Top 60 S. D. Smith Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “We don’t have to win the war today, sir,” Heather said. She hoped she looked braver than she felt. “We only have to win the next battle.”

— S. D. Smith

2. “The Green Ember burns; the seed of the New World smolders. Healing is on the horizon, but a fire comes first. Bear the flame.”

— S. D. Smith

3. “You can choose what you believe, Shuffler, but you can’t change what’s true.”

— S. D. Smith

4. “I am afraid... But I keep on loving what’s on the other side of this fight, and that will have to make me brave.”

— S. D. Smith

5. “Dear Kyle, you are the great nitwit of the world. Love, Jo Shanks.”

— S. D. Smith

6. “My place beside you. My blood for yours. Till the Green Ember rises, or the end of the world!”

— S. D. Smith

7. “Because you loved me. Before I was anything. Before I was at all lovable, you loved me. I won’t forget.”

— S. D. Smith

8. “I regret many things I’ve done,” he said, “but most of all I regret those moments when I said to Fear, ‘You are my master.”

— S. D. Smith

9. “I know this is a hard blow... But stay on the job, son. Do the next right thing.”

— S. D. Smith

10. “It’s better to live as you will want to have lived, rather than spend your time worrying about the end. You are right here in your story. Don’t skip ahead.”

— S. D. Smith

11. “Do you even know how to use one?′ he asked. “The sharp part at the bad guys?′ ‘That’s the general idea.”

— S. D. Smith

12. “Was that my ribbon?” Weezie asked. “Maybe.” “Maybe?” Weezie frowned in mock severity. “Picket Thingstealer, bane of the does.”

— S. D. Smith

13. “What do I always tell you? ‘ Not enough salt is an in-salt,’ and ‘Too much salt is an as-salt!”

— S. D. Smith

14. “Thank you for loving us, Mother and Father. Thank you for preparing us for the unnumbered dangers we’ve faced. We had no idea that when you gave us all the light you did, you were guiding us to one day strike out at the darkness so fiercely.”

— S. D. Smith

15. “We are beset by many dangers, and traitors multiply in the dark. It will not be so in the Mended Wood.”

— S. D. Smith

16. “I love a happy ending... because I need hope.”

— S. D. Smith

17. “Our love is a treasure, but it’s not the house we keep the treasure in.′ Heather smiled through the tears. ‘There is a bigger world we fit inside, and we can’t say yes to our love right here without saying no to the world. I can’t. I know you can’t either, or you wouldn’t be the one I love so much.”

— S. D. Smith

18. “I’m prepared to die by getting caught,” he whispered, “but not by heart attack because of you two idiots creeping up on me like that.”

— S. D. Smith

19. “Uncle Picket,” Hanna asked, tugging on his shirt, “who made up Starseek?” “Your mother, the queen, invented the game,” Picket answered with a smile. “But,” Queen Heather said, “Uncle Picket made it magic.” The End.”

— S. D. Smith

20. “Almost getting killed is stressful.′ Kylen said, wiping his eyes. ‘I feel like I’ve been doing it my whole life.’ ‘We have so much in common,’ Jo said as they resumed their march.”

— S. D. Smith

21. “Heather began to smile, even as tears stood out in her eyes. It was an old, familiar song. “But, it will not be so in the Mended Wood, We’ll be free and glad again. It will not be so in the Mended Wood, When the heir of Jupiter reigns. When the heir of Jupiter reigns!” Heather knew the song, yes. But she knew more than that. She knew exactly who was singing. Her heart flooded with a sudden, surging hope. The End.”

— S. D. Smith

22. “Growing up is terribly wonderful. But often it’s also wonderfully terrible. Ha, a riddle of words amounting to nothing. A stuttering cleverism that falls as short as my feeble steps. But this is true. A teacher could become rich if he ever perfected the art of helping mature students unlearn many awful things. Enjoy your innocence, my dear. Even if it only lasts the day.”

— S. D. Smith

23. “All of life is a battle against fear. We fight it on one front, and it sneaks around to our flank.”

— S. D. Smith

24. “All of life is a battle against fear. We fight it on one front, and it sneaks around to our flank.” He paused, looked kindly at her. “Yes, Father. I understand.” “I regret many things I’ve done,” he said, “but most of all I regret those moments when I said to Fear, ‘You are my master.”

— S. D. Smith

25. “Being a ruler is, contrary to popular notions, a calling of self-sacrifice. That is, if one wants to be a good ruler.”

— S. D. Smith

26. “Don’t stop hating it. It’s a useful fuel for hard work.”

— S. D. Smith

27. “She was seeing the other side of the tragedy, the world that lived, for now, only in the hopeful hearts of those who, though not seeing, saw.”

— S. D. Smith

28. “If you aren’t angry about the wicked things happening in the world all around, then you don’t have a soul.” There.”

— S. D. Smith

29. “It’s called Starseek,” she said, “and this is the star.” “Is it a real star?” Picket asked, his head cocked sideways and his whiskers twitching. “No, little one,” Heather said, “a real star hangs in the sky at night, along with a million others. This is just a game.” “A game?” Picket said. “Maybe they’re all for games.”

— S. D. Smith

30. “He longed for a world where safe places for the weak and vulnerable were common, but that was not this world. Not right now.”

— S. D. Smith

31. “Picket sighed. “You’re never going to let me forget that song, are you?” “No. I can’t see that ever happening.”

— S. D. Smith

32. “This is a place where people make and are made. You are what you do. Choose wisely, young Picket. Choose wisely, brave Heather. Understand?”

— S. D. Smith

33. “I’m not sure if it’ll be all right. But I’m glad we’re together.”

— S. D. Smith

34. “We may find pleasure in our duty, but our duty is not our own pleasure.”

— S. D. Smith

35. “The sky thundered suddenly, an ominous, brooding doom. Heather felt panic growing inside her. “It’s nothing,” she said aloud. “I’m not afraid of this.”

— S. D. Smith

36. “Growing up is terribly wonderful. But often it’s also wonderfully terrible.”

— S. D. Smith

37. “And the Great Wood did mend; brighter and brighter it shine, with more and more light to share. Mending begat mending, and the healing grew, like a disease in reverse, until the wholeness spread to the edge of every map.”

— S. D. Smith

38. “I waked up this morning from dreams about feets, sniffed big-time major breeze of life and hoped with all my hopes that this day might be filled with stinky feets to examine. It’s a dream coming truth.”

— S. D. Smith

39. “What a burden to assign all these souls to places where he knows they will face unthinkable danger.”

— S. D. Smith

40. “I think Heather might be well-suited for the tale-spinners,” Emma said, nudging her friend. Heather felt panic rise, and she looked away. Why am I so afraid of what I love to do? “She is a good storyteller,” Picket said, frowning at her. “Telling stories to littles is not the same as a calling,” Heather said, blushing. “I can think of few higher callings,” Master Eefaw said, raising his eyebrows at Heather and motioning over to the storyguild.”

— S. D. Smith

41. “Was Father getting sadder, or was she just getting old enough to see it?”

— S. D. Smith

42. “How many times in the last two days had she believed she was at the end of her strength, only to somehow find more?”

— S. D. Smith

43. “What is it, Father?” Picket asked as Mother tenderly took Jacks from him. “It’s only that, when you’re older, you hand out wisdom to your children like you know everything, but it is sometimes hard to follow your own advice.”

— S. D. Smith

44. “Stuck, are we?” Captain.”

— S. D. Smith

45. “Swordless, Fleck Blackstar hobbled to the water’s.”

— S. D. Smith

46. “He hobbled on, hoping they were close to escaping. But escaping to where?”

— S. D. Smith

47. “The sunlight sparkled through the wind-bent boughs of trees, dancing in an ever-shifting pattern.”

— S. D. Smith

48. “It is, she considered gravely, a terribly dangerous world. She supposed it always had been, but she was only now really experiencing it.”

— S. D. Smith

49. “One must either sacrifice for great accomplishment or sacrifice great accomplishment.”

— S. D. Smith

50. “But she was brave, like you. She chose to trade her life for the cause. Heather placed more weight on the hope of the mending than she put value on her own life. That’s how I want to live. And die, if I must.”

— S. D. Smith