Bone Quotes

“...something was starting to take shape, out of magic and will. Smoke and bone.”
― Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke & Bone

“You crushed us to build your monarchy on the backs of our blood and bone. Your mistake wasn't keeping us alive. it was thinking we'd never fight back”
― Tomi Adeyemi, Children of Blood and Bone

“Stupid, Stupid Rat Creatures!”
― Jeff Smith, Bone, Vol. 2: The Great Cow Race

“Why should I give up revenge? On behalf of what? Moral principles? And what of the higher order of things, in which evil deeds are punished? For you, a philosopher and ethicist, an act of revenge is bad, disgraceful, unethical and illegal. But I ask: where is the punishment for evil? Who has it and grants access? The Gods, in which you do not believe? The great demiurge-creator, which you decided to replace the gods with? Or maybe the law? [...] I know what evil is afraid of. Not your ethics, Vysogota, not your preaching or moral treaties on the life of dignity. Evil is afraid of pain, mutilation, suffering and at the end of the day, death! The dog howls when it is badly wounded! Writhing on the ground and growls, watching the blood flow from its veins and arteries, seeing the bone that sticks out from a stump, watching its guts escape its open belly, feeling the cold as death is about to take them. Then and only then will evil begin to beg, 'Have mercy! I regret my sins! I'll be good, I swear! Just save me, do not let me waste away!'. Yes, hermit. That is the way to fight evil! When evil wants to harm you, inflict pain - anticipate them, it's best if evil does not expect it. But if you fail to prevent evil, if you have been hurt by evil, then avenge him! It is best when they have already forgotten, when they feel safe. Then pay them in double. In triple. An eye for an eye? No! Both eyes for an eye! A tooth for a tooth? No! All their teeth for a tooth! Repay evil! Make it wail in pain, howling until their eyes pop from their sockets. And then, you can look under your feet and boldly declare that what is there cannot endanger anyone, cannot hurt anyone. How can someone be a danger, when they have no eyes? How can someone hurt when they have no hands? They can only wait until they bleed to death.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Wieża Jaskółki

“WINTER'S GHOST:
Autumn moon
incautious in the dark river
Winter’s ghost walks
with a covered face
and silver bones wait in all animals
to be bone cloth upon her shoulder
wait for her happiness in that they are silver”
― Tamara Rendell, Mystical Tides

“I sometimes think about old tombs and weeds
That interwreathe among the bones of kings
With cold and poisonous berry and black flower:
Or ruminate upon the skulls of steeds
Frailer than shells and on those luminous wings -
The shoulder blades of Princes of fled power,
Which now the unrecorded sandstorms grind
Into so wraith-like a translucency
Of tissue-thin and aqueous bone

- A Reverie of Bone”
― Mervyn Peake, Shapes and sounds

“HONEY: (Apologetically, holding up her brandy bottle) I peel labels.
GEORGE: We all peel labels, sweetie; and when you get through the skin, all three layers, through the muscle, slosh aside the organs (An aside to NICK) them which is still sloshable--(Back to HONEY) and get down to bone...you know what you do then?
HONEY: (Terribly interested) No!
GEORGE: When you get down to bone, you haven't got all the way, yet. There's something inside the bone...the marrow...and that's what you gotta get at. (A strange smile at MARTHA)”
― Edward Albee, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

“That's right, kid. Never play an ace if a two will do.”
― Jeff Smith, Bone, Vol. 1: Out from Boneville

“How much of ME is my own and how much is stamped into my blood and bone, predestined?”
― Thi Bui, The Best We Could Do

“I beg you, eat me up. Want me down to the marrow.”
― Hélène Cixous

“what is forged into memory tucks itself into bone and muscle. It will always be there and it will follow us to the grave.”
― Maaza Mengiste, The Shadow King

“That is why it could happen anywhere, given the right ingredients: particular people in government, competing with others- or with each other- over natural and wealth-creating resources.”
― Clea Koff, The Bone Woman: A Forensic Anthropologist's Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo

“Saliva mucusque”
― Karen Cushman, Matilda Bone

“Feathers—no matter what size or shape or color—are all the same, if you think about them. They’re soft. Delicate. But the secret thing about feathers is . . . they are very strong.”
― Julie Cantrell, The Feathered Bone

“Artichokes

Until you had been the last ones
sitting in the cafe on the corner and
she has kissed the dark rum from the
rim of your glass and schooled you in
the art of eating artichokes

until then,
you are not yet a woman.

Until you put soft leaf to lip
touch tongue to flesh,
bite the lobe,
swallow the juice
she says will purify you
until you open it up, sigh at the color,
see it’s very middle and learn what
fingers are best at
until you reach further still
into that thick, hot heart
life has not yet started.

Before you had been promised.
Before she is a liar.
Before you are dismantled, fixed and
broke again you are not yet a lover.

Remember on the right night and
under the right light
any idea can seem like a good one
and love
love is mostly ill-advised but always
brave.

The most important thing to do is
not to worry. The lines on your face
will never stop the sun from coming
up. Your tears cannot affect the
weather. There are wars going on.
The one in your body is the only one
you can be sure of losing
or winning, then losing again.

You drink more water than rum these
days, don’t you?
But you drink to her memory, don’t
you?
And you only take artichokes in salad.
Never whole.
Not in a cafe on a dusky street at
midnight.
Not with her.
Never with her, or anyone like her.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, Bone

“Loving someone who hates themselves is a special kind of violence.
A fight inside the bones.
A war within the blood.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, Bone

“It is scarcely the same thing to put a man on the moon as to put a bone in your nose.”
― William Henry III

“Develop the muscles for hard work and never be an early quitter.”
― Israelmore Ayivor, Leaders' Frontpage: Leadership Insights from 21 Martin Luther King Jr. Thoughts

“Bone and blood and death before. Bone and blood and death again. See me while you can, my prince, or see never again.”
― Camryn Daytona, The Exiled Prince of the North

“Ghosts carry fragments of bone
into a portion where the earth is scatheless & place
them on the anther & filaments of roses.”
― Sneha Subramanian Kanta, Ghost Tracks

“Some of us love badly. Sometimes the love is the type of love that implodes. Folds in on itself. Eats its insides. Turns wine to poison. Behaves poorly in restaurants. Drinks. Kisses other people. Comes back to your bed at four a.m. smelling like everything outside. Asks about your ex. Is jealous of your ex. Thinks everyone a rival.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, Bone

“According to you,
people like me
shouldn’t go into places like this or
be around people like these
but you don’t know the half of it.
The brightest of stars, frankly,
are just a load of hot air and
diamonds, sadly,
were just formed from dust and rock
and the butterfly,
remember,
used to crawl on its belly
and tiny legs
through the dirt.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, Bone

“It's rich. And smooth. And thick. And fatty, but in a good way. Like butter, but with a deeper, fuller, nuttier flavor."
Max's inky black pupils start to dilate as he gazes down at me, his mouth cracked open, like he's hypnotized and intrigued at once. I cease breathing.
He clears his throat. "Damn..."
I nod quickly. "On hot, crusty bread, it is divine. You need to try it."
He nods right back, like he's in a trance. I'm in a trance too. I can't seem to stop looking at him as I wax poetic about one of my favorite food combinations.
"How is it served?" he asks, his voice between a groan and a growl. "The marrow, I mean."
I watch, mesmerized at the slow movement along his stubbled throat.
I swear I can feel my skin tingling as my internal temperature rises. Who knew talking about bone marrow could get me this worked up?
"Sometimes they cut the bone lengthwise and you can just scrape your knife along the hollow part of the bone and out comes the marrow," I say. "And sometimes they cut it into chunks and the marrow's in the middle, so you scrape out as much as you can, but there's almost always some left, so the best way to get it out is to just put the bone in your mouth and suck it out, really get your tongue in the hole and lick and...”
― Sarah Echavarre Smith, The Boy With the Bookstore

“We are not just made of blood and bone – we are made of stories. Some of us have our stories told for us, others write their own – you wrote yours.”
― C J Cooke

“Askari wa Kirumi alimchoma Yesu mkuki ili andiko litimie. Askari huyo ambaye Biblia haikumtaja jina kwa sababu zilizoko nje ya uwezo wetu, alivyoona kweli amepona na ameona alishuhudia, na ushuhuda wake ulitoka moyoni, ili nasi tupate kusadiki. Wauaji wa Kirumi walipoona kwamba wale wezi waliosulubiwa pamoja na Yesu walikuwa bado hawajakata roho, waliwavunja miguu ili washindwe kupumua na hivyo kuharakisha kifo chao. Kwa upande wa Yesu, waliona alishapoteza fahamu na labda alishafariki. Kuthibitisha hilo askari wa Kirumi alirusha mkuki, nao ukatoboa utando unaozunguka moyo wa Yesu na mapafu ya Yesu, na damu na maji kutoka. Lakini yote hayo yalishatabiriwa miaka mingi kabla ya Yesu: ‘Hakuna hata mfupa wake mmoja utakaovunjwa’ na ‘Nao watamtazama yeye ambaye walimchoma’.”
― Enock Maregesi

“The medical profession excels at fixing broken bones but fails miserably at fixing general sickness.”
― Steven Magee

“Bone is the closest most dogs get to meat, that is why dogs cling to bone. Even if you fling a stone at them they grip doggedly.”
― Vincent Okay Nwachukwu, Weighty 'n' Worthy African Proverbs - Volume 1

“Gone are the days when patient dogs ate the fattest bones, these days they eat no bone at all. There aren’t even enough bones for gallant and vigilant dogs.”
― Vincent Okay Nwachukwu, Weighty 'n' Worthy African Proverbs - Volume 1

“I stitched the name of my love
as Paris, the anatomy of bone-sepal
into untainted skin. A window in the
room opened into a pastel-blue
sculpture of a woman who looked
like she was still in love after she had
been in love, after the sun burned
anew, an orb of xanthous filament.”
― Sneha Subramanian Kanta

“A thought is louder than a train, but silent as a cracking bone.”
― Florin-Marian Hera, Ten Loud Rocks