Rivalry Quotes

“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.”
― Cassandra Clare, City of Bones

“Suddenly reminded, she clapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh—Simon!"
"No, I'm Jace," said Jace patiently. "Simon is the weaselly little one with the bad haircut and dismal fashion sense."
"Oh, shut up," she replied, but it was more automatic than heartfelt. "I meant to call before I went to sleep. See if he got home okay."
Shaking his head, Jace regarded the heavens as if they were about to open up and reveal the secrets of the universe. "With everything that's going on, you're worried about Weasel Face?"
"Don't call him that. He doesn't look like a weasel."
"You may be right," said Jace. "I've met an attractive weasel or two in my time. He looks more like a rat.”
― Cassandra Clare, City of Bones

“You don't need to worry, though. He's not my type."
"I don't think I've ever heard a girl say that before," said Simon. "I thought Jace was the kind of guy who was everyone's type.”
― Cassandra Clare, City of Glass

“Girls can be so petty and jealous. I swear they're worse than guys sometimes. Except they're all quiet about it. They sugarcoat it or else they talk behind each other's backs. It's seriously twisted.”
― Melody Carlson, The Jerk Magnet

“I mean that two of any thing is a most uncomfortable number. One may do as he pleases. Six may get along well enough. But two must always struggle for mastery. Two must always watch each other. The eyes of all the world will be on two, uncertain which of them to follow.”
― Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

“Tension, in the long run, is a more dangerous force than any feud known to man.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“Odd as this might sound, I suppose I’m glad you’re here, Jacob.
[Edward Cullen]”
― Stephenie Meyer, Eclipse

“Mine Enemy is growing old --
I have at last Revenge --
The Palate of the Hate departs --
If any would avenge

Let him be quick -- the Viand flits --
It is a faded Meat --
Anger as soon as fed is dead --
'Tis starving makes it fat”
― Emily Dickinson, I'm Nobody! Who Are You?

“There ought to be some mode of life where all love is good, where one love can't compete with another but adds to it.”
― William Golding, The Spire

“The Master: The cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about.”
― Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who: The Five Doctors

“In love there are no friends everywhere where there is a pretty woman hostility is open.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

“He had been dazzled. Because of the dazzling brightness, he had had to kill [Seigen]. All who had encountered Seigen had had their hearts stolen by that brightness. That envy had turned to malice.”
― Takayuki Yamaguchi, シグルイ 15

“Love has its own dark morality when rivalry enters in.”
― Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure

“Jerusalem was capital of southern Israel, known then as Judah. Isn't it true that there's always a rivalry between north and south? North and South Korea, North and South Vietnam, Northern and Southern Ireland, Yankees and Rebels, uptown and downtown. Somebody please tell me why that is? Maybe southerners get too much sun, like Mr. Sock over there, frying his threads, and northerners don't get enough (although I hardly think northern Israel a cool spot in the shade), but southern peoples--tropical and downtown types--always seem to lean toward decadence, whereas uptown, in the north, progress is favored. Decadence and progress obviously are at odds.”
― Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All

“On the page was exactly what I had written, but it was clearer, more immediate. The erasures, the transpositions, the small additions, and, in some way, her handwriting itself gave me the impression that I had escaped from myself and now was running a hundred paces ahead with an energy and also a harmony that the person left behind didn't know she had.”
― Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend

“Her face may have been the most beautiful female face I have ever seen. Yet, it was a beauty that was intimidating and overwhelming. It was an exquisiteness that made you want to turn and run, instead of approach.”
― Mandy Nachampassack-Maloney, Asha in Time

“Every great phenomenon is followed by degeneration, particularly in the realm of art. The model of the great man stimulates vainer natures to imitate him outwardly or to surpass him; in addition, all great talents have the fateful quality of stifling many weaker forces and needs, and seem to devastate the nature around them. The most fortunate instance in the development of art is when several geniuses reciprocally keep each other in check; in this kind of a struggle, weaker and gentle natures are generally also allowed air and light.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits

“Just because a moth flies close to a flame and lives, doesn't mean the next time it won't catch fire”
― Joelle Charbonneau, Dividing Eden

“The successful are not tolerated.”
― Aeschylus, The Ancient Greek Drama Collection: The Plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides

“Sam studied his brother. At one time he thought Frankie had a good head on his shoulders. Sure, he had a temper. And he was conceited. But he always used common sense. But now he wasn’t so sure if that were true. He had brought him his lifeless fiancé. Like a dog dragging in a dead rabbit looking for praise.”
― holly hood

“He sat staring before him, seeing nothing but a long line of Mortimers, inexhaustable and prolific to the end of time.”
― Edith Pargeter, A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury

“I suppose you think I should be thanking you, for stepping up to assist in reviving me.'

'I have no illusions that the day you thank me for anything, Rhysand, is the day the burning fires of hell go cold.'

'Poetic.'

A low snarl.

Too easy. It was far too easy to bait him, rile him. And though I reminded myself of the wall, of the peace we needed, I said, 'You saved my mate's life on several occasions. I will always be thankful for that.'

I knew the words found their mark. My mate.

Low. It was a low blow. I had everything- everything I'd wished for, dreamed of, begged the stars to grant me.

He had nothing. Had been given everything and squandered it. He didn't deserve my pity, my sympathy.

No, Tamlin deserved what he'd brought upon himself, this husk of a life.

He deserved every empty room, every snarl of thorns, every meal he had to hunt for himself.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Frost and Starlight

“He who is not enviable is not admirable.”
― Aeschylus, Aeschyli Prometheus Vinctus: Ad Fidem Manuscriptorum (1812)

“Rhys smiled a bit, but the amusement died as he said, 'Tamlin was younger than me- born when the War started. But after the War, when he'd matured, we got to know each other at various court functions. He...' Rhys clenched his jaw. 'He seemed decent for a High Lord's son. Better than Beron's brood at the Autumn Court. Tamlin's brothers were equally as bad, though. Worse. And they knew Tamlin would take the title one day. And to a half-breed Illyrian who'd have to prove himself, defend his power, I saw what Tamlin went through... I befriended him. Sought him out whenever I was able to get away from the war camps or court. Maybe it was pity, but... I taught him some Illyrian techniques.'

'Did anyone know?'
...
'Cassian and Azriel knew,' Rhys went on. 'My family knew. And disapproved.' His eyes were chips of ice. 'But Tamlin's father was threatened by it. By me. And because he was weaker than both me and Tamlin, he wanted to prove to the world that he wasn't. My mother and sister were to travel to the Illyrian war-camp to see me. I was supposed to meet them halfway, but I was busy training a new unit and decided to stay.'

My stomach turned over and over and over, and I wished I had something to lean against as Rhys said, 'Tamlin's father, brothers, and Tamlin himself set out into the Illyrian wilderness, having heard from Tamlin- from me- where my mother and sister would be, that I had plans to see them. I was supposed to be there. I wasn't. And they slaughtered my mother and sister anyway.'

I began shaking my head, eyes burning. I didn't know what I was trying to deny, or erase, or condemn.

'It should have been me,' he said, and I understood- understood what he'd said that day I'd wept before Cassian in the training pit.

'They put their heads in boxes and sent them down the river- to the nearest camp. Tamlin's father kept their wings as trophies. I'm surprised you didn't see them pinned in the study.'

I was going to vomit; I was going to fall to my knees and weep.
...
Rhys merely continued. 'When I heard, when my father heard... I wasn't wholly truthful to you when I told you Under the Mountain that my father killed Tamlin's father and brothers, I went with him. Helped him. We winnowed to the edge of the Spring Court that night, then went the rest of the way on foot- tot he manor. I slew Tamlin's brothers on sight. I held their minds, and rendered them helpless while I cut them into pieces, then melted their brains inside their skulls. And when I got to the High Lord's bedroom- he was dead. And my father... my father had killed Tamlin's mother as well.'

I couldn't stop shaking my head.

'My father had promised not to touch her. That we weren't the kind of males who would do that. But he lied to me, and he did it, anyway. And then he went for Tamlin's room.'

I couldn't breathe- couldn't breathe as Rhys said, 'I tried to stop him. He didn't listen. He was going to kill him, too. And I couldn't... After all the death, I was done. I didn't care that Tamlin had been there, had allowed them to kill my mother and sister, that he'd come to kill me because he didn't want to risk standing against them. I was done with death. So I stopped my father before the door. He tried to go through me. Tamlin opened the door, saw us- smelled the blood already leaking into the hallway. And I didn't even get to say a word before Tamlin killed my father in one blow.'

'I felt the power shift to me, even as I saw it shift to him. And we just looked at each other, as we were both suddenly crowned High Lord- and then I ran.'

He'd murdered Rhysand's family. The High Lord I'd loved- he'd murdered his friend's family, and when I'd asked how his family died, he'd merely told me a rival court had done it. Rhysand had done it, and-

'He didn't tell you any of that.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Mist and Fury

“The people who start to elect a man to get what he can for his district will probably find they have elected a man who will get what he can for himself.”
― Calvin Coolidge, Have Faith In Massachusetts

“The biggest danger facing the world is that the United States will at some point adopt an aggressive stance that treats China as the enemy and seeks to isolate it.”
― Martin Jacques, When China Rules the World (2009)

“Let's keep the rivalry. But not hate each other.”
― Avijeet Das

“One, two, three...was I on my tiptoes when I circled this space?

Four, five, six...did counter clockwork make any difference for a prayer?

Seven, eight, nine...ten?

Was it ten turns that got me dizzy?

What could interest me more than counting twirls in the darkness?

I sat down to listen.

Some pieces made the window shards duller.

Gossip was the best price that could be paid.”
― Sara Ellie MacKenzie, Casting Shadows

“I had to take a leaf out of her book. Smile to her face, but hold a knife to her back.”
― Philip Anthony Smith, The Woman He Left Behind

“I hope you choke on your devilled eggs you--”
― Ardin Patterson, Feral