Sirens Quotes

“There is, one knows not what sweet mystery about this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath...”
― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick or, The Whale

“I may not have been born in the sea, but I was born to rule it.
I am the daughter of the siren queen.”
― Tricia Levenseller, Daughter of the Siren Queen

“I am a siren, and for my adoration of mankind, have been caught in fishing nets one time too many. And in those fishing nets I have learned too many unfavorable things about human intentions and the lack of trust and goodwill; I'm not going to allow myself to be caught, anymore. Sirens do well at singing the sirens' song and dragging vile people to their deaths, and for good reason!”
― C. JoyBell C.

“The madness of the eyes is the lure of the abyss. Sirens lurk in the dark depths of the pupils as they lurk at the bottom of the sea, that I know for sure - but I have never encountered them, and I am searching still for the profound and plaintive gazes in whose depths I might be able, like Hamlet redeemed, to drown the Ophelia of my desire.”
― Jean Lorrain, Monsieur de Phocas

“It’s not a question of if you’ll win, I continue. The only question is whether you will choose to fight. Will you fight for your queen? Will you fight for your waters and treasure? Will you fight for your little ones?”
― Tricia Levenseller, Daughter of the Siren Queen

“There is nothing in the world but pain and the rare moments that exist in between”
― Alexandra Christo, To Kill a Kingdom

“If the bards of old the true has told
The sirens have raven hair.
But over the earth since art had birth,
They paint the angels fair.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Emily's Quest

“If you are causing trouble, look for allies, always.”
― Justine Larbalestier

“But unlike sirens, selkies don't mean any harm with their songs. They don't sing to seduce or to kill. Their songs have nothing to do with anyone but themselves. They sing for the simple joy of it, and because of that, I imagine their songs are more beautiful than those of any siren.”
― Betsy Cornwell, Tides

“The thought occured to him that if you listened hard enough in New York, you could always hear a siren. Someone, somewhere, was always getting hurt.”
― Coco Mellors, Cleopatra and Frankenstein

“Mermaids weren't mammalian. They couldn't be. Too many sightings focused on their 'slender backs' and 'narrow waists'--features that seemed reasonable to modern readers with modern beauty standards, but which made no sense for an Italian fisherman during the plague years, or a Puerto Rican swimmer in the 1920s. If the mermaid had been an idealized projection of a human woman onto a marine mammal, she would have looked different every time, fat during some eras, thin during others, not consistently slim to the point of freezing in oceanic waters. The people who described mermaids were describing a real creature, something that wasn't mammalian, but looked mammalian enough to make a tempting lure. And why would anything lure sailors, if not as a form of sustenance?”
― Mira Grant, Into the Drowning Deep

“Let's get something straight. I'm supposed to be the bad guy. I will always disappoint you. Your parents will hate me. You should not root for me. I am not your role model. I don't know why everyone seems to forget that. I never do.”
― Kami Garcia, Dangerous Dream

“In grave danger of suffocation, the mermaid peeled away from him and emitted a sonar wail that woke drowned sailors from their oyster beds.”
― Kevin Ansbro, The Minotaur's Son & Other Wild Tales

“Called by the sirens and followed by an albatross.”
― Lydia Millet, Mermaids in Paradise

“As he pushed her by the shoulder toward the gate, the rising howl commenced. Nightmares had beome a science. Someone, a mere human, had taken the time to dream up this satanic howling. And what success! It was the sound of panic itself, mounting and straining toward the extinction they all knew, individually, to be theirs. It was a sound you were obliged to take personally.”
― Ian McEwan, Atonement

“What do you mean 'has to be?' and what are you smiling at?" I stopped contributing to this ridiculous dance. I grabbed the teapot and began to fill it with water in the sink.
Suddenly I felt the slight weight go this body against my back and the corner of his mouth brushed adjacent my ear.
"How human you are," he whispered.”
― Jes Dory, Isle

“Next time when I dive into the territory that I had lived next to, where my sister grew up, I know what to expect. I would be ready. I would be prepared.”
― Erica Sehyun Song, The Pax Valley

“What do you mean 'has to be?' and what are you smiling at?" I stopped contributing to this ridiculous dance. I grabbed the teapot and began to fill it with water in the sink. Suddenly I felt the slight weight of his body against my back and the corner of his mouth brushed against my ear. "How human you are," he whispered.”
― Jes Dory, Isle

“Sea Hags*
Sea Hags are curious creatures, particularly as they have no need for us.
“Who needs a husband?” they ask in chiming voices.
“Who needs a mother? When we have Poseidon as mate and the great Ocean herself to hold us.”
Cascades of laughter behind the sparkling scales of their hands in a manner to call to question both their good sense and their sincerity.
Sea Hags – one could study them for fifty years and find no answer.
(*Shamelessly inspired by Kafka’s Sirens: another creature entirely.)”
― Tamara Rendell, Mystical Tides

“Enraptured by an aberration of beauty, I cannot move. I find myself helpless against a woman whose pale lips sing to me. Every note, every hymn that escapes those lips, I want to hear like a story being told to a child. I want to listen to its crinkled page as it turns, but more so, I desired this creature before me.”
― Marilyn Velez

“There, amongst the angry water was the glow of green eyes, hundreds of them encompassed the entire area...We were completely and totally surrounded. They all hung just below the water waiting for a sign to attack. There was no hope. We would all perish...”
― Meredith Taylor

“Three guys and a girl were leaning against a black raised pickup ... I had to do a double take as this group was nothing like I had ever seen before.”
― Meredith Taylor, Churning Waters

“The Fates and Furies, as well as the Graces and Sirens, glide with linked hands over life.”
― Jean Paul Richter

“What was it like for the sirens on their lonely rock, watching everyone who tried to love them drown?”
― Jess Zimmerman, Women and Other Monsters: Building a New Mythology

“What was a siren but a call to your neighbors, a cry that would let them know that grief of one sort or another was coming through, as it did for someone every day, every evening.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Probable Future

“Long and white was his hair, like the mountains of the north, with a towering beard that had aged with time. Shrouded was his cloak, and of yew was his staff, and atop his head, a braided crown made of silver decorated it. Wrapped around his furrow neck, hung a horn, and perched high atop his olden shoulders, rested two ravens resembling the color of a wave’s crest. From the book Tundra: A Wanderer's Tale into Darkness”
― Marilyn Velez

“Of course she died There's no other way she could have died. If she'd been dying for something, the world would have realized it was a stupid thing, and given her back.”
― Mira Grant, Into the Drowning Deep

“They talk, but they don't talk like friends or like family. They don't talk about their days; they talk about their cases. They don't reminisce about the past; they joke about Hell, the place they're going because of it.”
― H.J. Wood, Soundless

“I feel like the sea has its own voice. Not the one everyone talks about – the voices of the dead or the sirens or the monsters – but its own. And it could tell you the answer to everything if you only knew how to ask it.”
― Tamara Rendell, Realm of the Stag King

“When I am out on the boats at night, with the stars all clear, I feel as though I’m caught between two hands of infinity. And they’re holding me still but pulling me into them all at the same time. And when everyone is quiet, just waiting, I feel like the sea has its own voice. Not the one everyone talks about – the voices of the dead or the sirens or the monsters – but its own. And it could tell you the answer to everything if you only knew how to ask it.” Keelan's voice slowed and deepened. “It’s like being in another world out there at night. I don’t know why the day ever has to come. I’ve taken my own boat out a few times, just by myself – that’s the best. Small boat and complete silence. Everything – the sky, the water, the silence – everything so much bigger than you.”
― Tamara Rendell, Realm of the Stag King