Darkling Quotes

1. "Wars, wars, wars': reading up on the region I came across one moment when quintessential Englishness had in fact intersected with this darkling plain. In 1906 Winston Churchill, then the minister responsible for British colonies, had been honored by an invitation from Kaiser Wilhelm II to attend the annual maneuvers of the Imperial German Army, held at Breslau. The Kaiser was 'resplendent in the uniform of the White Silesian Cuirassiers' and his massed and regimented infantry...reminded one more of great Atlantic rollers than human formations. Clouds of cavalry, avalanches of field-guns and—at that time a novelty—squadrons of motor-cars (private and military) completed the array. For five hours the immense defilade continued. Yet this was only a twentieth of the armed strength of the regular German Army before mobilization.Strange to find Winston Churchill and Sylvia Plath both choosing the word 'roller,' in both its juggernaut and wavelike declensions, for that scene."
Author: Christopher Hitchens

2. "But the more shrewdly and earnestly we study the histories of men, the less ready shall we be to make use of the word ‘artificial.' Nothing in the world has ever been artificial. Many customs, many dresses, many works of art are branded with artificiality because the exhibit vanity and self-consciousness: as if vanity were not a deep and elemental thing, like love and hate and the fear of death. Vanity may be found in darkling deserts, in the hermit and in the wild beasts that crawl around him. It may be good or evil, but assuredly it is not artificial: vanity is a voice out of the abyss."
Author: G.K. Chesterton

3. "The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the starsDid wander darkling in the eternal space."
Author: George Gordon Byron

4. "Is love a fancy, or a feeling? No.It is immortal as immaculate Truth,'Tis not a blossom shed as soon as youth,Drops from the stem of life--for it will grow,In barren regions, where no waters flow,Nor rays of promise cheats the pensive gloom.A darkling fire, faint hovering o'er a tomb,That but itself and darkness nought doth show,It is my love's being yet it cannot die,Nor will it change, though all be changed beside;Though fairest beauty be no longer fair,Though vows be false, and faith itself deny,Though sharp enjoyment be a suicide,And hope a spectre in a ruin bare."
Author: Hartley Coleridge

5. "So a new element darkled in their already darkling mood: a somber, deep-rooted bitterness which would grow and grow until it would make of them—those who survived—the tough, mean, totally cynical infantry fighters which their leaders fondly on sentimental grounds already believed they were, and which all of them, everybody, hated the Japanese for being."
Author: James Jones

6. "No wonder that the ghost and goblin stories had a new zest. No wonder that the blood of the more timid grew chill and curdled, that their flesh crept, and their hearts beat irregularly, and the girls peeped fearfully over their shoulders, and huddled close together like frightened sheep, and half-fancied they beheld some impish and malignant face gibbering at them from the darkling corners of the old room. By degrees my high spirits died out, and I felt the childish tremors, long latent, long forgotten, coming over me. I followed each story with painful interest; I did not ask myself if I believed the dismal tales. I listened and fear grew upon me - the blind, irrational fear of our nursery days. ("Horror: A True Tale")"
Author: John Berwick Harwood

7. "Darkling I listen; and, for many a time I have been half in love with easeful Death, Call'd him soft names in many a musèd rhyme, To take into the air my quiet breath; Now more than ever seems it rich to die,To cease upon the midnight with no pain, While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad In such an ecstasy!"
Author: John Keats

8. "I told them you hate herring.""Why?""And that you love plum cake. And that Ana Kuya took a switch to you when you ruined your spring slippers jumping in puddles."I winced. "Why would you tell them all that?""I wanted to make you human," he said. "All they see when they look at you is the Sun Summoner. They see a threat, another powerful Grisha like the Darkling. I want them to see a daughter or a sister or a friend. I want them to see Alina."
Author: Leigh Bardugo

9. "Then the memory of the Darkling's kiss blew through me and rattled my concentration, scattering my thoughts like leaves and making my heart swoop and dive like a bird borne aloft by uncertain currents."
Author: Leigh Bardugo

10. "So many men had tried to make her a queen. Now she understood that she was meant for something more. The Darkling had told her he was destined to rule. He had claimed his throne, and a part of her too. He was welcome to it. For the living and the dead, she would make herself a reckoning. She would rise."
Author: Leigh Bardugo

11. "Don't feel too bad, tracker," said the Darkling. "All men can be made fools."
Author: Leigh Bardugo

12. "Again, the Darkling shook his head. "You two make it so easy. I prick him, you bleed.""And you can't begin to understand that, can you?"He reached out and tapped Morozova's collar, letting his fingers graze the skin of my throat. Even that faint touch opened the connection between us, and a rush of power vibrated through me like a bell being struck."I understand enough," he said softly."
Author: Leigh Bardugo

13. "I told myself. How would I have said goodbye to Mal anyway? Thanks for being my best friend and making my life bearable. Oh, and sorry I fell in love with you for a while there. Make sure to write!"What are you smiling at?"I whirled, peering into the gloom. The Darkling's voice seemed to float out of the shadows. He walked down to the stream, crouching on the bank to splash water on his face and through his dark hair."Well?" he asked, looking up at me."Myself," I admitted."Are you that funny?""I'm hilarious."
Author: Leigh Bardugo

14. "I've seen what you truly are," said the Darkling, "and I've never turned away. I never will. Can he say the same?"
Author: Leigh Bardugo

15. "The Darkling will hunt you for the rest of your days.""Then you and I will have something in common, won't we? Besides, I like to have powerful enemies. Makes me feel important."Mal crossed his arms and considered the privateer. "I can't decide if you're crazy or stupid.""I have so many good qualities," Sturmhond said. "It can be hard to choose."
Author: Leigh Bardugo

16. "So I'm the Darkling's prisoner?""You're under his protection.""What's the difference?""Pray you never find out."
Author: Leigh Bardugo

17. "Mal snickered. "What's so funny?""I just pictured the Darkling being cornered by a sweaty duchess trying to have her way with him."
Author: Leigh Bardugo

18. "You sound just like the Darkling.""If you ever have trouble telling us apart, look for the person who isn't torturing you or trying to kill Mal. That will be me."
Author: Leigh Bardugo

19. "It was getting dark by the time I went out, and nobody who knows the country will need to be told how black is the darkness of a November night under high laurel bushes and yew-trees. I walked into the heart of the shrubberies two or three times, not seeing a step before me, till I came out upon the broader carriage-road, where the trees opened a little, and there was a faint grey glimmer of sky visible, under which the great limes and elms stood darkling like ghosts; but it grew black again as I approached the corner where the ruins lay. ("The Open Door")"
Author: Margaret Oliphant

20. "Ah, love, let us be trueTo one another! for the world, which seemsTo lie before us like a land of dreams,So various, so beautiful, so new,Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;And we are here as on a darkling plainSwept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,Where ignorant armies clash by night."
Author: Matthew Arnold

21. "Dess shook her head. "Before he walked off, Rex said for you to wait. He said it's totally important you don't touch Angie until he comes back. and he said that if you were a pain about it, I get to hit you with that." She pointed to where the darkling had flung Flabbergasted Supernumerary Mathematician, its tip blackened by ichor and fire. "So, go ahead."
Author: Scott Westerfeld

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