Top 35 Adrienne Tooley Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Your lack of self-appreciation. It’s very irritating. You have power most people can’t dream of. Start acting like it. You matter.”

— Adrienne Tooley

2. “It’s never enough, is it? We try and try our best, and it doesn’t matter, in the end. I’m just one person, defined by my power – or lack thereof. Mine’s just one heart. I wonder what the world will be like without it. Without me.”

— Adrienne Tooley

3. “Her mornings bled into afternoons that melted into evenings like fire turned to embers turned to dust.”

— Adrienne Tooley

4. “Fear was an animal, uninvited and unbidden, leaving destruction in its wake. She would not give in.”

— Adrienne Tooley

5. “Living with the feeling that the world was on fire, Wren now knew, was nothing compared to watching it burn.”

— Adrienne Tooley

6. “Tamsin wanted to count every single one, commit them all to memory so that even when she closed her eyes, she would see a constellation of Wren.”

— Adrienne Tooley

7. “Because when you’re near me, I smell lavender on your hair. When you smile, I catch a taste of honey. Your skin is warm against mine, and when you touch me, I feel more than magic.”

— Adrienne Tooley

8. “I don’t take coins.” – “I deal in love.”

— Adrienne Tooley

9. “Forgiveness takes time. But none of it will happen until you allow it to.”

— Adrienne Tooley

10. “Never learn to love someone untouchable. They’ll only disappoint you in the end.”

— Adrienne Tooley

11. “There was a difference between existing and living.”

— Adrienne Tooley

12. “You’re allowed to have your own life.” Tamsin’s expression was conflicted. “You’re allowed to want things. To leave people behind. To grow.” She glanced behind at the road, although Marlena was long gone. “I see you. I’ve always seen what you could do. Who you could be if you’d only let yourself.”

— Adrienne Tooley

13. “The air smelled of freshly clipped lavender, the scent wafting across the morning in a purple haze. Of course, it wasn’t actually lavender Wren was smelling – it was magic.”

— Adrienne Tooley

14. “Each day she struggled to fold herself up into the small, perfect pieces the world demanded. The freckle-faced village girl who peddled eggs at market to support her family. The dutiful daughter who spent every waking moment nursing her perpetually ill father back to health. The quiet girl who was trying not to drown in an ocean of her own secrets.”

— Adrienne Tooley

15. “People always tried to exchange romantic love for unconditional love, as though the two were interchangeable. But there was a significant difference. Conditional love was fickle. Often it fizzled and stalled, burning out so quickly that Tamsin hardly got more than a handful of uses from it. A mother’s love for her child, however, could last her several months if she rationed it carefully.”

— Adrienne Tooley

16. “Tamsin had quite preferred the child when he was quiet, but the mother seemed pleased.”

— Adrienne Tooley

17. “Which meant she was free to go. Free. What a strange concept, after dreaming of the word for so many years. It almost meant nothing, so great were the possibilities it encompassed.”

— Adrienne Tooley

18. “It felt too simple. To move forward, carrying the weight of what she’d done without letting it hold her back. It was a delicate balance. Just like magic. Just like families and relationships and sisters who shared the same face but not the same heart.”

— Adrienne Tooley

19. “One must not dabble in death,” she told Tamsin, her lips quirking downward. “There is a rule of returns. It is a rule we witches cannot afford to break. For death is not kind. It does not understand. It only feeds.”

— Adrienne Tooley

20. “Now Tamsin was nothing but bitter and dark and cold – always so impossibly cold.”

— Adrienne Tooley

21. “Each time a star shot across the sky and her own heart glowed.”

— Adrienne Tooley

22. “Tamsin gave a strangled cry, sweeping her arm across her cluttered tabletop, relishing the chaos and clatter of her belongings tumbling to the stone floor. A crystal splintered. Her mug shattered, scattering chunks of hardened clay across the room. Loose papers floated into the fire, the flames devouring the dark ink until the words no longer existed.”

— Adrienne Tooley

23. “Letting go was the first step.”

— Adrienne Tooley

24. “For you, if you need it. Never doubt that you are worthy of love.”

— Adrienne Tooley

25. “Well. Wren had only been trying to help. But lately she had started to worry that being willing to offer help – a trait she’d always considered a strength – might actually be a weakness. When she had agreed to trade away her love for her father, she’d thought she was choosing to do something noble. Something good. But if her help always hurt, well, then what was she really doing?”

— Adrienne Tooley

26. “Tamsin turned toward Wren, closed her eyes, and tasted joy.”

— Adrienne Tooley

27. “What do you think a witch actually does? “I dom’t know. Whatever they want?”

— Adrienne Tooley

28. “Tamsin had always been afraid of forever. It was too broad, too all-encompassing. It left too much room for error and disappointment.”

— Adrienne Tooley

29. “The world rebelled. But how else could the earth exist if not for the power it held just beneath the surface? It was magic that made the rain fall, magic that made the trees grow, magic that guided the winds. It was magic that made flowers bloom and birthed animals and caused the sun to shine.”

— Adrienne Tooley

30. “Tamsin could no longer love, and therefore was doomed never to feel any of the joys life had to offer. She could only get a glimpse of what she had lost by taking love from another. If she held tight – and the person’s love was pure – it was enough to give her a few moments of feeling. To experience the warmth of the world despite the cold uselessness of her heart.”

— Adrienne Tooley

31. “She was enchanted by the witch’s lips.”

— Adrienne Tooley

32. “I see you. I’ve always seen what you could do. Who you could be if you’d only let yourself.”

— Adrienne Tooley

33. “What does that mean, ‘deserve’?” Wren squinted at her, as though she truly wanted an answer. “Will you spend your entire life feeling guilty for what you did? Or will you try to redeem yourself with actions and deeds? Healing takes time.” Wren glanced at Marlena, whose back was still to them, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs. “Forgiveness takes time. But none of it will happen until you allow it to.”

— Adrienne Tooley

34. “The woman closed her eyes. Tamsin kept her gaze steady on the woman’s face. The palm of her hand grew warm. The woman’s love ran up Tamsin’s arm and into her bloodstream. The room began to brighten – the greens of her freshly gathered herbs were bright and waxy; their sharp scents wafted through the afternoon air, tickling the inside of her nose. Tamsin’s spirits rose as she reveled in the warmth spreading through her body, into her bones.”

— Adrienne Tooley

35. “And if you can’t be honest to a book with paper that can’t talk back, where can you be?”

— Adrienne Tooley

36. “Tamsin tucked the love into the left-hand corner of her rib cage, trying to corral it as best she could – although, of course, love could never truly be controlled. It was like trying to trap flies in a birdcage.”

— Adrienne Tooley

37. “Do what?” Wren whispered into Tamsin’s palm, her heart fluttering so fast she felt dizzy. She wanted to scream that Tamsin could do anything to her and she wouldn’t mind one bit.”

— Adrienne Tooley

38. “Love was a powerful and terrible creature.”

— Adrienne Tooley

39. “There were a great many people Tamsin blamed for her pain. But the fact was that, in the end, the person she blamed most was herself.”

— Adrienne Tooley