Princess Academy Quotes

“For the past few years, all her childhood friends has begun to work in the quarry, and Miri had grown used to solitude in her house and on the hilltop with the goats.”

“She was tired of lowlanders belittling her and tired of wondering if they were right. She was going to show Olana that she was as smart as any Danlander. She was going to be academy princess.”

″‘Has anyone ever told you that you have a laugh that makes others want to laugh?’ ‘Doter, my neighbor, always says, ‘Miri’s laugh is a tune you love to whistle.‘”

″‘Do you have any idea what it takes to find quiet stone?’ said Doter in her round, loud voice. ‘Quiet stone - the linder that sleeps, that is good and sound, has fissures in just the right places, but not too many.‘”

“The victorious girl will be introduced to the prince as the academy princess, and she will wear this dress and dance the first dance. His bride will still be his to choose, but the academy princess is sure to make a significant impression.”

“But the hawk was the second most precious thing. I was sorry to lose it, and if you make me another one, I promise not to get taken captive by bandits and have to use it to save my life.”

“That makes Mount Eskel important even to lowlanders.”

″‘Seems strange. I thought they’d dislike us even more.’ ‘Maybe it’s hard to respect someone you’re cheating,’ said Marda.”

“At the academy, I found a book that explains how linder is sold in the lowlands. Apparently, our stone is so prized that the king himself will only use linder for his palaces, and the only place in all of Danland that produces linder is right here. So because demand for linder is high and supply is limited it’s worth a great deal.”

“Olana paused, and expression of disgust crawling over her face. ‘What a stench! Do you people live with goats?‘”

″‘For that week, she didn’t let me out of her arms.’ ‘Of course not, why would she? You were tiny and scrawny and fuzzy, and also the most beautiful baby I’ve ever seen, excepting my own.‘”

″‘I was mistaken. Six of the books are yours to keep. You certainly excelled in Commerce.’ Miri suspected Olana was being generous, but she did not argue. She selected six books and hugged them to her chest. They felt like the most valuable things in the world, better than a little gold coin, better than a wagon full of linder.”

“This past summer, the priests of the creator god took council on the birthday of the prince. They read the omens and divined the home of his future bride. All the signs indicated Mount Eskel.”

“This little girl is giving me an opportunity to illustrate the consequences of rule breaking. Even the prince’s cousins are punished when they choose to misbehave, though I think I’ll employ slightly different methods for you.”

“If it works around linder, and mountain folk have linder inside us...maybe linder shapes quarry-speech in the way that cupping your hands around your mouth makes your voice louder. Or maybe quarry-speech travels through linder like sound through air, and the more linder the louder it is. Our memories move through linder, whether in the mountain or in a person.”

″‘You’re the troublemaker.’ he said, and his mouth stank of meat. ‘I’ll see you broken and dead.‘”

″‘Mount Eskel feels the boots of outsiders.’ They paused, and then now even Bena stayed silent for the final line. ‘Mount Eskel won’t bear their weight.‘”

″‘...when I thought you weren’t here after all, I was so disappointed I couldn’t hide it, and I tried to meet all the girls and still make a choice, but I’m afraid I did a poor job of it.’ He glanced at Miri. ‘He did a stunning impression of a stone column,’ said Miri.”

“You are Britta, you survived Olana, Katar, two mountain winters, and a wolf pack of bandits. You might throw up, but you won’t die now.”

When Miri was eight years old, all the other children her age had started to work in the quarry - carrying water, fetching tools, and performing other basic tasks. When she had asked her Pa why she could not, he had taken her in his arms, kissed the top of her head ... he had said, ‘You are never to set foot in the quarry, my flower.‘”