... It’s about learning to live in partnership with one another in small communities, and at the same time, working out a sustainable partnership with our environment. It’s about treating education and adaptability as the absolute essentials that they are. ~ Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents
“Bless your heart,” I said. “And that means?” Solentine raised his eyebrows. “ Eat dirt and die. I should’ve let Krasta slice up your arm. You’re an insufferable ass.” ~ Ilona Andrews, This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me
From beyond the grave, her mother had told her that women should not be men’s servants. They should stand alongside men as intellectual equals. And yet, somehow, she has found herself in thrall to a man who reduces her. He encourages her to think and read and write, but only in a way that agrees with his thoughts, that doesn’t question his ideas. ~ Caroline Lea, Love, Sex, and Frankenstein
“I think it’s the only form of hope we have. For our survival, I mean. What good is any other virtue without love? “In literature love is a weakness. Othello is easily manipulated by Iago because of his love for Desdemona. Anna Karenina throws herself under a train. Othello places his trust in Iago, not Desdemona. Anna Karenina’s society does not allow her to be with Vronsky. “Love is not the weakness. People get in its way. People are weak and perilous, not love.” ~ Lily King, Heart the Lover
But there are no new thoughts. They’re just old thoughts born into new moments – and in these moments is the thought: without that earth we are all finished. We couldn’t survive a second without its grace, we are sailors on a ship on a deep, dark unswimmable sea. ~ Samantha Harvey, Orbital
“My brothers have my measure when it comes to fighting and dancing and thinking and reading books, but none of them is half my equal at lying insensible in the mud.” ~ George R.R. Martin, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms