Summers at Castle Auburn

So many of the things I wanted to escape from I find are the very things I miss.

The promises of the future cannot undo the harm of the past.

No such thing as too tall. It`s good for a woman to be able to look into a man`s eyes. Then she`s not afraid to tell him what she thinks.

Нет такого понятия, как слишком высокая. Женщине полезно иметь возможность посмотреть мужчине прямо в глаза. Так она не боится сказать ему то, о чем думает.

"Would you not marry even for love?"
"Love does not seem to bring anyone much happiness, as far as I have observed. So I think the lesson learned is never to love."
"The lesson is to love wisely," he replied.

"...I think the prince may have need of me. He lives in troubled times."
"He creates troubled times."
"Perhaps."

"You should never marry," I said, "except for love."
Now she laughed, and the world rocked back; the silver echoes drifted around our heads for the next few minutes. She reached out a spidery hand to brush my cheek and I felt the shock lance through me, bone to bone. "You should never marry without good reason," she amended. "Love is only one of those reasons."

If you take a man`s dollar, you ought to respect the man. If you don`t, you shouldn`t scorn him behind his back. It`s getting harder for me to behave as I ought. So, it`s time for me to leave.

"Sometimes we become what we see [from our parents]," he said. "Sometimes we take what we see and make it the model for what we refuse to become. Sometimes we do a little of both."

"I despise his trading in the aliora," she said, still in that serene voice. "It makes me heartsick as well. Yet it is a profession that the world views as honorable. He has received praise and glory and monetary advantage for pursuing this career. What is to tell him that it is an evil thing to do?"
"His heart!"

"I do not care much for Hennessey myself," she said.
I teased, "Oh, then, I should not marry him just to please you?"
She met my eyes in the mirror. She was not laughing. "Do not marry to please anyone except yourself."

Sometimes it`s simpler not to be loved.

It is hard to know you are the most powerful man in the kingdom and not be interested in using your power.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.
"Something`s always wrong, when you`re trying to run a kingdom," Kent said lightly.

When you live among grand people, your ambitions change. Nothing strange about that.

"I want to be a healer."
Now Kent moved his frowning gaze from Roderick`s face to mine. "You could have a higher goal than that," he said.
"It`s my goal," I said. "I`ll make it as high as I like."

So do I wish I was to be king? That`s not the question I ask myself. I ask myself, Would I be a good king? Would I be quick-witted and generous of spirit and full of that boundless energy? Or would I be clumsy and stupid and dulled by my own prejudices? I try to be a good man, since I am alive at all, and hope that that teaches me waht I would need to know if I was ever faced with a higher challenge. Some days I am more successful at it than others.