Nikolai had been told that hope was dangerous, had been warned of it many times. But he’d never believed that. Hope was the wind that came from nowhere to fill your sails and carry you home.

Sisters in battle, I am shield and blade to you. As I breathe, your enemies will know no sanctuary. While I live, your cause is mine.

I think... sometimes when we find love we pretend it away, or ignore it, or tell ourselves we are imagining it. Because it's the most painful kind of hope there is. It can be ripped away so easily. By indifference. By death.

Does the bird feel the weight of its wings?

We can’t help the way we’re born. We can’t help what we are, only what life we choose to make for ourselves.

Do not let them humble you, he said softly.

Seeing is easy. The hard part is being seen.

She always picks the most boring things on the rack, always in basic black. If it's shaped like a sack, even better.""Maybe it feels easier that way, just being invisible instead of always worrying what people think of you."Nim's voice was surprisingly emphatic. "But that's a choice too, right? Because people are always going to look. They're always going to judge, so you can say nothing or you can at least answer back.

She'd hurt him, but she'd attempted everything in her power to make things right. She'd shown him in a thousand ways that she was honorable and strong and generous and very human, maybe even more vividly human than anyone he'd ever known.