100 Quotes by Cassandra Clare

The more you try to crush your true nature, the more it will control you. Be what you are. No one who really loves you will stop.

You endure what is unbearable, and you bear it. That is all.

Or maybe it's just that beautiful things are so easily broken by the world.

As long as there is love and memory, there is no true loss.

My heart tells me this is the best and greatest feeling I have ever had. But my mind knows the difference between wanting what you can’t have and wanting what you shouldn’t want. And I shouldn’t want you.

Did Brother Zachariah just steal our cat?

You know,” Cecily said, “you really didn’t have to throw that man through the window.

Going round and around inside a dryer can be fatal, whereas pasta is rarely fatal. Unless Isabelle makes it.

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Let me give you a piece of advice. The handsome young fellow who's trying to rescue you from a hideous fate is never wrong. Not even if he says the sky is purple and made of hedgehogs.

Will has always been the brighter burning star, the one to catch attention — but Jem is a steady flame, unwavering and honest. He could make you happy.

What's the point in wasting a perfectly good brick wall when you have someone to throw against it, that's what I always say.

They’re not hideous,” said Tessa. Will blinked at her. “What?” “Gideon and Gabriel,” said Tessa. “They’re really quite good-looking, not hideous at all.” “I spoke,” said Will, in sepulchral tones, “of the pitch-black inner depths of their souls.” Tessa snorted. “And what color do you suppose the inner depths of your soul are, Will Herondale?” “Mauve,” said Will.

And next time you're planning to injure yourself to get me attention, just remember that a little sweet talk works wonders.

I'm trying to figure out how someone could live in a brothel for a month and not notice. You must be terribly dull-witted." Tessa glared. "If it helps at all, it seemed to be quite a high-class establishment. Nicely furnished, fairly clean..." "Sounds as if you've visited your fair share of brothels," Tessa said, sourly. "Making a study of them?" "More of a hobby," said Will, and smiled like a bad angel.

Men may be stronger, but it is women who endure.

Jem knotted his fingers in the material of Will's sleeve. "You are my parabatai," he said, "You said once I could ask anything of you.

If there's a thing I've learned in my life it's to not be afraid of the responsibility that comes with caring for other people. What we do for love: those things endure. Even if the people you do them for don't

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One must always be careful of books," said Tessa, "and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.

Do reasons matter when there's nothing that can be done to change things.

Everything that happens to you matters to me.

They say time heals all wounds, but that presumes the source of the grief is finite

People who know and love the same books as you, have the road map to your soul.

Hearts are breakable," Isabelle said. "And I think even when you heal, you're never what you were before".

You serve a greater cause. Your life is not yours to throw away (Magnus Bane)

So you're a Shadowhunter,' Nate said. 'De Quincey told me that you lot were monsters.' 'Was that before or after he tried to eat you?' Will inquired.

No one can say that death found in me a willing comrade, or that I went easily.

You're the first Shadowhunter I've ever met." “That’s too bad,” said Jace, “since all the others you meet from now on will be a terrible letdown.

Our hearts, they need a mirror, Tessa. We see our better selves in the eyes of those who love us.

I have the benefit of experience which tells me that sulking solves nothing

I'm tired of watching you be in love with someone else someone who will never love you back, not the way I do.

Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry.

Too much of anything could destroy you, Simon thought. Too much darkness could kill, but too much light could blind.

As far as I’m concerned, this is the worst thing that’s happened since I found out why Magnus was banned from Peru.

Black hair and blue eyes are my favorite combination.

We live and breathe words. It was books that kept me from taking my own life after I thought I could never love anyone, never be loved again. It was books that made me feel that perhaps I was not completely alone. They could be honest with me, and I with them.

Will smiled the way Lucifer might have smiled, moments before he fell from Heaven.

We came to see Jace. Is he alright?" "I don't know," Magnus said. "Does he normally just lie on the floor like that without moving?

It was books that made me feel that perhaps I was not completely alone. They could be honest with me, and I with them.

If no one in the entire world cared about you, did you really exist at all?

You can't forget the things you did in the past, or you'll never learn from them.

Sarcasm is the last refuge of the imaginatively bankrupt.

I know how you are with your words, and, Will- I love all of them. Every word you say. The silly ones, the mad ones, the beautiful ones, and the ones that are only for me. I love them, and I love you." - Tessa Gray

A diary with no drawings of me in it? Where are the torrid fantasies? The romance covers?

Sorry, are you telling me that your demon-slaying buddies need to be driven to their next assignment with the forces of darkness by my mom?

As long as there was coffee in the world, how bad could things be?

She had loved him for such a long time, she thought. How was it that she did now know him at all?

There is no pretending," Jace said with absolute clarity. "I love you, and I will love you until I die, and if there is life after that, I'll love you then.

What I do know is that if we are born again, I will meet you in another life, and if there is a river, you will wait on the shores for me to come to you, so that we can cross together.

Because viewing my naked chest has caused many women to seriously injure themselves stampeding to get to me.

Are you implying that shreds of my reputation remain intact?" Will demanded with mock horror. "Clearly I have been doing something wrong. Or not something wrong, as the case may be." He banged on the side of the carriage. "Thomas! We must away at once to the nearest brothel. I seek scandal and low companionship.

Every heart has its own melody.

In the end that was the choice you made, and it doesn't matter how hard it was to make it. It matters that you did.

The more beautiful the skin is, the more deadly it is. That's what Will's like. All that pretty face and whatnot just hides how twisted up and rotten he is on the inside.

Her name rang in Will's mind like the chime of a bell; he wondered if any other name on earth had such an inescapable resonance to it. She couldn't have been named something awful, could she, like Mildred. He couldn't imagine lying awake at night, staring up at the ceiling while invisible voices whispered 'Mildred' in his ears. But Tessa--

People aren't born good or bad. Maybe they're born with tendencies either way, but its the way you live your life that matters.

I keep thinking about blood, I dream about it. Wake up thinking about it. Pretty soon I'll be writing morbid emo poetry about it.

Dear me. Such harsh truths so early in the morning cannot be good for the digestion.

Nicely done, brother," said Gabriel from the bed, blinking sleepy green eyes at Gideon. Gideon threw a scone at him.

If you were half as funny as you think you are, you'd be twice as funny as you are now.

But you hate poetry! Yes, but you make me want to write it.

There are some mechanisms that are so—so broken that they cannot be repaired.

I've never seen anyone get so excited over books before. You'd think they were diamonds.

You mean you haven’t been going on romantic dates with Sebastian while you’ve been away from me?” “I tried,” Jace said, “but no matter how liquored up you get him, he just won’t put out.

You can only push the truth down for so long, and then it bubbles back up.

It's all right to love someone who doesn't love you back, as long as they're worth you loving them. As long as they deserve it.

Beauty fades, but cooking is eternal.

What's the word for a perfectly reasonable fear of annoying idiots?

Is this the part where you start tearing off strips of your shirt to bind my wounds?" "If you wanted me to rip my clothes off, you should have just asked.

Sometimes one must choose whether to be kind or honorable," he said. "Sometimes one cannot be both.

Tessa exhaled. She hadn't realized that she had been holding her breath until that moment. Will must have heard her, for he raised his head and his gaze met hers across the clearing. Something in it made her look away. Agony stripped so raw was not meant for her eyes.

She could ask for anything, she thought dizzily, anything--an end to pain or world hunger or disease, or for peace on earth. But then again, perhaps these things weren't in the power of angels to grant, or they would already have been granted. And perhaps people were supposed to find these things for themselves.

Will looked horrified. "What kind of monster could possibly hate chocolate?

Is this the part where you say if I hurt her, you'll kill me?" "No" Simon said, "If you hurt Clary she's quite capable of killing you herself. Possibly with a variety of weapons.

The law is hard but it is the law.

If people ever look down upon you for crying for fictional characters, you should give them a gentle, pitying look and feel bad for them. If they've never cried for a fictional character, then they've never loved one (and what a joy that is). If they've never cried at a book, a movie, a piece of music, then they've missed one of the great pleasures life has to offer. Just because fiction does not contain things that are real doesn't mean it doesn't contain truth, and we find it through the alchemy of our tears.

It isn't against the Law to be an idiot.

Lies and secrets, Tessa, they are like a cancer in the soul. They eat away what is good and leave only destruction behind.

You said you were going for a walk!? What kind of walk takes six hours?" "A long one?

And I'm suppose to sit by while you date boys and fall in love with someone else, get married...?" His voice tightened. "And meanwhile, I'll die a little bit more every day, watching.

Don't order any of the faerie food," said Jace, looking at her over the top of his menu. "It tends to make humans a little crazy. One minute you're munching a faerie plum, the next minute you're running naked down Madison Avenue with antlers on your head. Not," he added hastily, "that this has ever happened to me.

There were some memories, though, that never faded.

She felt dirty all over and looking over Sebastian, sweat on his brow and his naked torso barely covered by the sheets, she had to swallow back bile at what she'd just done.

A rune, hovering like an angel: a shape like two wings joined by a single bar.

His fingers skimmed down her body, over skin and satin, and she shivered, leaning into him, and she was sure they both tasted like blood and ashes and salt, but it didn't matter; the world, the city, and all it's lights and life seemed to have narrowed down to this, just her and Jace, the burning heart of a frozen world.

Where there is love, there is often also hate. They can exist side by side.

In some ways, we've been through something no one else can ever understand but the two of us... And it made me realize. We are always and absolutely better together.

To her you're Jocelyn's daughter. But I'll always be Valentine's son

Change is not always accomplished peacefully, but that does not make it disadvantageous.

I'm not unhappy," he said. "Only people with no purpose are unhappy. I've got a purpose.

Anyway that other thing we almost did in Paris-that's probably off the table for a while.Unless you want that whole baby-I'm-on-fire-when-we kiss thing to become freakishly literal

My rapier wit hides my inner pain.

Jace shook his blond head in exasperation. "You had to make a crazy jail friend, didn't you? You couldn't just count ceiling tiles or tame a pet mouse like normal prisoners do?

Clary screamed out loud as he fell like a stone- And landed lightly on his feet just in front of her. Clary stared with her mouth open as he rose up out of a shallow crouch and grinned at her. "If I made a joke about just dropping in," he said, "would you write me off as a cliché?

You behave as if everything is funny to you, but you never laugh. Sometimes you smile when you think no one is paying attention.

Inanimate objects are harmless indeed, Mr. Mortmain. But one cannot always say the same of the men who use them.

Drowning yourself won't help, she told herself sternly. Now, drowning Will, on the other hand.

Unrequited love is a ridiculous state, and it makes those in it behave ridiculously.

The thing about the Mirror is that no one knows where it is. In fact, no one knows what it is.” "It’s a mirror,” Simon said. “You know – reflective, glass. I’m just assuming.

She had never imagined she had the power to make someone else so happy. And not a magical power, either--a purely human one.

Look, you can date whoever you want and I will totally support you. I am all about support. Support is my middle name.” “So that’s why you never told me your middle name. I figured it was something embarrassing.

That sounds terrific, thought Cary, just you, your comatose wife your shell-shocked son, and your daughter who hates your guts. Not to mention that your two kids may be in love with each other. Yeah, that sounds like a perfect family reunion.

Suddenly reminded, she clapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh- Simon!" "No, I'm Jace," he said patiently. "Simon is the weaselly little one with the bad haircut and dismal fashion sense.

I am not the one of us who has no heart.

He was the one she was doing all this for, but sometimes she missed him so much it felt like she swallowed broken glass.

Don't stop there. I suppose there are also, what, vampires and werewolves and zombies?" "Of course there are. Although you mostly find zombies farther south, where the voudun priests are." "What about mummies? Do they only hang around Egypt?" "Don't be ridiculous. No one believes in mummies.

Have you tried talking to her?" "No. We've been punching her in the face repeatedly. What? You don't think that will work?

Don't." Clary raised a warning hand. "I'm not really in the mood right now." "That's got to be the first time a girl's ever said that to me," Jace mused.

Jem put the full force of himself into each smile, so that he seemed to be smiling with his eyes, his heart, his whole being.

In a closed urban fantasy, the magical world is secret and no one knows about it. In an open urban fantasy, everyone knows about it. So with a closed fantasy, you have to figure out how the world keeps itself secret, and with an open one, you have to figure out how knowledge of magic has altered the world we know.

One must look at the next step on the path ahead, rather than the mountain in the distance, or one would never reach one's goal.

Goodness," Tessa said to the back of his head. "If you keep seeing Six-Fingered Nigel like this, he'll expect you to declare your intentions.

Well, there aren’t any graves in mundane wedding ceremonies,” said Tessa. “Though your ability to quote the Bible is impressive. Better than my aunt Harriet’s.” “Did you hear that, James? She just compared us to her aunt Harriet.

Henry patted Charlotte’s shoulder anxiously. “Would you like a cool cloth? What can I do to help?” “You could ride up to Yorkshire and chop that old goat’s head off.” Charlotte sounded mutinous. “Won’t that make things rather awkward with the Clave?” asked Henry. “They’re not generally very receptive about, you know, beheadings and things.

One does not greet the Queen of the Seelie Court with the barbarous human 'hello'.

Oh, God, the lovebirds,” Magnus said, pulling the pillow off his face. “I hate happy couples.

You don't understand,' she said, and there was a puzzling trace of resentment in her voice. 'Children never do. The love a parent has for a child, there's nothing else like it. No other love so consuming.

When you find a man you wish to marry, Tessa, remember this: You will know what kind of man he is not by the things he says, but by the things he does.

There was something peculiarly gratifying about shouting in a blind rage until your words ran out. Of course, the aftermath was less pleasant. Once you'd told everyone you hated them and not to come after you, where exactly did you go?

Mortality, behold, and fear, What a change of flesh is here! Think how many royal bones Sleep within this heap of stones.

You could say anything you wanted to someone you thought you were never going to see again.

It has been the privilege and the honor of my life to know you.

Memories did one no good, not when one knew the truth in the present

Don't make it sound like that. Like some ordinary sort of grief. It's not like that. They say time heals all wounds, but that presumes the source of the grief is finite. Over. This is a fresh wound every day.

"A date," Jace repeated. "Often a 'boring thing you have to memorize in history class," but in this case,' 'an offer of a n evening of blisteringly white-hot romance with yours truly.'"

We are but dust and shadows.

There are some kinds of wounds you can get, internal injuries. You don't know what's wrong with you, but you're bleeding to death slowly inside.

In difficult times, in dark times, some people shine.

He loved her enough to know she was better off without him

My advice to young writers would be to write every day, even if it is only a few words. Get yourself on the habit of writing and it will become a lifelong one. And find a place to write where you are physically comfortable. You can't concentrate if you aren't. Ernest Hemingway could only write standing up, and Truman Capote could only write lying down!

Another vampire pushed her way through the crowd to stand at his side—a pretty blue-haired Asian girl in a silver foil skirt. Clary wondered if there were any ugly vampires, or maybe any fat ones. Maybe they didn't make vampires out of ugly people. Or maybe ugly people just didn't want to live forever.

I have important business to get to. I plan to sulk all afternoon, followed, perhaps, by an evening of Byronic brooding and a nighttime of dissipation.

Clary found herself wondering if the forsaken were edible.

The angel brought you back." "Because you asked him to. You could have anything alse in the world, and you asked for me." "But I dont want anything else in the world. I love you. I would do it again. I would ask for you.

All that existed was Jace; all she felt, hoped, breathed, wanted, and saw was Jace. Nothing else mattered.

Everything changes in my life, and the world stays the same.

The weapons room looked exactly the way something called "the weapons room" sounded like it would look.

That was the justice of Heaven. I trust that you are not dismayed.

Jem always said that Will rushed toward the end of a mission rather than proceeding in a measured manner, and that one must look at the next step on the path ahead, rather than the destination in the distance, or one would never reach one’s goal. Will closed his eyes for a moment. He knew that Jem was right, but it was hard to remember, when the goal that he sought was the girl that he loved.

Raziel's sixty feet tall?" "Actually, he's only fifty-nine feet tall, but he likes to exaggerate," said Magnus. Isabelle clicked her tongue in annoyance. "Valentine raised an angel in his cellar. I don't see why you need all this space - " "Because Valentine is just WAY MORE AWESOME than me.

Please don’t do this—don’t do this to me. If anything happened to you—” He looked at her with surprise. There was already a red stain on the white bandages that wrapped his chest, where his movements had pulled his wound open. “I…” “What?” “I’m not used to you loving me,” he said.

That though he is weak, he can still burn.

With a sigh she reached into her pocket and drew out a small velvet bag, which upended on the table. Two gold rings fell out, landing with a soft clink. Simon looked at them puzzled. "You want to get married?

Jem, Cecily thought, with a pang in her heart. Her brother had always looked to him as a kind of North Star, a compass that would ever point him toward the right decision. She had never quite thought of her brother as lucky before, and certainly would not have expected to do so today, and yet-and yet in a way he had been. To always have someone to turn to like that, and not to worry constantly that one was looking to the wrong stars.

Words have the power to change us.

Well, I'd certainly hate to interrupt your pleasant night stroll with my sudden death." He blinked. "There is a fine line between sarcasm and outright hostility, and you seem to have crossed it. What's up?

Alec's trying to get Magnus to take him seriously, but he's never told our parents about Magnus, or even that he likes, you know -" "Warlocks ?" Simon said.

Magnus hoped if he ever went mad like that himself, so mad that he poisoned the very air round him and hurt everyone he came into contact with, that there would be someone ho loved him enough to stop him. To kill him, if it came to that.

Weapons, when they break and are mended, can be stronger at the mended places. Perhaps hearts are the same.

Did you just kiss me?" Will inquired. Magnus made a slip-second decision. "No." "I thought-" "On occasion the aftereffects of the painkilling spells can result in hallucinations of the most bizarre sort." "Oh," Will said. "How peculiar.

Why don't we talk about your love life? Clary countered. "What about you and Alec?" "Alec refuses to acknowledge that we have a relationship, and so I refuse to acknowledge him. He sent me a fire message asking for a favor the other day. It was addressed to 'Warlock Bane' as if I were a perfect stranger. He's still hung up on Jace, I think, though that relationship will never go anywhere. A problem I imagine you know nothing about.

Hodge had given up a long time ago trying to live a better life or a different one; all he wanted was not to be afraid, and so he was afraid all the time

Isabelle's clothes looked ridiculous. Clary had to roll the legs on the jeans up several times before she stopped tripping on them, and the plunging neckline of the red tank top only emphasized her lack of what Eric would have called a "rack.

For our purposes you can consider it a small country between Germany and France." "But there isn't anything between Germany and France. Except Switzerland." "Precisely," said Jace.

It is easier to confront a threat as a mass, a group, not individuals who must be evaluated one by one.

To draw something is to try to capture it forever.

I’d rather have you in my life even as a brother than not at all.