' Cressida turned and looked at Tilly.'Don't think that on Monday we will be instafriends because of this.' 'Totally. I actually really dislike you,' slurred Tilly, ~ Kate Forster

Well, suffering swordfish," exclaimed Fishlegs. "Hiccup is LEFTHANDED. ~ Cressida Cowell

Everything we do, you see, has its consequences and repercussions, every kind act, and every bad, every friend we make, and every enemy. Everything is connected. ~ Cressida Cowell

If it doesn't end well, then it isn't the end. ~ Cressida Cowell

I wanted to be a King who would found a New World, not in some misty country far across the seas, but right here, right now, at home. ~ Cressida Cowell

But Tact and Sensitivity were not Gobber's strong points, and he took the first five minutes to come up with "Hiccup copped it. SORRY," and the spent the second five minutes tearing his beard out. ~ Cressida Cowell

Always sailing, sailing, sailing ... never quite reaching. ~ Cressida Cowell

What are you doing in there, Camicazi? I told you to escape! And how did you know this was my sand yacht?"
"You wrote 'The Hopeful Puffin 2' on the back of it," explained the basket, adding hastily, "and I don't know what you're talking about. I've never heard of this Cami-whatsit. ~ Cressida Cowell

Cinnamon Treat Green Smoothie ~ Cressida Elias

There may yet come a time when Heroes are needed once more.
There may yet come a time when the dragons will come back. ~ Cressida Cowell

Oh, for Thor's sake ... " said Hiccup. "I thought that was just a story ... "
"Stories come from somewhere," said the witch. "The past haunts the present in more ways than we realise. ~ Cressida Cowell

It's only paranoia," whispered the Wodensfang, "If things aren't out to get you... ~ Cressida Cowell

What I love about 'Mockingjay, Part 1' is that President Coin or Cressida could have easily been played by a man, and if you look at 'Interstellar,' the Anne Hathaway or Jessica Chastain roles would have been men years ago. ~ Natalie Dormer

PANDARUS
You are such a woman! A man knows not at what ward you
lie.
CRESSIDA
Upon my back, to defend my belly; upon my wit, to defend
my wiles; upon my secrecy, to defend mine honesty; my mask, to
defend my beauty; and you, to defend all these; and at all these
wards I lie at, at a thousand watches.
PANDARUS
Say one of your watches.
CRESSIDA
Nay, I'll watch you for that; and that's one of the
chiefest of them too. If I cannot ward what I would not have hit,
I can watch you for telling how I took the blow; unless it swell
past hiding, and then it's past watching. ~ William Shakespeare

Good; and what of him?
ALEXANDER
They say he is a very man per se,
And stands alone.
CRESSIDA
So do all men, unless they are drunk, sick, or have no
legs. ~ William Shakespeare

We're all snatching precious moments from the peaceful jaws of time. ~ Cressida Cowell

GO FOR HIS EYES! OR BITE HIM ON THE NOSE! DRAGON NOSES ARE VERY SENSITIVE!
Oh, very helpful, Camicazi, very helpful ... thought Hiccup. What if he doesn't obligingly hold me up to his nose? What if the only part I get close to is the TEETH? ~ Cressida Cowell

On the back of the Silver Phantom I have flown so high that his wing-tips seemed to touch the very moon itself… ~ Cressida Cowell

The dragon bracelet that Humongous created, out of misplaced love and gratitude, in the hellish nightmare of the Lava-Lout Jail-Forges is exquisitely made, for he was a far better goldsmith than he was a singer.
It curls around my arm, its shining wings folded back, as if about to unfurl and take off, and now that its ruby eyes are set into the gold, you cannot see their tear shape, so they seem to be laughing rather than crying.
It is a constant reminder to me of the human ability to create something beautiful even when things are at their darkest. ~ Cressida Cowell

If you were a fanciful person, you might have said that it was almost as if that box was looking for Hiccup.
But we are not fanciful people, and that would be ridiculous. ~ Cressida Cowell

Thank you for nothing, you stupid reptile. ~ Cressida Cowell

Grown women don't get on their knees for boys, do they Cressida? So, you have a choice. You can tell me to get out or you can get on your knees for me now and I'll show you how a real man treats his woman, starting by letting you worship my d#$k with that beautiful mouth of yours like I know you're aching to. ~ Giana Darling

Most of us are lucky not to be Kings and Heroes, because we do not have to make the choices that Kings and Heroes have to make. ~ Cressida Cowell

Chuckling, Josh backs away. "I'll leave you to Cressida and Noel then."
To his back, I call out, "For your information, it's Nigel! ~ Jenny Han

But sometimes the bravest thing a Hero has to do is not fighting monsters and cheating death and witches. It is facing the consequences of his own actions. ~ Cressida Cowell

For a Hero cannot triumph all the time. Sometimes he will be defeated, and how he faces that defeat is a test of his character. ~ Cressida Cowell

The dragons I would write about would not be the rather generalized, big, green things that I had read about in storybooks. What I wanted to create was a multiplicity of different dragon species, of all shapes and sizes, adapted to their environment and habitats in the same way as birds or other animals we see today. ~ Cressida Cowell

I disliked singing in English and neither liked the story nor the character of Cressida. ~ Walter Legge

I didn't mean to come here ...
And I didn't mean to stay ...
It's just where the sea wind blew me
One accidental day ... ~ Cressida Cowell

But how can we know that dragons did not exist? We have never actually BEEN to the Dark Ages. ~ Cressida Cowell

Strange how a story sometimes seems to end just how it started, in a circle. ~ Cressida Cowell

Portia we can admire because, having seen her leave her Earthly Paradise to do a good deed in this world (one notices, incidentally, that in this world she appears in disguise), we know that she is aware of her wealth as a moral responsibility, but the other inhabitants of Belmont, Bassanio, Gratiano, Lorenzo and Jessica, for all their beauty and charm, appear as frivolous members of a leisure class, whose carefree life is parasitic upon the labors of others, including usurers. When we learn that Jessica has spent fourscore ducats of her father's money in an evening and bought a monkey with her mother's ring, we cannot take this as a comic punishment for Shylock's sin of avarice; her behavior seems rather an example of the opposite sin of conspicuous waste. Then, with the example in our minds of self-sacrificing love as displayed by Antonio, while we can enjoy the verbal felicity of the love duet between Lorenzo and Jessica, we cannot help noticing that the pairs of lovers they recall, Troilus and Cressida, Aeneas and Dido, Jason and Medea, are none of them examples of self-sacrifice or fidelity. […] Belmont would like to believe that men and women are either good or bad by nature, but Antonio and Shylock remind us that this is an illusion; in the real world, no hatred is totally without justification, no love totally innocent. ~ W.H. Auden

The world will need a Hero, and it might as well be you. ~ Cressida Cowell

The first Dragon was enough to give you nightmares.
The second Dragon was enough to give your nightmares nightmares. ~ Cressida Cowell

He says he comes in peace," said Hiccup "He's still going to kill us, though. ~ Cressida Cowell

History is a ghost story. My own childhood has passed into history, and the ghosts I find there are the ghosts of Heroes and dragons and Berserks and witches, and it has become fashionable not to believe in these things anymore. But I believe, for I was there. ~ Cressida Cowell

Human hearts are not made out of stone.
Thank Thor.
They can break, and heal, and beat again. ~ Cressida Cowell

History is a set of repeating circles, like the tide. The wind does blow through the ruins of tomorrow. But it is more a question of two steps forward, one step back. Humans and dragons make the same mistakes, again and again, but things do get better over time ~ Cressida Cowell

But you are human, and just like the rest of us you have the potential to be both a devil and an angel. There's no such thing as an evil race, just a human race.
Cressida ~ Stuart Hill

Please do not blame the story.
The story cannot help itself. We do not realize it at the time, but sometimes the story we are all a part of is not just a story about Vikings and islands and dragons.
It is a story about growing up.
And one of the things about growing up, one of the inescapable, inevitable laws, is that one day...
One day... one day...
It is going to happen.
I am sorry, but it's true. ~ Cressida Cowell

Does this look like a dragon who would poo in a helmet??? ~ Cressida Cowell

Let us in, let us in,' shrieked the wind. 'We're very, very hungry. ~ Cressida Cowell

Notice how the crucible of the story changes those who listen to it, those who are within it, and the person who is telling it, all at the same time. ~ Cressida Cowell

Uh-oh," thought Hiccup, who was an intelligent boy. "This person wants to kill me. ~ Cressida Cowell

There are some Questions, some battles, some Hiccups that are worth losing a world for. And perhaps even when all ends in disaster, you cannot do the wrong thing, if you do it out of love. ~ Cressida Cowell

However small we are, we should always fight for what we believe to be right. And I don't mean fight with the power of our fists or the power of our swords ... I mean the power of our brains and our thoughts and our dreams.
And as small and quiet and unimportant as our fighting may look, perhaps we might all work together ... and break out of the prisons of our own making. Perhaps we might be able to keep this fierce and beautiful world of ours as free for all of us as it seemed to be on that blue afternoon of my childhood. ~ Cressida Cowell

I was not the sort of boy who could train a dragon with a mere lifting of an eyebrow. I was not a natural at the Heroism business. I had to work at it. This is the story of becoming a Hero the Hard Way. ~ Cressida Cowell

Glory comes not to the weak
A treasure land shines out so strong
We see it clear from far away
O Great and Brave and Mighty Thor
I hope that that was land I saw
Once before... long ago...
HO! ~ Cressida Cowell

This is the problem with adventures. They bring out parts of you that you never even knew were there. ~ Cressida Cowell

Attention spans are changing. It's very noticeable. I am very aware that the kind of books I read in my childhood kids now won't be able to read. I was reading Kipling and PG Wodehouse and Shakespeare at the age of 11. The kind of description and detail I read I would not put in my books. I don't know how much you can fight that because you want children to read. So I pack in excitement and plot and illustrations and have a cliffhanger every chapter. Charles Dickens was doing cliffhangers way back when. But even with all the excitement you have to make children care about the characters. ~ Cressida Cowell

Tomorrow. There was something hopeful, even about the word. ~ Cressida Cowell

Would the fountain of your mind were clear again,
that I might water an ass at it! ~ William Shakespeare

The past haunts the present in more ways than we think. It certainly scares the living daylights out of ME"~ Old Wrinkly ~ Cressida Cowell

No will will believe it at first,' Cressida continued. 'You were right about that. But then they'll start to think, and slowly but surely, the pieces of the puzzle will fall into place. Someone will remember that they said something to you that ended up in a column. Or that you were at a particular house party. Or that they'd seen Eloise Bridgerton snooping about, and doesn't everyone know that the two of you tell each other everything?'
'What do you want?' Penelope asked, her voice low and haunted as she finally lifted her head to face her enemy.
'Ah, now, there's the question I've been waiting for. ~ Julia Quinn

Come on, Fishlegs," whispered Camicazi, whistling happily. "You know we have to do this. Besides, I feel like a bit of exercise. We've been cooped up in that hideout for way too long."
Frankly, at this point, Camicazi had grown so fed up that if Hiccup had suggested hang gliding off the toe-talons of the dragon Furious she'd have been up for it.
"A bit of exercise?" blustered Fishlegs. "A bit of exercise? This is not some kind of Viking version of Girls Keep Fit! ~ Cressida Cowell

Sometimes our little human splashings are not enough. However hard we try, however strong our heroic human wills (and us humans have such a capacity, such a heroic capacity for believing that the impossible might be possible), sometimes our ridiculously puny human arms are too weak. Sometimes the world is just too big for us, the hurricane too wild, the sea so huge, that it wears out even the bravest of hearts, the strongest of wills. ~ Cressida Cowell

My poison is creeping through his body.
My strong venom is killing his heart. ~ Cressida Cowell

The Supper is still singing. ~ Cressida Cowell

Shit! Cressida! Move!" The words were barely out of his mouth when he leapt forward and down, jumping six steps and rolling when he hit the bottom, catching her and tucking her against him. Above them, metal popped and the boulder slammed down, resealing the hole. ~ Rachel Grant

She [Cressida] knows it is men's sexual desire that makes women "angels" before they have been able to possess them; once possessed, women are "things" [Troilus and Cressida I.2, 225-28, 233-34]. ~ Tina Packer

But then I have always been somewhat of a square peg in a round hole. ~ Cressida Cowell

K-k-keep your helmet on. T-t-toothless doing his BEST. ~ Cressida Cowell

I myself grew up to be not only a Hero, but also a Writer. When I was an adult, I rewrote A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons, and I included not only some descriptions of the various deadly dragon species, and a useful Dragonese Dictionary, but also this story of how the book came to be written in the first place.

This is the book that you are holding in your hands right now.

Perhaps you even borrowed it from a Library?

If so, thank Thor that the sinister figure of the Hairy Scary Librarian is not lurking around a corner, hiding in the shadows, Heart-Slicers at the ready, or that the punishment for your curiosity is not the whirring whine of a Driller Dragon's drill.

You, dear reader, I am sure cannot imagine what it might to be like to live in a world in which books are banned.

For surely such things will never happen in the Future?

Thank Thor that you live in a time and a place where people have the right to live and think and write and read their books in peace, and there are no need for Heroes anymore ...

And spare a thought for those who have not been so lucky. ~ Cressida Cowell

And this was the surprising thing about life on Berk. It was a bit like the sea itself. One minute it was all storms, and shipwrecks, and desperate escapes from deadly dragons, the next it was as calm, and peacefully restful, as if these things had never happened. ~ Cressida Cowell

You can't put': Hiccup in charge, sir, he's USELESS. ~ Cressida Cowell

This is the problem with stories. Stories always mean something. The question is ... What exactly do they mean? ~ Cressida Cowell

The past is another land, and we cannot go to visit. So, if I say there were dragons, and men who rode upon their backs, who alive has been there and can tell me that I'm wrong? ~ Cressida Cowell

You see how good and evil are twisted together?
Like a golden dragon bracelet snaking brightly about a person's arm. ~ Cressida Cowell

Happy and giggly and bustly, the Hogfly ignored Hiccup's strangled cries of: "Hoglfy! Come back here, Hogfly!"
"Ooh!" it squeaked in delighted confusion. "You all look so lovely! How am I to choose which one of you to be my friend?"
It perched on the sinister swoop of the Razorwing's nose.
"Where's my biscuit? Are you married? Be my valentine ... "
"I can't bear to watch ... " groaned Fishlegs.
It was like seeing an enthusiastic bunny rabbit trying to make friends with a heavily armed, bunny-eating cobra. ~ Cressida Cowell