Esther M. Friesner Quotes
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Don’t drink heavily at your enemy’s table, especially when your enemy claims to be your friend.
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A young man's passion, a jaded siren's last chance for love, a world gone mad, cheap thrills, fast cars, expensive wines, the triumph of victory, the overthrow of ontologically incipient hegemony, and gum! I have no idea if this book has any of them! But I liked the part about the bunny.
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We sailed for more days than I knew how to count, sometimes hugging the mainland coast, sometimes passing from one island to another over the waves. The summer weather blessed us with clear skies and tame waters. We did have a couple of times when we had to put in to shore quickly to wait out a thunderstorm. I think Zeus didn’t want our quest to become too comfortable.
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The world is full of marvels, if you're willing to travel far enough to see them.
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By my third try, Lady Aithra had lost her patience and brought me to stand before her son while he was in conference with a group of hard-faced Athenian nobles. I smiled unashamedly when she called me willful, wild, and ungrateful, which provoked her so much that she actually dared to declare, “My son, you must not marry this girl. I don’t care how beautiful she is, she’ll bring us nothing but grief and leave Athens in flames!
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I kept getting up earlier and earlier, hoping to escape before Ione could catch me. That was how I learned that you can’t get up earlier than a farmer’s wife.
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I didn’t know you could waste a whole day over dressmaking. The next morning I learned that you can waste another day over the same stupid dresses.
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Good energy, even if it’s not focused. Bad technique, but that’s understandable and it can be corrected. Too much enthusiasm. There’s no shame in honorable combat, but there shouldn’t be so much unnatural pleasure. The man with the greatest thirst for blood ends up drinking at Hades’s table.
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Captures the reader with true magic.
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If we don't see to it that our children turn out better than we did, what will become of the world?
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History is gossip that's been legitimized, and that's really the case when you get into some of the Roman historians. Wow! They'd be right at home on reality tv.
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I feel sorry for Sparta when you’re queen. What are you going to do? Tell your husband and the rest of the court that they can wrap your beauty around them to keep warm and well all winter?
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A smart rabbit doesn’t wait until the hounds are on her tail before she digs her burrow.
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Falling down does not make you weak, it makes you sore. Not getting back up means you’re weak.
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Suddenly the hall rang with Theseus’s laughter. He held his sides, threw back his head, and brayed. “Ah, Lady Helen, the gods have been more than good to you. The three Graces gave you a face to outshine the sun, then filled your lovely mouth with these bursts of comical nonsense. We should be grateful to them. It’s all that keeps us poor mortal men from mistaking you for a goddess.
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Even if I was pretty, it wasn’t going to be enough to bring me the life I wanted: one where I was free to make choices that mattered, one where people listened to what I had to say. Aphrodite had the beauty; Zeus had the thunderbolts. Everyone loved Aphrodite, but everyone listened to Zeus. I’d never get my hands on a thunderbolt, so if I wanted to be free, I’d better find a way to get my hands on the next best thing: a sword.
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White as ash, her face, but ashes hold the phantoms of fires.
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I wasn’t a girl anymore. Just before they shoved me through the curtained doorway, I looked up into the night sky and saw the silvery moon that Artemis ruled. Now the moon ruled me.
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Aphrodite had the beauty; Zeus had the thunderbolts. Everyone loved Aphrodite, but everyone listened to Zeus.
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One blade couldn’t win a battle, but as long as it was mine, it could be used to protect me and those I loved.
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If every hero stopped to think about all the what-ifs in his path, none of us would ever take one step beyond our own doorways.
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What brothers say to tease their sisters has nothing to do with what they really think of them.
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I have to finish what I started. I’d have had that beast on my spear by now, except for Prince Meleager. He saw me wound it and thought I was in danger. The gods protect me from men who mean well!
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The men didn’t want to waste time beaching the ship. I heard a loud splash as Prince Jason himself slung the stone anchor overboard; then he took up his sword and shield before jumping into the hip-deep water. His bare legs churned the water to foam as he raced toward the battle. If lying came easily to him, so did courage; I had to give him that.