Top 70 Nadine Brandes Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “It’s good to dream.”

— Nadine Brandes

2. “We understood that being left in the dark was far more despairing than dealing with the weight of the darkness.”

— Nadine Brandes

3. “And hope never abandoned us – only we could abandon it.”

— Nadine Brandes

4. “It is if you separate the two- old life and new life. But once you learn that it’s all one life and each day is a new page, it gets a bit easier to let your story take an unexpected path.”

— Nadine Brandes

5. “The smithy handed me my new sword-a rapier. As rapiers went, it was the runt of the litter-a simple handle with barely and guard, matte grey blade, and seeming to dull the longer I looked at it. But it was mine. And even the most unimpressive sword can leave an impressive wound when in the hands of a practiced master.”

— Nadine Brandes

6. “You can’t judge an entire group of people by the actions of a few.”

— Nadine Brandes

7. “Have you no honor to stand for your beliefs?” “Standing for my beliefs isn’t always the same as standing for truth.”

— Nadine Brandes

8. “I can never tell you.” “You can always tell me. To share your story is a choice. Don’t underestimate the healing that can come from daring not to suffer alone.”

— Nadine Brandes

9. “Your life was given to you.” Oma’s grey eyes sparked with orange fire. “A gift. And just because it’s yours doesn’t give you the right to end it.”

— Nadine Brandes

10. “The bond of our hearts spans miles, memory, and time.”

— Nadine Brandes

11. “Everyone deserves a chance to make right.”

— Nadine Brandes

12. “You’ve had one moment of clarity and now you think you have all the answers.” She gave a grim smile. “Take a breath, Thomas. There has always been fear. There will always be fear. It’s up to us to stand tall, even when the fear demands we bow down to it.”

— Nadine Brandes

13. “It is those who dream of the impossible who end up defying the very world.”

— Nadine Brandes

14. “I want to finally love rightly.”

— Nadine Brandes

15. “Don’t strive to belong, Parvin. Your effort is much better placed elsewhere.”

— Nadine Brandes

16. “Ribbons! Long ones, short ones, ones for every mood.” He does a little dance to the singsong rhythm. “Thin ones, thick ones, and ones to tie your shoes!”

— Nadine Brandes

17. “But she does it anyway, and I sit beside her... because strength is a choice.”

— Nadine Brandes

18. “We need to fight for truth. Your beliefs can be misguided.”

— Nadine Brandes

19. “With his mask and my sword, we could subdue even the shadows.”

— Nadine Brandes

20. “We all have murder in our pasts – whether by action or by heart. But all of us have the chance of life in our futures. You can’t use your mistake to define who you are. That will destroy who you could be.”

— Nadine Brandes

21. “That was how we sisters worked. When one was weak, another picked up the strength.”

— Nadine Brandes

22. “A whisper loud enough to rise above the world’s roar. That is my God. Working through us flawed, impulsive humans.”

— Nadine Brandes

23. “But a man can be both soft and strong, maintaining a hope for the world.”

— Nadine Brandes

24. “My train of thought felt rebellious, but also... organic. Cleansing. Like that was what men were supposed to do. Be seekers of the answers and the truth. To be above the influence and opinions of the outspoken.”

— Nadine Brandes

25. “Let no one call you tame.”

— Nadine Brandes

26. “My blood is my crime.”

— Nadine Brandes

27. “I squeezed his hand, so tight it likely pained him. But sometimes comfort needed to sting more than the sorrow for it to break into the grief.”

— Nadine Brandes

28. “Nothing was more exhausting than putting forth kindness and receiving indifference in return.”

— Nadine Brandes

29. “All my life I was driven by the loyalty of caring for the people I loved... I was taught that nothing was more important than such care. But your family showed me differently. You cared equally as much about those you loved-you would do anything for them. But you also allowed yourselves to love... more. You loved your enemies. You loved your friends.”

— Nadine Brandes

30. “She saw me and time seemed to stop. For one synchronized heartbeat I was all she saw. She was alive. She was safe... for now. Despite the dagger wound. She was so beautiful that my chest felt like it was the one the dagger in it.”

— Nadine Brandes

31. “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. I don’t think He wants us to keep asking and dwelling on His specific plan or will. He wants us to dwell on and seek Him. Then our decisions will be made from our love for and relationship with Him. We are free to take action in whatever means we want as long as we seek Him and allow Him to guide us.”

— Nadine Brandes

32. “Maybe that’s what God means every time He tells us to rise up. To rise above the small things, the small struggles that chip away our identity and leave us lost.”

— Nadine Brandes

33. “Revenge would have shattered us both. But you’ve given us the opportunity to be strong. To mend our hearts instead of break them further.”

— Nadine Brandes

34. “No amount of age, pride, or maturity could stop me from loving my papa with the heart of a little girl.”

— Nadine Brandes

35. “I’m Parvin Blackwater and I’m very much alive!”

— Nadine Brandes

36. “The best place to hide an item was on your person. But when you couldn’t manage that, the next best place was to hie it in plain view. People searched there last.”

— Nadine Brandes

37. “I saved you for a reason.”

— Nadine Brandes

38. “Mother was wrong. I’m not meant to just live. I’m meant to follow my passions, with God at the front.”

— Nadine Brandes

39. “Take a breath, Thomas. There has always been fear. There will always be fear. It’s up to us to stand tall, even when the fear demands we bow to it.”

— Nadine Brandes

40. “But light could not be so swiftly overcome by darkness. Not when that light rested in a person’s soul.”

— Nadine Brandes

41. “I breathed in the safety that came from a hidden secret.”

— Nadine Brandes

42. “God will never instruct me to be afraid, so I might as well get used to reminding myself to fear not.”

— Nadine Brandes

43. “And I was proud to defend my people. I was proud to stand for something.”

— Nadine Brandes

44. “Let me just say, you have way better taste in men than your mom did.”

— Nadine Brandes

45. “Those who cannot laugh cannot properly live.”

— Nadine Brandes

46. “But there was still light – we were just learning how to find it.”

— Nadine Brandes

47. “Healing. Forgiveness. Shared story. The promise of walking life with someone who knew my bloodied past. A hand willing to touch the skin of a Romanov and feel only joy.”

— Nadine Brandes

48. “He wants us to dwell on and seek Him. Then our decisions will be made from our love for and relationship with Him.”

— Nadine Brandes

49. “It’s possible to make a mistake and not be seen only as that mistake.”

— Nadine Brandes

50. “How many of us acted and spoke out and fought for beliefs that we held because our environment told us to? As much as I wanted to blame my England, I knew the blame sat with me. I hadn’t trained myself to discern. To examine. To seek the source.”

— Nadine Brandes