Top 160 Margaret Rogerson Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “This wasn’t like me. So many years of being cautious, and in a matter of minutes I’d started slipping up.”

— Margaret Rogerson

52. “I wiped off my fingers, but it wasn’t the mold or maggots making my stomach revolt... No, it was the knowledge that all around me sat empty people in rotting clothes, nibbling on flyblown trifles while they spoke of nothing of consequence with fixed smiles on their false faces.”

— Margaret Rogerson

53. “An extra twenty-four hours was nothing. Yet, it was everything. I might live more tomorrow then I did all the years of the rest of my life combined.”

— Margaret Rogerson

54. “But it seemed to Elisabeth that evil could not exist right now, in this place, not with all those people making their pilgrimage by lamplight to the river; there was too much beauty in the world for evil to possess any hope of victory.”

— Margaret Rogerson

55. “The library wants to fight back.”

— Margaret Rogerson

56. “Night fell as death rode into the Great Library of Summershall.”

— Margaret Rogerson

57. “Excuse me, ladies,” said Nathaniel. He bowed, which dislodged a trickle of soot from his hair. Then his eyes rolled up, and he collapsed face-first onto the floor.”

— Margaret Rogerson

58. “Was that a thing people did-just gave up? When there was so much in the world to love, to fight for?”

— Margaret Rogerson

59. “God, Elisabeth, I’ve been doomed since the moment I watched you smack a fiend off my carriage with a crowbar. How could you not tell? Silas has been rolling his eyes at me for weeks.”

— Margaret Rogerson

60. “It was always wise to be polite to books, whether or not they could hear you.”

— Margaret Rogerson

61. “Was that what it meant to lose someone? The pain never went away. It just got... covered up.”

— Margaret Rogerson

62. “Once, a Whimsical poet died of despair after finding himself unequal to the task of capturing a fair one’s beauty in simile. I think it more likely he died of arsenic poisoning, but so the story goes.”

— Margaret Rogerson

63. “Frankly, I had no idea how anyone knew if they were in love in the first place. Was there ever a single thread a person could pick out from the knot and say “Yes – I am in love – here’s the proof!” or was it always caught up in a wretched tangle of ifs and buts and maybes?”

— Margaret Rogerson

64. “The library possessed a life of its own, had become greater than Cornelius had ever intended. For these were not ordinary books the libraries kept. They were knowledge, given life. Wisdom, given voice. They sang when starlight streamed through the library’s windows. They felt pain and suffered heartbreak. Sometimes they were sinister, grotesque- but so was the world outside. And that made the world no less worth fighting for, because wherever there was darkness, there was also so much light.”

— Margaret Rogerson

65. “But you know the truth of magic. The greatest power springs only from suffering.”

— Margaret Rogerson

66. “When the world failed me, I could always lose myself in my work.”

— Margaret Rogerson

67. “Katrien didn’t waste any time. While Elisabeth looked around, she went straight to the desk and started rifling through the drawers. “For science,” she explained, which was frequently what she said right before something exploded.”

— Margaret Rogerson

68. “I was alive in a way I never had been before, in a world that no longer felt stale but instead crackled with breathless promise.”

— Margaret Rogerson

69. “She stared across the shining city, ancient, impossibly vast, and wondered how all that light and beauty could exist side by side with so much darkness. She had never felt smaller or more insignificant. But finally, for the first time in weeks, she was free.”

— Margaret Rogerson

70. “And we wouldn’t live happily ever after, because I don’t believe in such nonsense, but we both had a long, bold adventure ahead of us, and a great deal to look forward to at last.”

— Margaret Rogerson

71. “It seemed that it was the rest of the world that had gone mad, not her – but if she was the only one who thought so, could she truly call herself sane?”

— Margaret Rogerson

72. “Then he strode right over and, in one smooth motion, insinuated himself into the bed next to me, facing me, under the covers, with the bold and unselfconscious vanity of a cat sitting down on an open book.”

— Margaret Rogerson

73. “Our worlds are small, our lives are short, and we can only bleed a little before we fall.”

— Margaret Rogerson

74. “I didn’t want to listen to Rook offering me roses whose perfume would make me forget all my childhood memories, or diamonds that would make me care for nothing but gems ever after, or goose down that would steal away my dreams. I knew that part of him existed, but I didn’t want to see it. And that sentiment was more dangerous than all the enchantments he could offer me combined.”

— Margaret Rogerson

75. “But every once in a while, when her back was turned, she could have sworn she felt his gaze settle upon her, as tentative as the brush of a butterfly’s wing.”

— Margaret Rogerson

76. “Ah, but you were not a pawn. All along, you have been the queen.”

— Margaret Rogerson

77. “Ah, I see. In that case, well-behaved ravens. They will mind their manners.”

— Margaret Rogerson

78. “You unmanageable, contrary creature. You have made me believe in something at last. It feels as wretched as I imagined.”

— Margaret Rogerson

79. “But her oaths meant nothing if they asked her to forsake people she cared about in their greatest moment of need. If that was what being a warden required of her, then she wasn’t meant to become one. She would have to decide for herself what was right and what was wrong.”

— Margaret Rogerson

80. “She had never known that hope could hurt so badly, like blood rushing back to a deadened limb.”

— Margaret Rogerson

81. “Isobel. Isobel, listen. The teapot is of no consequence. I can defeat anyone, at any time.”

— Margaret Rogerson

82. “I couldn’t decide whether the idea owed itself to vanity, a depressing lack of creativity, or both.”

— Margaret Rogerson

83. “Ink and parchment flowed through her veins. The magic of the Great Libraries lived in her very bones. They were a part of her, and she a part of them.”

— Margaret Rogerson

84. “What is the point of life if you don’t believe in anything?”

— Margaret Rogerson

85. “Rook’s heart beat against my fingertips through his soft feathers, and my eyes sank closed as I murmured drowsy endearments to the spoiled prince nestled against my stomach, warm within a nest of blankets.”

— Margaret Rogerson

86. “Hours passed, but Elisabeth barely took note. She was back where she belonged, surrounded by the whisperings and rustlings of pages; the sweet, musty smell of books.”

— Margaret Rogerson

87. “The day stretched on. Each portrait was a single stepping-stone, the sum of which would form a path home. I lost count of how many portraits I did, marking them only by the emotions I used: curiosity, surprise, amusement, bliss. The pigments dwindled in their teacups.”

— Margaret Rogerson

88. “Nathaniel opened one gray eye, startlingly pale against his soot- and blood-covered face. He looked around dubiously, as though he wasn’t quite sure whether he wanted to wake up yet, and then slowly opened the other, focusing on Elisabeth’s face. “Hello, you menace.”

— Margaret Rogerson

89. “Walking on the edge of a cliff is only fun until the blade stops being a metaphor.”

— Margaret Rogerson

90. “I will see Master Thorn settled.” Silas paused to sniff the air beside Elisabeth. “Then, Miss Scrivener, I shall draw you a bath. I believe supper is also in order. And – has no one lit the lamps?” He looked aggrieved. “I have hardly been absent for twenty-four hours, and already the world has descended into ruin.”

— Margaret Rogerson

91. “If an unfamiliar dog follows you at night, don’t stop to look at it. If you wake up to find a cat you don’t recognize sitting in your yard, watching your house, don’t open the door. And most of all, if you see a beautiful horse near a lake or the edge of the forest, never, ever try to ride it.”

— Margaret Rogerson

92. “Didn’t they realize their lives were worth more than the dubious affection of one silly man?”

— Margaret Rogerson

93. “She would become an outcast from the only world in which she had ever belonged. But her oaths meant nothing if they asked her to forsake people she cared about in their greatest moment of need.”

— Margaret Rogerson

94. “Perfect subjects make for less interesting work.”

— Margaret Rogerson

95. “But you stayed with me. And selfishly, I was glad – I had never wanted anything more in my life. Damn you,” he said. “You unmanageable, contrary creature. You have made me believe in something at last. It feels as wretched as I imagined.”

— Margaret Rogerson

96. “The ability to feel is a strength, not a weakness.”

— Margaret Rogerson

97. “What is this, master – the third time I’ve broken you out of a jail cell?” Nathaniel coughed. “Minor misunderstandings, on both previous occasions,” he assured Elisabeth.”

— Margaret Rogerson

98. “After he left, I couldn’t shake the notion that he’d insisted on ravens for a reason. I was almost finished cleaning up by the time the explanation occurred to me. My cheeks warmed, and a wistful pang plucked a sweet, sad chord in my stomach. It was simple, really. He didn’t want me to forget him once he’d gone.”

— Margaret Rogerson

99. “The mere idea of having that conversation made me want to crawl into a hole and die.”

— Margaret Rogerson

100. “You mean the connection’s never occurred to you before? Do you have any critical thinking skills at all?” He stared straight ahead in full hauteur. “Of course I do. I am a – ” “Yes, I know. You’re a prince. Never mind.” I got the distinct feeling he’d never heard the term critical thinking before in his life.”

— Margaret Rogerson