“There were just four things a woman could be (five at most): daughter, wife, mother, widow, and slut. That was it. There were no other roles for them—no free and independent women, no feminism, no selfsufficiency. If you didn’t like it, you could be branded a witch and executed.”
― Lina J. Potter, First Lessons

“Smart people are always learning something new. Stupid people just stay stupid. Remember that.”
― Lina J. Potter, The Clearing

“People generally forget the things they are ashamed of, but no one ever forgets an insult.”
― Lina J. Potter, Palace Intrigue

“Yes, Lilian Earton was a large woman. She was fat. There was no other word for it. But at the same time, there was something indefinable about her. Was it an inner light? A sparkle in her eyes? The way she spoke and moved and made things move around her? The man couldn’t have said exactly. He didn’t know the word “charisma,” but that was exactly what she had. She had personality that no layers of fat could hide. She was impressive.”
― Lina J. Potter, The Clearing

“In this world, women held a position somewhere between horses and cows. Aristocratic women were slightly better off.”
― Lina J. Potter, First Lessons

“A last, despairing thought shot through Aliya’s mind, Is this it? I don’t want to die! I want to live! Then everything went dark.”
― Lina J. Potter, First Lessons

“Which world is more honest?”
― Lina J. Potter, Palace Intrigue

“Her stomach rumbled, and Lily wondered how many calories her diplomacy had burned.”
― Lina J. Potter, Palace Intrigue

“Beauty is skin-deep, young man.”
― Lina J. Potter, Palace Intrigue

“How much do we lose because we are young and stupid?”
― Lina J. Potter, Palace Intrigue

“Time doesn’t really heal all wounds. It just creates a layer of years over something that still pulses and bleeds. When someone cuts a piece out of your heart, it never heals.”
― Lina J. Potter, Palace Intrigue

“Children should not repeat their parents’ mistakes, especially if their parents are around to warn them.”
― Lina J. Potter, Palace Intrigue

“Lily believed that if you don’t take care of your own army, you are essentially taking care of someone else’s army.”
― Lina J. Potter, Palace Intrigue

“So that's how it was. Palaces, kings... and thugs like that, who, like locusts, move from one century to another.”
― Lina J. Potter, The Royal Court

“Eric thought he could imagine how aristocrats raised their daughters. Like rare flowers, they lived behind high walls, way out in the country where they could remain innocent and tremulous. Knowledge was not something such parents gave their daughters. He had seen enough of this while serving as a mercenary in Avesterra. Girls from wealthy families had little information and even less common sense in their heads. All they knew how to do was embroider and bat their eyelashes (and they weren’t even supposed to do too much of that).”
― Lina J. Potter, The Clearing

“What has happened to you, Aliya Skorolenok? Who have you become? The reflection said nothing, because there was nothing to say.”
― Lina J. Potter, The Clearing

“As the days wore on, there was less and less of Aliya left in her. She couldn’t remember what Alex’s eyes had looked like, or how her father laughed at off-color jokes, or what the head of surgery said to her the first time she walked into the operating room. It was all gone. Her new reality was the castle, Earton, and these strange people that she had to build a life with.”
― Lina J. Potter, The Clearing

“Richard grimaced. She was attractive, but not to his liking. Something about her reminded him of spoiled meat served in a complicated sauce – it may look good, but it’s inedible.”
― Lina J. Potter, The Clearing

“If she’s lucky, she’ll grow up to be a decent person instead of the wife of a feudal lord.”
― Lina J. Potter, The Clearing

“The first thing Aliya felt was pain.
And the second.
And the third.”
― Lina J. Potter, First Lessons

“The corner of the witch’s mouth twitched. “My remedy can bring a soul back into the body, but it won’t work if the soul doesn’t want to stay. Do you understand?”
― Lina J. Potter, First Lessons

“All of a sudden, thoughts of the past flitted through Lily’s mind and scratched at her heart.”
― Lina J. Potter, Palace Intrigue

“Lily held onto the edge of her desk to keep herself from screaming. She breathed in and breathed out.
You’re a surgeon. A surgeon never panics during an operation.”
― Lina J. Potter, Palace Intrigue

“Her new world had no telephones, internet or indoor plumbing. The customs were bloody and the laws were harsh. A man who tried to hurt a child faced a horrifying death. Women were not allowed to fight, because it wasn’t women’s work. Men were supposed to kill and die. That was what they knew. In the world she had come from, everything was convenient, people felt safe most of the time, and if anyone died protecting a child it was likely to be a woman.
Which world is more honest?”
― Lina J. Potter, Palace Intrigue

“An intelligent woman’s gratitude is a thing very much worth having…”
― Lina J. Potter, Palace Intrigue

“Princess Anna was never more than a few steps away from him. He was beginning to feel like a besieged castle. The man should be the arrow, and the woman should be the target. Here, however, it seemed that the target was flying around trying to run into the arrow. There was something wrong about it.”
― Lina J. Potter, Palace Intrigue

“It was horrible to watch a man being tortured. She felt like something inside her own soul was cracking, something that would never heal.”
― Lina J. Potter, Palace Intrigue

“You can’t keep her down, and you won’t get away with it.”
― Lina J. Potter, Palace Intrigue

“Why couldn’t his stupid wife sit at home and work on her embroidery? What was all this nonsense about slave traders and thievery?”
― Lina J. Potter, Palace Intrigue

“Holy ground can look startlingly ordinary, especially when one’s standing on it.”
― Anthony Bale, A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages: The World Through Medieval Eyes