The King of Attolia: Favorite Quotes
I was making a paper for my Strategic Planning class. And I was using the book, The King of Attolia, by Megan Whalen Turner, as my book report. The bad thing about using a fiction book you love for your book report is you keep getting drawn into the book, and thus, you find yourself reading instead of writing.
I love this book. I love the loyalty of the Queen's subjects. I love how the Queen is cold, but needs to learn mercy so that she doesn't hang her most loyal people. I love how the King is torn between his love for the Queen and his dislike for his role. And so, I'd like to share with you some of my favorite quotes from the book.
"She is ruthless... And it is a good thing she is, because she wouldn't be queen if she weren't."
(Aristogiton, Squad Leader, Queen's Guard)
"She is brilliant and beautiful and terrifying. It's a fine way to feel about your queen, not your wife."
(Aristogiton, Squad Leader, Queen's Guard)
"No, Relius was right and I was wrong. You are My Queen. Even though you cut my head from my shoulders, with my last breath as a noose tightens, to the last beat of my heart if I hang from the walls of the palace, you are My Queen. That I have failed you does not change my love for you or my loyalty."
(Teleus, Captain, Queen's Guard)
"It isn't revenge, Sejanus... I wouldn't destroy an entire house to destroy one man. But I would destroy a man to destroy a house."
(Eugenides, King of Attolia)
"You were jealous... of Dite?"
The king, the master of the fates of men, before their eyes was reduced to a man, very young himself and in love. Picking again at the coverlet, he answered, with eyes cast down, "Wildly."
(Irene, Queen of Attolia, and Eugenides, King of Attolia)
"Do you think I didn't know, from the very beginning, that this was where I must end?"
"Would you have served her if you did?" the king asked.
"Gladly,"snarled the secretary.
(Relius, Secretary of the Archives, and Eugenides, King of Attolia)
"If I were here for fifty years," he said, gasping, "and she released me, I would crawl, if that was all I could do, to her feet to serve her."
The king shook his head in amusement and disbelief. "That is impossible. After what she has done to you?"
"It is what I taught her to do."
"So you would serve her still?"
"Yes."
His amusement and disbelief wiped away, the king leaned closer. "So would I."
(Relius, Secretary of the Archives, and Eugenides, King of Attolia)
"I am here to make sure that you stay in bed, Your Majesty, because if this offends you and you order me summarily executed, it is no loss. Politically speaking."
(Costis, Lieutenant, Queen's Guard)
"She is strong, and you assume that strength has no end, no breaking point."
(Eugenides, King of Attolia)
"If she pardons people because she loves them, someday someone that she loves will betray her and all Attolia with her. A queen must make sacrifices for the common good," Relius said.
"And if what she sacrifices is her heart? Giving it up a piece at a time until there is nothing left? What will you have then, Relius, but a heartless ruler? And what becomes of the common good then?"
(Relius, Secretary of the Archives, and Eugenides, King of Attolia)
"He didn't marry you to become king. He became king because he wanted to marry you."
(Relius, Secretary of the Archives)
"I am tired of driving people and forcing them to my will. I am like a war chariot with bladed wheels, scything down those closest to me, enemies and my dearest friends alike."
(Irene, Queen of Attolia)
"He has had very little company in his life and he isn't used to it. But there are other words for privacy and independence. They are isolation and loneliness. Drive him out. Whether he likes to or not, he belongs in the open. The world needs to see what a king he is."
(Relius, Secretary of the Archives)
"Take care. Take care, my dear friend. I am an exceedingly effective scythe."
(Irene, Queen of Attolia)
"And you may mow me down a hundred times, My Queen, with my best wishes."
(Relius, Secretary of the Archives)
I love this book. I love the loyalty of the Queen's subjects. I love how the Queen is cold, but needs to learn mercy so that she doesn't hang her most loyal people. I love how the King is torn between his love for the Queen and his dislike for his role. And so, I'd like to share with you some of my favorite quotes from the book.
"She is ruthless... And it is a good thing she is, because she wouldn't be queen if she weren't."
(Aristogiton, Squad Leader, Queen's Guard)
"She is brilliant and beautiful and terrifying. It's a fine way to feel about your queen, not your wife."
(Aristogiton, Squad Leader, Queen's Guard)
"No, Relius was right and I was wrong. You are My Queen. Even though you cut my head from my shoulders, with my last breath as a noose tightens, to the last beat of my heart if I hang from the walls of the palace, you are My Queen. That I have failed you does not change my love for you or my loyalty."
(Teleus, Captain, Queen's Guard)
"It isn't revenge, Sejanus... I wouldn't destroy an entire house to destroy one man. But I would destroy a man to destroy a house."
(Eugenides, King of Attolia)
"You were jealous... of Dite?"
The king, the master of the fates of men, before their eyes was reduced to a man, very young himself and in love. Picking again at the coverlet, he answered, with eyes cast down, "Wildly."
(Irene, Queen of Attolia, and Eugenides, King of Attolia)
"Do you think I didn't know, from the very beginning, that this was where I must end?"
"Would you have served her if you did?" the king asked.
"Gladly,"snarled the secretary.
(Relius, Secretary of the Archives, and Eugenides, King of Attolia)
"If I were here for fifty years," he said, gasping, "and she released me, I would crawl, if that was all I could do, to her feet to serve her."
The king shook his head in amusement and disbelief. "That is impossible. After what she has done to you?"
"It is what I taught her to do."
"So you would serve her still?"
"Yes."
His amusement and disbelief wiped away, the king leaned closer. "So would I."
(Relius, Secretary of the Archives, and Eugenides, King of Attolia)
"I am here to make sure that you stay in bed, Your Majesty, because if this offends you and you order me summarily executed, it is no loss. Politically speaking."
(Costis, Lieutenant, Queen's Guard)
"She is strong, and you assume that strength has no end, no breaking point."
(Eugenides, King of Attolia)
"If she pardons people because she loves them, someday someone that she loves will betray her and all Attolia with her. A queen must make sacrifices for the common good," Relius said.
"And if what she sacrifices is her heart? Giving it up a piece at a time until there is nothing left? What will you have then, Relius, but a heartless ruler? And what becomes of the common good then?"
(Relius, Secretary of the Archives, and Eugenides, King of Attolia)
"He didn't marry you to become king. He became king because he wanted to marry you."
(Relius, Secretary of the Archives)
"I am tired of driving people and forcing them to my will. I am like a war chariot with bladed wheels, scything down those closest to me, enemies and my dearest friends alike."
(Irene, Queen of Attolia)
"He has had very little company in his life and he isn't used to it. But there are other words for privacy and independence. They are isolation and loneliness. Drive him out. Whether he likes to or not, he belongs in the open. The world needs to see what a king he is."
(Relius, Secretary of the Archives)
"Take care. Take care, my dear friend. I am an exceedingly effective scythe."
(Irene, Queen of Attolia)
"And you may mow me down a hundred times, My Queen, with my best wishes."
(Relius, Secretary of the Archives)
