Some of my favorite quotes by James “I’m not good with words” Carstairs (in no particular order):
1. “There is more to living than not dying.”
2. “There are so many worse things than death. Not to be loved or not to be able to love: that is worse.”
3. “We are all the pieces of what we remember. We hold in ourselves the hopes and fears of those who love us. As long as there is love and memory, there is no true loss.”
4. “Whatever you are physically…male or female, strong or weak, ill or healthy–all those things matter less than what your heart contains. If you have the soul of a warrior, you are a warrior. All those other things, they are the glass that contains the lamp, but you are the light inside.”
5.“You speak of sacrifice, but it is not my sacrifice I offer. It is yours I ask of you. “I can offer you my life, but it is a short life; I can offer you my heart, though I have no idea how many more beats it shall sustain. But I love you enough to hope that you will not care that I am being selfish in trying to make the rest of my life - whatever length - happy, by spending it with you. I want to be married to you, Tessa. I want it more than I have ever wanted anything else in my life.”
6. “I know you feel inhuman, and as if you are set apart, away from life and love, but… I promise you, the right man won’t care.”
7. “Our hearts, they need a mirror, Tessa. We see our better selves in the eyes of those who love us.”
8. “For that was love, wasn’t it–to burn bright in someone else’s eyes?”
9. “Change is no loss, Will. Not always.”
10. “I do not believe you can threaten people into goodness.”
11. “I’ve never minded it. Being lost, that is. I had always thought one could not be truly lost if one knew one’s own heart. But I fear I may be lost without knowing yours.”
12. “Listen to me. I am leaving, but I am living. I will not be gone from you entirely, Will. When you fight now, I will be still by you. When you walk in the world, I will be the light at your side, the ground steady under your feet, the force that drives the sword in your hand. We are bound, beyond the oath. The Marks did not change that. The oath did not change that. It merely gave words to something that existed already.”
13. “You are home for me now.“
14. “There are things no magic can destroy, for they are magic in themselves.”
15. “But if you’re foolish enough to want me then I will not question my good fortune.”
16. “Perhaps it is not such a bad thing to be set apart.”
17. “Love does not stop when someone dies.”
18. “Sometimes it’s braver not to fight. Protect them, and save your vengeance for another day.”
19. “I think if two souls are meant to be together, they will remain together on the Wheel and be together again in the life after this one, whatever happens to us now.”
20. “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?”
