N. K. Jemisin - The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (2010)

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And in that sliver of time, I felt the power around me coalesce, malice-hard and sharp as crystal. That this analogy occurred to me should have been a warning.

N. K. Jemisin
It is important to appreciate beauty, even when it is evil.

N. K. Jemisin
It was very bad if the council had resorted to recruiting men. By tradition men were our last line of defence, their physical strength bent towards the single and most important task of protecting our homes and children. This meant the council had decided that our only defence was to defeat the enemy, period. Anything else meant the end of Darre.

N. K. Jemisin
In a child's eyes, a mother is a goddess. She can be glorious or terrible, benevolent or filled with wrath, but she commands love either way. I am convinced that this is the greatest power in the universe.

N. K. Jemisin
There's truth even in tainted knowledge, if one reads carefully.

N. K. Jemisin
It is blasphemy to separate oneself from the earth and look down on it like a god. It is more than blasphemy, it is dangerous. We can never be gods, after all—but we can become something less than human with frightening ease.

N. K. Jemisin
There is no greater warrior than a mother protecting her child.

N. K. Jemisin
But love like that doesn't just disappear, does it? No matter how powerful the hate, there's always a little love left, underneath.
Yes. Horrible, isn't it?

N. K. Jemisin
I will not beg your forgiveness, she said. Only her voice betrayed her fear; it was not its usual strong, clear tone. I did what I felt was right.
Of course you did, I said. It was the wise thing to do.

N. K. Jemisin
Immortality gets very, very boring. You'd be surprised at how interesting the small mundanities of life can seem after a few millennia.

N. K. Jemisin
But perhaps that was just the way of power: no such thing as too much.

N. K. Jemisin
Once upon a time there was a Once upon a time there was a Once upon a time there was a Stop this. It's undignified.

N. K. Jemisin
I'm tired of being what everyone else has made me, I said. I want to be myself.
Don't be a child.
I looked up, startled and angry, though of course there was nothing to see. What?
You are what your creators and experiences have made you, like every other being in this universe. Accept that and be done; I'm tired of your whining.

N. K. Jemisin
Fortunately, where reason failed, blind panic served well enough.

N. K. Jemisin
And when I lift my head to scream out my fury, a million stars turn black and die. No one can see them, but they are my tears.

N. K. Jemisin