11 Quotes by Beth Underdown

I had always wanted to read the books that Father said were too hard for me, not realizing yet that understanding a book is not the same as being able to spell out all the words.

For it is a choice, I think, to close the heart, just as it is a choice to open it. It is a choice to look at what distresses you, and a choice to shut your eyes. It is a choice to hold tight your pain, or else let it slip your grasp, set it free to make its mark upon the world.

My brother buried his resentment that day. But resentment buried is not gone. It is like burying a seed: for a season it may stay hidden in the dark, but in the end, it will always grow. I did not see it, though we were still close, even at that age. I think now that to be close to someone can be to underestimate them. Grow too close, and you do not see what they are capable of; or you do not see it in time.

Grief did not quieten the world's demands, and I was thankful to be kept busy.

My brother buried his resentment that day. But resentment buried is not gone. It is like burying a seed: for a season it may stay hidden in the dark, but in the end, it will always grow

I think now that to be close to someone can be to underestimate them. Grow too close, and you do not see what they are capable of; or you do not see it in time.

Remembering how Father had said to me once that the most fearful thing you could meet down a dark lane was another person. But it is not so, I thought, as we rode towards the Thorn: what you meet in the dark is yourself. And that is truly a thing to be feared.

I will lay it out in black and white, and my tale will contain more truth than the great dead histories on my father’s bookshelves. For they say what happened, but not what it was like. They say what happened, but they do not say why.

They did not see how it was the thinnest of tricks: if a thing frightens you, call it something else. They did not see that to classify a thing away from fearfulness rather shows fear, than any lack of it.