We cannot go backward. We cannot erase time and events. But we can go forward, hand in hand, hope in our hearts and love lighting our way. Sharon Shinn More Quotes by Sharon Shinn More Quotes From Sharon Shinn Are you asking me if there is a god?' he said, still in that soft voice. 'All I can say is, I believe there is. I feel him when I sing. He has responded to my prayers countless times. He guides my actions and he dwells in my heart. I know he is there. Sharon Shinn prayer heart believe I've remembered that most of life is about small, essential connections, so unobtrusive, so elastic, that you scarcely realize they're actually holding you together. The big ones-the great, grand emotional bonds-those are the ones that break, the ones that fail you, the ones that give way and send you careening toward the foot of the bleak and jagged canyon. It's the tough, gnarled, unadorned ties that really do bind, that never let you fall all the way down into darkness. Sharon Shinn emotional feet fall Only the strongest are put through the fire,' Josiah said. 'And the forge creates things of great strength and beauty.' 'Then I shall be truly glorious by the time my tenure ends. Sharon Shinn ends fire said Do you love me?" he asked. I fell silent. "For the rest of it is glitter and noise," he said. "At the heart of it all is love. You make that choice, and you go forward from there. Sharon Shinn choices love-you heart Love is like water from the ocean." Damiana said. "You cannot empty it dry. Take bucket after bucket of water out of the Cormeon Sea, and there is still more water left than you could ever use up. That's what love's like. Sharon Shinn ocean sea love-is He is so kind that he makes me search my soul to find new ways to be compassionate to others. Sharon Shinn kind soul way If love makes you sad, you acquire a little depth, a little compassion. If it makes you happy, you learn how to be joyous. Every relationship should color your soul to a certain degree, don't you think? Every friendship, every love affair - each one should build up the chambers of your heart the way a sea creature builds the chamber of his shell. Sharon Shinn compassion heart thinking It is very easy to shun someone who is deliberately cruel, and everyone loathes a man who is brutal and vicious. Such people have a hard time winning followers. But an individual who is gracious, who is attractive, who smiles and flatters and praises - that is a person who can lead whole nations to disaster. Who would not want to follow such a man or woman? Everyone is drawn to beauty and wit. Sharon Shinn hard-times winning men And might I live long enough to see the world yet again as a place completely different, through eyes that see another truth not yet revealed? Sharon Shinn different eye long And you're not leaving," she said. "Promise me." It was as if she had asked him to promise to keep breathing, to notice sunshine, to permit the spinning of the earth. What choice did he have? Even if he left her, she would be camped in his heart, an insistent and willful presence. She would match her strides to his on any journey he ever took; she would lie beside him on any bed. Amalie, he said, "that's the easiest promise I've ever had to make. Sharon Shinn sunshine heart lying A truth comes out when it must; A dream comes true when it will. Though the world turn to ash and dust A secret’s a secret still. Sharon Shinn dust secret dream Manufactured--synthetic--even virtual, if that is what you turned out to be--I would love you. Sharon Shinn synthetic ifs love-you Yes, Jenna, I love you with all my heart. And with my atoms and molecules and electrons and whatever further breakdown you require. Sharon Shinn atoms love-you heart I was Amazement--I was Desire--I was Ecstasy and Rapture and the slightest bit of Greed. Sharon Shinn ecstasy greed desire Your wedding completely changes the direction of your life, you know, no matter how greatly you desire it. I think that moment of doubt and faintness comes from all those imagined and now impossible futures all pressing in on you at once. It is your last chance to experience them, you see, and they all want to be lived at that moment. Sharon Shinn wedding doubt thinking A truth that no one knows is still the truth. Sharon Shinn stills knows Love is a popular romantic notion that leads to nothing but its own brand of misery. Sharon Shinn notion misery love-is She shouldn't leave you. Or you shouldn't leave her. I haven't worked it out yet. But you shouldn't be apart. Sharon Shinn should havens If there is no god, what is left but science? What is left to endow us with any grace? You can tell me the chemical makeup of my skin and my brain, but how can you explain away my soul? And if there is no god to watch over me, chastise me, grieve for me, rejoice for me, make me fear, and make me wonder, what am I but a collection of metals and liquids with nothing to celebrate about my daily living? Sharon Shinn makeup grace grieving So do I wish I was to be king? That is not a question I ask myself. I ask myself, Would I be a good king? Would I be quick witted and generous of spirit and full of that boundless energy? Or would I be clumsy and stupid and dulled by my own prejudices? I try to be a good man, since I am alive at all, and hope that that teaches me what I would need to know if I was ever faced with a higher challenge. Sharon Shinn stupid kings men