Hester Fox > Quotes

“Read the book, and add what you learn from your own trials. Never stop learning. A lifetime is not long enough to gather up all the knowledge of our kind. That is why we pass it down.”
― Hester Fox, The Witch of Willow Hall

“Heaven truly was an untouched stash of books, just waiting to be opened and read.”
― Hester Fox, The Last Heir to Blackwood Library

“Yet at the same time I want to untether my heart, toss it up into the sky and let it take wing. There's a wildness here that, if nothing else, holds promise, possibility. Who needs society? What has it ever done for us?”
― Hester Fox, The Witch of Willow Hall

“Here is what I know to be true: we are part of something larger, something more beautiful than we could ever comprehend. During our brief tenure on this earth, we see but only a glimpse of the world around us.”
― Hester Fox, A Lullaby for Witches

“The pursuit of knowledge is the pursuit of the divine. How can we profess to know God without understanding all that he knows? And how can we attain that knowledge in but the brief window of time we are given on this earth?”
― Hester Fox, The Last Heir to Blackwood Library

“Do you know what it is to be lonely? Truly alone, even amidst a crowd? Even in a family?”
― Hester Fox, A Lullaby for Witches

“A place from away from society and all its ugly gossip and clicking tongues.”
― Hester Fox, The Witch of Willow Hall

“The sky had never held much interest for her, being in the opposite direction one must look if one wants to enjoy a book.”
― Hester Fox, The Last Heir to Blackwood Library

“He has the face of a classical statue, all strong angles rendered soft and besutiful as if by a practiced sculptor. His eyes are the misty green of shipwreck glass, and indeed I fear they could lure me to a stormy fate.”
― Hester Fox, The Witch of Willow Hall

“We put our feet on the hard ground, take in the night air and look around as if this whole place has sprung up for us and us alone. Not just the house, but the ancient trees, the watching insects, the stars and even the moon. But they have all lived without us for lifetimes that make our own look like the blink of the eye. The house, with its strict walls and severe lines, is shamefully out of place, something modern dropped down somewhere as soft as feathers, as twisty and spreading as willow roots. How do the trees and the insects and the stars and the moon like it, I wonder? How do they like to have to share their secret lives with us now?”
― Hester Fox, The Witch of Willow Hall

“In the day everything is laid bare, the truth naked and ugly for what it is. But in the darkness everything is possible. It is pure, forgiving. I can forget.”
― Hester Fox, The Witch of Willow Hall

“I test my smile the way she always does in the mirror, but the result is strained, and instead of looking pretty and lighthearted, I look like a bee just flew up my skirt.”
― Hester Fox, The Witch of Willow Hall

“Inside was always preferable simply by virture of there being books.”
― Hester Fox, The Last Heir to Blackwood Library

“But there are prices to be paid for such magic, and balances to be kept.”
― Hester Fox, A Lullaby for Witches

“Perhaps if my mother had been a witch like me with powers of her own, she would have taken me under her wing and guided me on my singular path. But she did not, and I was left to discover what made me different on my own, stumbling and groping along.”
― Hester Fox, A Lullaby for Witches

“I’ve nearly forgotten about my sodden shoes and the stinging from my cut. The fresh, resinuous smell of the woods fills me with renewed energy. We’re Lancelot and Guinevere, fleeing through the forest from a jealous King Arthur. Any moment we’ll come upon a white steed and Lancelot will swing me up upon its jeweled saddle and we’ll gallop off together.”
― Hester Fox, The Witch of Willow Hall

“it’s these tiny, empty slivers of life, pockets of time, into which she had fit so perfectly and is now so conspicuously absent that leave me rattled and aching.”
― Hester Fox, The Witch of Willow Hall

“But what I'm beginning to realize is that I don't need to find myself. I've been here all along.”
― Hester Fox, A Lullaby for Witches

“Voices fade, photographs are just tricks of lights and mirrors, and touch is a passing phantom. But scent lingers, and even long after the last particle of someone’s essence is gone, the faintest smell can bring all the memories rushing back.”
― Hester Fox, The Last Heir to Blackwood Library

“No, they might not dare lay a finger on you, being the rich white girl that you are, but no one would so much as blink an eye if my house were to burn down. They can come to me with their fishing nets and ask me for charms and spells, but it isn’t me that they respect, it’s the novelty of someone like me.”
― Hester Fox, A Lullaby for Witches

“Would a place like Watson Castle ever have admitted a woman through its doors, and a poor woman at that? It was one thing to lend out books, but another entirely to invite the world into her home, and a feeling of protectiveness washed through her.”
― Hester Fox, The Last Heir to Blackwood Library

“Don’t let them forget who pays their wages and provides the roof over their heads. It’s the only thing that separates us from anarchy, and it’s the prerogative of our bloodline to keep the order.”
― Hester Fox, The Last Heir to Blackwood Library

“The smell of blood filled Ivy’s nostrils, her lungs, her very being. Her father’s demise, her mother’s broken heart and subsequent decline, it had all stemmed from this man and his obsession with the manuscript. She was frozen in a moment in war where a soldier must decide if he is to stay in a foxhole, or take his chance going over the top.”
― Hester Fox, The Last Heir to Blackwood Library

“Henry might have thought that he had laid my doubts to rest, but he had only strengthened the idea that there was something no one was telling”
― Hester Fox, A Lullaby for Witches

“Ivy hadn’t needed to marry a man to gain her wealth or security. Besides, what man could have ever provided her with such a treasure as this?”
― Hester Fox, The Last Heir to Blackwood Library

“She had invested so much time in the relationship, sacrificed so many friends, that at some point it felt like admitting defeat to break up. For his part, Chris seemed content with the status quo, and so five years later, here they were.”
― Hester Fox, A Lullaby for Witches

“How could I care about tea parties and town functions when the moon beckoned me to learn the secrets of the sea?”
― Hester Fox, A Lullaby for Witches

“Either way, it was lonely to lie so close next to someone, yet feel so very far away.”
― Hester Fox, A Lullaby for Witches

“The idea of living in the great abbey with no music, no friends, no sound other than the driving of the rain and howling wind was becoming increasingly disheartening.”
― Hester Fox, The Last Heir to Blackwood Library

“I am small within nature, but I fit in there. The breeze on my skin reminds me that I am part of something larger than myself, something grander and more beautiful than the dramas of humankind.”
― Hester Fox, The Widow of Pale Harbor