#mina

I am not going to let him win, Guillaume. Not this time. I could not keep him from making my mother pay the price for our failed rebellion. Fifteen years she has been his prisoner, fifteen years! And she is his prisoner, for all that she no longer wants for a queen’s comforts. I have had to submit to his demands and subject myself to his whims and endure the indignity of having him brandish the crown before me as he would tease a dog with a bone. But no more. I will not let him rob me of my birthright, and I will not let him keep me from honoring my vow to defend the Holy Land. I do think he is behind that very opportune rebellion in my duchy, and I would not put it past him to be conniving with the Count of Toulouse, either. And if by chance he did not, it is only because he did not think of it. No, a reckoning is long overdue, and we will have it at Bonsmoulins. ↗

— Sharon Kay Penman

#royal-family #family

Most of life's actions are within our reach, but decisions take willpower. ↗

— Robert McKee

#capability #decisions #determination #life #willpower

The union of the mind and intuition which brings about illumination, and the development which the Sufis seek, is based upon love. ↗

— Idries Shah

#love #sufism #love

But had I accepted the pickle juice, I would be drinking pickle juice right now. ↗

— Nicki Minaj

#inspirational #music #nickiminaj #humor

It is fortunate for this community that I am not a criminal. ↗

— Arthur Conan Doyle

#criminals #detectives #intellect #london #sherlock-holmes

I feel as though whenever I create something, my Mr. Hyde wakes up in the middle of the night and starts thrashing it. I sometimes love it the next morning, but other times it is an abomination. ↗

— Criss Jami

#artists #creativity #dr-jekyll #dr-jekyll-and-mr-hyde #genius

Being strong-willed is not enough, however. You also have to be hard on yourself. Someone who was strong-willed but self-indulgent would not be called determined. Determination implies your willfulness is balanced by discipline. ↗

— Paul Graham

#discipline

Should it concern us that the bible never calls us to ask Jesus into our hearts. Should it concern us that the bible never mentions such a superstitious sinners prayer and yet that is exactly what we have sold to so many as salvation. ↗

— David Platt

#radical #southern-seminary #salvation

Well, did he do it?" She always asked the irrelevant question. It didn't matter in terms of the strategy of the case whether the defendant "did it" or not. What mattered was the evidence against him -- the proof -- and if and how it could be neutralized. My job was to bury the proof, to color the proof a shade of gray. Gray was the color of reasonable doubt. ↗

— Michael Connelly

#criminal-law #defense #evidence #guilt #innocence

If happy I can be I will, if suffer I must I can. ↗

— William Faulkner

#happiness #optimism #suffering #optimism