Gemma Doyle Trilogy (pt 1) by Libba Bray

***A Great and Terrible Beauty***

 “My annoyance has indeed been noted.”

“I could curse my bad temper, but it won’t get it back.”

“I want to ask him if it’s possible for a girl to be born unlovable, or does she just become that way?” 

“The vicar leads us in prayers that begin with ‘O Lord’ and end with our somehow not being worthy—sinners who have always been sinners and will forever more be sinners until we die. It isn’t the most optimistic outlook I’ve ever heard. But we’re encouraged to keep trying anyway.”

***Rebel Angels***

“All that we see or seem/Is but a dream within a dream” –Edgar Allan Poe

  
“In books, the truth makes everything good and fine. The good prevail. The wicked are punished. There is happiness. But it’s not really like that, is it?”

“No, I suppose it only makes everything known.”

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray (Gemma Doyle Trilogy- pt 2)

“Deep inside each one, a thin blue soul burns pure and hot, devouring every bit of tinder to keep the fire going.”

“They’ve planned our entire lives, from what we shall wear to whom we shall marry and where we shall live. It’s one lump of sugar in your tea whether you like it or not and you’d best smile even if you’re dying deep inside. We’re like pretty horses, and just as on horses, they mean to put blinders on us so we can’t look left or right but only straight ahead where they would lead.”

“They believe and belief changes everything.”

“Hours feel like seconds; seconds are hours, for time is a dream.”

“We create illusions we need to go on. And one day, when they no longer dazzle or comfort, we tear them down, brick by glittering brick, until we are left with nothing but the bright light of honesty. The light is liberating. Necessary. Terrifying. We stand naked and emptied before it. And when it is too much for our eyes to take, we build a new illusion to shield us from its relentless truth.” Fav

“Why should we girls not have the same privileges as men? Why do we police ourselves so stringently—whittling each other down with cutting remarks or holding ourselves back from greatness with a harness woven of fear and shame and longing? If we do not deem ourselves worthy first, how shall we ever ask for more?