Terrified Quotes

“Kiss me until I forget how terrified I am of everything wrong with my life.”
― Beau Taplin

“Fear and anxiety affect decision making in the direction of more caution and risk aversion... Traumatized individuals pay more attention to cues of threat than other experiences, and they interpret ambiguous stimuli and situations as threatening (Eyesenck, 1992), leading to more fear-driven decisions. In people with a dissociative disorder, certain parts are compelled to focus on the perception of danger. Living in trauma-time, these dissociative parts immediately perceive the present as being "just like" the past and "emergency" emotions such as fear, rage, or terror are immediately evoked, which compel impulsive decisions to engage in defensive behaviors (freeze, flight, fight, or collapse). When parts of you are triggered, more rational and grounded parts may be overwhelmed and unable to make effective decisions.”
― Suzette Boon, Coping with Trauma-Related Dissociation: Skills Training for Patients and Therapists

“I lived in a really dark place. I wasn't safe in my own mind. I woke up every morning hoping to die and then spent the rest of the day wondering if maybe I was already dead because I couldn't even tell the difference.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“When you're scared, you stay as you are!”
― Stephen Richards

“You’ve lost your mind,’ he sneered.‘Maybe. So you should be terrified.”
― Holly Jackson, As Good As Dead

“I could hear the chaotic laughter trailing behind me. It turned the ageless trees into a menace. They loomed around me, while hiding him. The branches tore at my skin in an effort to bind me, while weeds sought to shackle my ankles, so that I could go no further. The pain they caused was minor, when I compared it to the searing inferno at my core.”
― J.D. Stroube, Caged in Darkness

“Doubt had married my fear and moved into my mind, where it built castles and ruled kingdoms and reigned over me, bowing my will to its whispers until I was little more than an acquiescing peon, too terrified to disobey, too terrified to disagree..”
― Tahereh Mafi

“Xaden's head snaps in my direction. 'Violence?'

I take a step and then another, holding my frame upright with muscle memory I didn't have last year, and begin to cross.

Xaden swings his legs up and then fucking jumps to his feet. 'Turn around right now!' he shouts.

'Come with me,' I call over the wind, bracing myself as gust whips my skirt against my legs. 'Should have gone with the pants,' I mutter and keep walking.

He's already coming my way, his strides just as long and confident as if he was on solid ground, eating up the distance between us as I move forward slowly until we meet.

'What the fuck are you doing out here?' he asks, locking his hands on my waist. He's in riding leathers, not a dress uniform, and he's never looked better.

What am I doing out here? I'm risking everything to reach him. And if he rejects me... No. There's no room for fear on the parapet.

'I could ask you the same thing.'

His eyes widen. 'You could have fallen and died!'

'I could say the same thing.' I smile, but it's shaky. The look in his eyes is wild, like he's been driven past the point where he can contain himself in the neat, apathetic façade he usually wears in public.

It doesn't scare me. I like him better when he's real with me, anyway.

'And did you stop to think that if you fall and die, then I can die?' He leans in and my pulse jumps.

'Again,' I say softly, resting my hands on his firm chest, right above his heartbeat, 'I could say the same thing.' Even if Xaden's death wouldn't kill Sgaeyl, I'm not sure I could survive it.'

Shadows rise, darker than the night that surrounds us. 'You're forgetting that I wield shadows, Violence. I'm just as safe out here as I am in the courtyard. Are you going to wield lightning to break your fall?'

Fine. That's a good point.

'I... perhaps did not think that part through as thoroughly as you,' I admit. I wanted to be close to him, so I got close, parapet be damned.'

'You're seriously going to be the death of me.' His fingers flex at my waist. 'Go back.'

It's not a rejection, not with the way he's looking at me. We've been sparring emotionally for the past month, hell, even longer than that, and one of us has to expose our jugular. I finally trust him enough to know he won't go for the kill.

'Only if you do. I want to be whereever you are.' And I mean it. Everyone else- everything else in the world can fall away and I won't care as long as I'm with him.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“Then the voice - which identified itself as the prince of this world, the only being who really knows what happens on Earth - began to show him the people around him on the beach. The wonderful father who was busy packing things up and helping his children put on some warm clothes and who would love to have an affair with his secretary, but was terrified on his wife's response. His wife who would like to work and have her independence, but who was terrified of her husband's response. The children who behave themselves because they were terrified of being punished. The girl who was reading a book all on her own beneath the sunshade, pretending she didn't care, but inside was terrified of spending the rest of her life alone. The boy running around with a tennis racuqet , terrified of having to live up to his parents' expectations. The waiter serving tropical drinks to the rich customers and terrified that he could be sacket at any moment. The young girl who wanted to be a dance, but who was studying law instead because she was terrified of what the neighbours might say. The old man who didn't smoke or drink and said he felt much better for it, when in truth it was the terror of death what whispered in his ears like the wind. The married couple who ran by, splashing through the surf, with a smile on their face but with a terror in their hearts telling them that they would soon be old, boring and useless. The man with the suntan who swept up in his launch in front of everybody and waved and smiled, but was terrified because he could lose all his money from one moment to the next. The hotel owner, watching the whole idyllic scene from his office, trying to keep everyone happy and cheerful, urging his accountants to ever greater vigilance, and terrified because he knew that however honest he was government officials would still find mistakes in his accounts if they wanted to.

There was terror in each and every one of the people on that beautiful beach and on that breathtakingly beautiful evening. Terror of being alone, terror of the darkness filling their imaginations with devils, terror of doing anything not in the manuals of good behaviour, terror of God's punishing any mistake, terror of trying and failing, terror of succeeding and having to live with the envy of other people, terror of loving and being rejected, terror of asking for a rise in salary, of accepting an invitation, of going somewhere new, of not being able to speak a foreign language, of not making the right impression, of growing old, of dying, of being pointed out because of one's defects, of not being pointed out because of one's merits, of not being noticed either for one's defects of one's merits.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Devil and Miss Prym

“Christ, did life get any worse than this? He pushed the head of the cock past his terrified, quivering lips and attempted to bite into the thing.”
― Matthew Bracey, Steel Dogs

“I was fucking terrified, Violet. There aren't adequate words.'

'I'm fine, Xaden,' she says softly, her hand rising to rest above my pounding heart.

'I thought I was going to lose you.' The confession comes out strangled, and maybe it's pushing my luck after all I've put her through, but I can't keep from leaning forward and brushing my lips over her forehead, then her temple. Gods, I'd kiss her forever if I thought it would keep the coming argument at bay, keep us in this one pristine moment where I can actually believe that everything might be all right between us, that I haven't irrevocably fucked up the best thing that's ever happened to me.

'You aren't going to lose me.' She gives me a puzzled look, smiling like I've said something peculiar. Then she leans in and kisses me.

She still wants me. The revelation makes my heart fucking soar. I take the kiss deeper, swiping my tongue over her soft lower lip and gently sucking on the tender curve.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“The problem with coming through something terrible and big is that afterward, you're left feeling all the feelings that you shoved down and pushed away. For many long days, I have been terrified, and now, when I ought to be feeling great, what I want to do is hide under a table in the brugh with Cardan until I can finally convince myself he's all right.

And maybe make out with his face, if he's feeling up to that.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“The world will take your life. But above all and lastly the world does not know that you are here. You think that you understand this. But you dont. Not in your heart you dont. If you did you would be terrified.”
― Cormac McCarthy, The Passenger

“I wonder what would happen if I said the words: Nicasia humiliated me. Valerian tried to murder me. They did it to impress Prince Cardan, who hates me. I am scared of them. I am more scared of them than I am of you, and you terrify me. Make them stop. Make them leave me alone.

But I won't. Madoc's anger is fathomless. I have seen it in my mother's blood on the kitchen floor. Once summoned, it cannot be called back.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Time is not running out. Ideas are not running out. You are just running out of patience.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, Night of a Thousand Thoughts

“We live in a world where some people believe in an afterlife, yet they would not want to die.”
― John Joclebs Bassey, Night of a Thousand Thoughts

“He rants about the weakness of others even as he demonstrates his own, but he can never escape the fact that he is and always will be a terrified little boy.”
― Mary L. Trump, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man

“Do not let your heart be troubled nor terrified but trust in God.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“You know you’ve moved on when you find other people beautiful.
When you don’t avert your eyes but keep them steady
or when you stay the night, the last one at the party,
and you don’t feel sorry. or empty. or guilty
because whatever, where are you going anyway?

i used to sit here, in this same pub in this same city
7 years ago, writing another book,
like i am now
again
and i wrote myself out of heartbreak with that book
like i am now
i guess.
in some ways maybe i’ve written myself into heartbreak this time but i’m coming out of it.
at least i find other people beautiful again. they make me smile. maybe more than i have before and i have a good feeling about things.

You know you’ve moved on when you find other people beautiful.”
― Charlotte Eriksson, He loved me some days. I'm sure he did: 99 essays on growth through loss

“He looked at once parental and powerful, and I, like some terrified child before him.”
― Valentine Glass, The Temptation of Eden

“...only under the water can I allow myself to weep. Only under the water can I admit that I almost died and that I was terrified and that I wish there was someone to whom I could tell all that. I hold my breath until there's no more breath to hold.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“Strange for a mortal to be friends with two faeries,' he mused and began circling me. I could have sworn tendrils of star-kissed night trailed in his wake. 'Aren't humans usually terrified of us? And aren't you, for that matter, supposed to keep to your side of the wall?'

I was terrified of him, but I wasn't about to let him know.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses

“My breath caught in my throat. 'Lucien.'

Lucien lay chained to the centre of the floor on the other side of the chamber, his remaining russet eyes so wide that it was surrounded with white. The metal one spun as if set wild; his brutal scar was stark against his pale skin. Again he was to be Amarantha's toy to torment.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses

“His eyes were the colour of a sky I'd never see again if I refused to kill him, a colour I'd never get out of my mind, never forget no matter how many times I painted it. He shook his head, those eyes growing so large the white showed all around. He would never see that sky, either. And neither would these people, if I failed.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses

“What's at the bottom of the pit?' I asked as Rhys came up beside me, his shoulder brushing mine.

'I once dared Cassian to fly down and see,' Rhys braced his hands on the railing, gazing down into the gloom.

'And?'

'And he came back up, faster than I've ever seen him fly, white as death. He never told me what he saw. The first few weeks, I thought it was a joke- just to pique my curiosity. But when I finally decided to see for myself a a month later, he threatened to tie me to a chair. He said some things were better left unseen and undisturbed. It's been two hundred years, and he still won't tell me what he saw. If you even mention it, he goes pale and shaky and won't talk for a few hours.'

My blood chilled. 'Is it... some sort of monster?'

'I have no idea.' Rhys jerked his chin toward Clotho, the priestess patiently waiting a few steps behind us, her face still in shadow. 'They don't speak or write of it, so if they know... They certainly won't tell me. So if it doesn't bother us, then I won't bother it. That is, if it's even an it. Cassian never said if he saw anything living down there. Perhaps it's something else entirely.'

Considering the things I'd already witnessed... I didn't want to think about what lay at the bottom of the library. Or what could make Cassian, who had seen more dreadful and deadly parts of the world than I could ever imagine, so terrified.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Wings and Ruin

“How bad,' he asked, his voice hoarse.

'How bad was your injury,' Rhys said mildly, 'or how badly did we have our asses kicked?'

Cassian blinked again. Slowly. As if whatever sedative he'd been given still held sway.

'To answer the second question,' Rhys went on, Mor and Azriel backing away a step or two as something sharpened in my mate's voice, 'we managed. Keir took heavy hits, but... we won. Barely. To answer the first...' Rhys bared his teeth. 'Don't you ever pull that kind of shit again.'

The glaze wore off Cassian's eyes as he heard the challenge, the anger, and tried to sit up. He hissed, scowling down at the red, angry slice down his chest.

'Your guts were hanging out, you stupid prick,' Rhys snapped. 'Az held them in for you.'

Indeed, the Shadowsinger's hands were caked in blood- Cassian's blood. And his face... cold with- anger.

'I'm a soldier,' Cassian said flatly. 'It's part of the job.'

'I gave you an order to wait,' Rhys growled. 'You ignored it.'

I glanced to Mor, to Azriel- a silent question of whether we should remain. They were too busy watching Rhys and Cassian to notice.

'The line was breaking,' Cassian retorted. 'Your order was bullshit.'

Rhys braced his hands on either side of Cassian's legs and snarled in his face, 'I am your High Lord. You don't get to disregard orders you don't like.'

Cassian sat up this time, swearing at the pain lingering in his body. 'Don't you pull rank because you're pissed off-'

'You and your damned theatrics on the battlefield nearly got you killed.' And even as Rhys spat the words- that was panic, again, in his eyes. His voice. 'I'm not pissed. I'm furious.'

'So you're allowed to be mad about our choices to protect you- and we're not allowed to be furious with you for your self-sacrificing bullshit?'

Rhys just stared at him. Cassian stared right back.

'You could have died,' was all Rhys said, his voice raw.

'So could you.'

Another beat of silence- and in its wake, the anger shifted.

Rhys said quietly, 'Even after Hybern... I can't stomach it.'

Seeing him hurt. Any of us hurt.

And the way Rhys spoke, the way Cassian leaned forward, wincing again, and gripped Rhys's shoulder....

I strode out of the tent. Left them to talk. Azriel and Mor followed behind me.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Wings and Ruin

“Azriel asked, 'And Feyre still doesn't know?'

'No. She knows the birth will be difficult, but I haven't told her yet that it might very well claim her life.' Rhys spoke into their minds, as if he couldn't say it aloud, I haven't told her that the nightmares that now send me lurching from sleep aren't ones of the past, but of the future.

Cassian squeezed Rhys's shoulder, 'Why won't you tell her.'

Rhys's throat worked. 'Because I can't bring myself to give her that fear. To take away one bit of the joy in her eyes every time she puts a hand on her belly.' HIs voice shook. 'It is fucking eating me alive, this terror. I keep myself busy, but... there is no one to bargain with for her life, no amount of wealth to buy it, nothing that I can do to save her.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A ​Court of Silver Flames

“No logic doesn't matter in the face of fear and emotion. Logic falls to its knees before hatred, and hatred flourishes in fear- and my people were terrified.”
― Carissa Broadbent, Six Scorched Roses

“You may feel terror, but you're not terrified. And there is a kingdom's worth of difference between the two.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, A Shadow in the Ember

“She raised her face slightly. Terrified eyed looked at me from behind the veil of her hair.”
― Yukito Ayatsuji, The Mill House Murders