Chelsey Philpot Quotes

Before that night, I didn't grasp that the shadows that sometimes crossed her face weren't momentary clouds passing in front of the sun. Her deep silences were more than daydreams. And her habit of standing with her arms wrapped around her ribs was a way of holding herself together.I didn't get there must be balance.She couldn't hold so much life, light and joy without also containing their opposites.

But if love can be funny and capricious, it can also be strong enough to seem like a sign of insanity.

In the Empire, the Scholars are not allowed to read and, like so many bullies and power-seekers who hide behind ideologies to justify the terrible things they do, their oppressors wear masks. 'An Ember in the Ashes' suggests that such masks (literal or figurative) don’t work. Not forever, anyway. Masks only cover faces. It’s actions that show who we are.

Heartache, guilt, loss, grief, these things, too, are monsters.