Lavinia Quotes

[My mother] believed we could each change the world, but what convinced me this was possible was music. ~ Lavinia Greenlaw

If I had not kissed anyone, or danced with anyone, or had a reason to cry, the music made me feel as if I had gone through all that anyway. ~ Lavinia Greenlaw

Too young to bring about change, we brought about disturbance. ~ Lavinia Greenlaw

LAVINIA: I love everything that grows simply
up toward the sun
everything that's straight and strong! I hate what's warped and twists and eats into itself and dies for a lifetime in shadow ... ~ Eugene O'Neill

There are times when we need the rocket fuel of singing and dancing to power us through an act of blind faith. Falling in love is one of those times, when we need to move into a phase of enchantment with enough force so that when things cool and the air clears, we are locked into that person, that love. We fall in love and we sing as we walk down the street; we turn up the music and dance. ~ Lavinia Greenlaw

This young woman," said Diana, "was responsible for the destruction of the Triumvirate's fleet."
"Well, I had a lot of help," Lavinia said.
"I don't understand," I said, turning to Lavinia. "You made all those mortars malfunction?"
Lavinia looked offended. "Well, yeah. Somebody had to stop the fleet. I did pay attention during siege-weapon class and ship-boarding class. It wasn't that hard. All it took was a little fancy footwork."
Hazel finally managed to pick her jaw off the pavement. "Wasn't that hard?"
"We were motivated! The fauns and dryads did great." She paused, her expression momentarily clouding, as if she remembered something unpleasant. "Um…besides, the Nereids helped a lot. There was only a skeleton crew aboard each yacht. Not, like, actual skeletons, but - you know what I mean. Also, look!"
She pointed proudly at her feet, which were now adorned with the shoes of Terpsichore from Caligula's private collection.
"You mounted an amphibious assault on an enemy fleet," I said, "for a pair of shoes."
Lavinia huffed. "Not just for the shoes, obviously." She tap-danced a routine that would've made Savion Glover proud. "Also to save the camp, and the nature spirits, and Michael Kahale's commandos."
Hazel held up her hands to stop the overflow of information. "Wait. Not to be a killjoy - I mean, you did an amazing thing! - but you still deserted your post, Lavinia. I certainly didn't give you permission - "
"I was acting ~ Rick Riordan

To more applause and whistling, Lavinia approached the rostrum and got her new badge of office. She hugged Frank and Hazel, which wasn't the usual military protocol, but no one seemed to care. Nobody clapped louder or whistled more shrilly than Meg. I know because she left me deaf in one ear.
'Thanks, guys,' Lavinia announced. 'So, Fifth Cohort,, first we're going to learn to tap-dance. Then -'
'Thank you, Centurion,' Hazel said. 'You may be seated.'
'What? I'm not kidding -'
'On to our next order of business!' Frank said, as Lavinia skipped grumpily (if that's even possible) back to her seat. ~ Rick Riordan

love life and life will love you, love yourself and you shall feel loved. ~ Sian Lavinia Anais Valeriana

I caught him by the collar and dumped him into the nearest bin.
"That's where people like YOU belong!" I spat at him as his legs wiggled in the air. "In the garbage!" - Chapter 2: Miserable Torture ~ Aishabella Sheikh

Lavinia has seen this happen, seen how, one day, a girl will raise her head to listen, as if for the first time, to the crying of a child, to the sound of an oar being hauled in, to a man's voice, to the screech of a saw pulling through wood, to some comment one of the women might make. Within a week, the girl will be able to tell at any minute of the day or night, precisely where every soul in the place is. Then - or so Lavinia imagines, for it has never happened to her - one morning before light, before the girl has awakened, a map, new and totally different, will be imprinted behind her closed eyelids. ~ Bernice Morgan

Song and dance are explosion and interruption, and sometimes the only way to keep up with what's happening. ~ Lavinia Greenlaw

Why did girls never play air guitar? Did we sing along because singing was what girls did or was it that girls only sang because they didn't play air guitar? These are not questions I asked myself at the time. I was pushing away such complications. ~ Lavinia Greenlaw

Holy Mother Flip Whistle ~ Lavinia Urban

O' serpentine Ouroboros,
semper salvus!
Semper tutis!
The end shall never consume us. ~ Lavinia Valeriana

Why must there be war?" "Oh Lavinia, what a woman's question that is! Because men are men. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

The greatest act of love was to make a tape for someone. It was the only way we could share music and it was also a way of advertising yourself. Selection, order, the lettering you used for the track list, how much technical detail you went into, whether or not you added artwork or offered only artwork and no track list at all, these choices were as codified as a Victorian bouquet. ~ Lavinia Greenlaw

I do love through trial and error, in fact I confess I would die for this beastly terror ~ Sian Lavinia Anais Valeriana

Don't ever live vicariously. This is your life. Live. ~ Lavinia Spalding

Hey, I'd love to help,' Don said. 'It's just I remembered this appointment -'
'Fauns don't make appointments,' Lavinia said.
'I double-parked my car -'
'You don't have a car.'
'I need to feed my dog -'
'Don!" Lavinia snapped. "You owe me. ~ Rick Riordan

I got to know [teen music] as we absorb music in passing but can remember only its seriousness and weight. ~ Lavinia Greenlaw

LAVINIA: Oh Edward!
The point is, that since I've been away
I see that I've taken you much too seriously.
And now I can see how absurd you are.
EDWARD: That is a very serious conclusion to have arrived at in ... how many? ... thirty-two hours. ~ T. S. Eliot

I have a hundred reasons to dislike this gentleman," Erica reminded herself aloud. "And a thousand reasons more not to go courting with any man."
Lavinia laughed at that. "Whenever has a woman's heart listened to her head? ~ Davis Bunn

One of my ancestors fought in the War of the Roses", she announced haughtily, without looking round, "and in those wars you were supposed to wear a red rose or a white rose to show whose side you were on, but he was very attached to a pink rose called Lady Lavinia, which we still grow in the Hall, actually, so he ended up fighting both sides at once. He lived, too, because everyone thought it was bad luck to kill a madman. That's what you need to know about my family: We might be pigheaded and stupid, but we do fight ~ Terry Pratchett

Absinthe now, absent never ~ Sian Lavinia Anais Valeriana

Being a woman seemed to mean listening to the music boys liked and neither dancing nor singing along. ~ Lavinia Greenlaw

Do you like books, Lady Murray?' Lavinia asked.
'Just to read,' Violet said.
'A mistake. A very big mistake. A poorly bound book disintegrates. Where would our learning be then? We need something permanent, solid. We need to treat words with the respect they are due. Treasure them. Adorn the books that contain these words with leather bindings, illuminate their words with gold. We shouldn't treat learning lightly.'
'But I would treat a word scrawled on a scrap of paper with the same respect as one written on an illuminated manuscript. ~ Alice Thompson

Lavinia Asimov!' Reyna called from the rostrum. 'Did you have something to say?'
All eyes turned towards us. A few legionnaires smirked, as if this was not the first time Lavinia had been called out during a senate meeting.
Lavinia glanced from side to side, then pointed to herself as if unsure which of the many Lavinia Asimovs Reyna might be addressing. 'No, ma'am. I'm good.'
Reyna did not look amused at being called ma'am. 'I notice you're chewing gym as well. Did you bring enough for the whole senate?'
'Er, I mean ...'Lavinia pulled multiple packs of gum from her pockets. She scanned the crowd, making a quick guesstimate. 'Maybe?'
Reyna glanced heavenward, as if asking the gods, Why do I have to be the only adult in the room? ~ Rick Riordan

Aunt Lavinia always had a near-religious belief that it was wicked to inflict one's personal despair on others. Any display of self-pity or self-dissatisfaction she saw as a social cruelty that was very nearly criminal. ~ Caroline Blackwood

Mrs. Boffin, insisting that Bella should make tomorrow's expedition in the chariot, she went home in great grandeur. Mrs. Wilfer and Miss Lavinia had speculated much on the probabilities and improbabilities of her coming in this gorgeous state, and, on beholding the chariot from the window at which they were secreted to look out for it, agreed that it must be detained at the door as long as possible, for the mortification and confusion of the neighbours. ~ Charles Dickens

Why makes thou it so strange? She is a woman, therefore may be wooed; She is a woman, therefore may be won; She is Lavinia , therefore must be loved. ~ William Shakespeare

Nevertheless, he had offered her a home under his own roof, which Lavinia accepted with the alacrity of a woman who had spent the ten years of her married life in the town of Poughkeepsie. ~ Henry James

LAVINIA: He made me feel for the first time in my life that everything about love could be sweet and natural ... I have a right to love! ~ Eugene O'Neill

...loving music didn't have to mean wanting the same song all the time, or believing it perfect, and that what you loved didn't have to add up, let alone define you. ~ Lavinia Greenlaw

There's something profoundly intense and intoxicating about friendship found en route. It's the bond that arises from being thrust into uncomfortable circumstances, and the vulnerability of trusting others to navigate those situations. It's the exhilaration of meeting someone when we are our most alive selves, breathing new air, high on life-altering moments. It's the discovery of the commonality of the world's people and the attendant rejection of prejudices. It's the humbling experience of being suspicious of a stranger who then extends a great kindness. It's the astonishment of learning from those we set out to teach. It's the intimacy of sharing small spaces, the recognition of a kindred spirit across the globe.
It's the travel relationship, and it can only call itself family. ~ Lavinia Spalding

Without war there are no heroes."
"What harm would that be?"
"Oh, Lavinia, what a woman's question that is. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

Every woman deserves a wedding night. And what could be better than one that comes without a husband? ~ Lavinia Kent

She IS too fat," said Lavinia. "And Sara is too thin. ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett

Smile, I do as I march an inch further towards
my funeral. My broken skeleton calls for its
tomb beneath Coventry cathedral, where I can
hear the tunes of saintly people. ~ Lavinia Valeriana

I've nursed a lifelong love affair with movement, straying ever farther from those I love most. But somewhere along the way, it dawned on me that I was always traveling with family - because the act of travel, to the extent that it separates us from our relatives, also extends, manifests, multiplies, and completes family. ~ Lavinia Spalding

I was thrilled by discovery, crushed by disappointment, and mortified by any misplaced enthusiasm. I declared allegiance, took a position, and always had a view, not noticing that girls were bemused and boys found me boring. Was a girl not supposed to feel so strongly, let alone want so much to possess and know something for her own sake? ~ Lavinia Greenlaw

Not very long after this a very exciting thing happened. Not only Sara, but the entire school, found it exciting, and made it the chief subject of conversation for weeks after it occurred. In one of his letters Captain Crewe told a most interesting story. A friend who had been at school with him when he was a boy had unexpectedly come to see him in India. He was the owner of a large tract of land upon which diamonds had been found, and he was engaged in developing the mines. If all went as was confidently expected, he would become possessed of such wealth as it made one dizzy to think of; and because he was fond of the friend of his school days, he had given him an opportunity to share in this enormous fortune by becoming a partner in his scheme. This, at least, was what Sara gathered from his letters. It is true that any other business scheme, however magnificent, would have had but small attraction for her or for the schoolroom; but "diamond mines" sounded so like the Arabian Nights that no one could be indifferent. Sara thought them enchanting, and painted pictures, for Ermengarde and Lottie, of labyrinthine passages in the bowels of the earth, where sparkling stones studded the walls and roofs and ceilings, and strange, dark men dug them out with heavy picks. Ermengarde delighted in the story, and Lottie insisted on its being retold to her every evening. Lavinia was very spiteful about it, and told Jessie that she didn't believe such things as diamond mines existed. ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett

When a person does aggravate like a plaguing itch, acceptance is no matter. ~ Sian Lavinia Anais Valeriana

Love is indeed its own hallucinogenic affecting the mind, heart and mood ~ Sian Lavinia Anais Valeriana

We lay there, under the stars, the moonlight enveloping us like a letter, folded together to be forever united, skin and bone trained to get along. ~ Aishabella Sheikh

This world today makes one by the day a recluse ~ Sian Lavinia Anais Valeriana

The Captain: A martyr, Lavinia, is a fool. Your death will prove nothing.
Lavinia: Then why kill me? ~ George Bernard Shaw

When I broke my knee, no one cared how I was; they just wanted me to get better and come back to gymnastics to win more medals for their country. ~ Lavinia Agache