The Bear And The Nightingale Quotes
"The snow hurried down like tears the day a stone-faced Pyotr laid his wife in the earth."
"In Moscow, priests are in love with their standing."
"A man will come to you tomorrow to negotiate the bridal contract."
"A warm chestnut braid framed her round face."
"He opened his eyes. One side of his face was fair."
"The snow fell thrice, deep and solid, after midwinter."
"The woods will turn green and the beasts give rich milk."
"The air reeked of the clay that had been caked on the timber."
"The boy had been expecting a drawn-out battle."
"He rode into the city in the midst of the brief, burning sunset."
"The stranger took a place at the high table and drank his honey-wine unmolested."
"The air sullen with wet that was neither rain nor snow."
"She trembled, though it was not obvious under her heavy clothes."
"She was lost in the dusk on the cusp of winter and it was going to snow."
"Her painted eyelids trembling like wounded birds."
"The din of many voices penetrated his reverie."
"The forest was thick with shade; the shortening days slid rapidly to night."
"Pyotr had taken her to bed half-crazed with desire, and kissed her until defiance turned to passion."
"Simplicities of hunting and mending, away from this city of smiling enemies and barbed favors."
"The days were lengthening, and the snow in the capital had begun to soften."
"Perhaps not even of passion. She drooped under her headdress, answering his questions in monosyllables."
"If the ice thinned before they crossed the Volga, they must exchange their sledges for wagons."
"The clean northern air might calm whatever was frightening his wife."
"He himself had remarried, and if the lady was rather strange, at least she was not promiscuous, or diseased."
"A thin line of red opened on Kolya’s neck, soaking his new beard."
"No harm will come to her. I swear it. On the ice and the snow and a thousand lives of men."
"Even sleep was no respite, for in his dreams he saw a sapphire necklace and spidery white fingers against the neck of his firstborn."
"If I did, who would go with you at dawn to find bits of leaves?"
"But if I did, who would go with you at dawn to find bits of leaves?"
"The world was wide, and Konstantin Nikonovich would not be left to rot on some farm in the woods."
"Repent, lest you burn. The fire is very near."
"I go where God sends me. If my work is here, then I will stay here."
"I see—things. Demons, devils. Everywhere. All the time."
"Better she learn now than burn later, Pyotr Vladimirovich."
"Give it to God. Forget your demons, lest you burn."
"The silence of the waning year lay like a haze over the lands."
"You owe your salvation to God. Look on His face and be saved."
"My thanks. Keep your pledge and I will leave the grain alone."
"I like a strong girl. And you will not die in childbed."
"That does not eat horses. Only foolish travelers."
"I would walk into the jaws of hell itself, if it were a path of my own choosing. I would rather die tomorrow in the forest than live a hundred years of the life appointed me."
"All my life, I have been told 'go' and 'come.' I am told how I will live, and I am told how I must die."
"Magic is forgetting that something ever was other than as you willed it."
"Sleep is cousin to death, Vasya. And both are mine."
"I must be a man’s servant and a mare for his pleasure, or I must hide myself behind walls and surrender my flesh to a cold, silent god."
"I would rather die in the forest than in a convent."
"Nothing changes, Vasya. Things are, or they are not."
"I have wronged no one. I have tried to save you!"
"I will not go. Not now and not ever. I have wronged no one."
"If this is the last decision I can ever make, at least it is my decision."
"Courage—that is rarest of all, Vasilisa Petrovna."
"You cannot do it alone. Morozko is far away."
"All the better. I thought my brother had you already, girl, but I suppose he was too great a fool to keep you."
"I can buy time, Vasya," said the wind in Vasya’s ear. "But I do not know how much."
"Your stepmother must live. Tell your brother his sword will not bite the flesh of the dead. And—do not die."
"Go fight with the others. Solovey will protect me."
"Here, Dunyashka," said Vasya. "Here. You are hungry. You fed me often enough. Remember?"
"Marina, Marushka, where am I? I am cold. I have been so frightened."
"It is all right," said Vasya, fighting tears. "It will be all right."
"You are a mad fool, Vasilisa Petrovna," he said.
"My life is nothing," said Pyotr. "I am not afraid."
"That is my Marina’s lastborn," he said. "That is my daughter."
"You will go, Konstantin Nikonovich. Or you will die. And your death will not be easy."
"I will have my freedom, Alyosha. Do you doubt me?"
"The world is wide, and the road will take us anywhere."