Incarceron Quotes

“Walls have ears.
Doors have eyes.
Trees have voices.
Beasts tell lies.
Beware the rain.
Beware the snow.
Beware the man
You think you know.
-Songs of Sapphique”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“Only the man who has known freedom
Can define his prison.”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“I have walked a stair of swords,
I have worn a coat of scars.
I have vowed with hollow words,
I have lied my way to the stars
-Songs of Sapphique”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“Underground, the stars are legend.”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“All my years to this moment
All my roads to this wall.
All my words to this silence
All my pride to this fall.
-Songs of Sapphique”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“If it means my death, I don't care, because even death will be a sort of freedom.”
― Catherine Fisher (Incarceron), Incarceron

“The world is a chessboard, Madam, on which we play out our ploys and follies. You are the Queen, of course. Your moves are the strongest. For myself, I claim only to be a knight, advancing in a crooked progress. Do we move ourselves, do you think, or does a great gloved hand place on our squares”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“Despair is deep. An abyss that swallows dreams. A wall at the world's end. Behind it I await death. Because all our work has come to this.”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“I remember a story of a girl in Paradise who ate an apple once. Some wise Sapient gave it to her. Because of it she saw things differently. What had seemed gold coins were dead leaves. Rich clothes were rags of cobweb. And she saw there was a wall around the world, with a locked gate.”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“Where are the leaders?' Sapphique asked.
'In the fortresses,' the swan replied.
'And the poets?'
'Lost in dreams of other worlds.'
'And the craftsmen?'
'Forging machines to challenge the darkness.'
'And the Wise, who made the world?'
The swan lowered its black neck sadly.
'Dwindled to crones and sorcerers in towers.”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“Because I have dreams and in those dreams I see the stars”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“We are chained hand and foot by protocol, enslaved to a static, empty world where men and women can’t read, where the scientific advances of the ages are the preserve of the rich, where artists and poets are doomed to endless repetitions and sterile reworking of past masterpieces. Nothing is new. New does not exist. Nothing changes, nothing grows, evolves, develops. Time has stopped. Progress is forbidden”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“Freedom is a small price to pay for survival.”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“Despair is deep. An abyss that swallows dreams.”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“Nothing has changed, or will change.
So we must change it.”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“None of us have much idea where we are. Perhaps all our lives are too concerned with where, and not enough with who.”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“Master, I'm afraid. I am, truly. This place scares me. At home, I know who I am, what to do. I'm the Warden's daughter, I know where I stand. But this is a dangerous place, full of pitfalls. All my life, I've known it was waiting for me, but now I'm not sure I can face it. They'll want to absorb me, make me one of them, and I won't change. I won't! I want to stay me."
Jared sighed and she saw his dark gaze was fixed on the veiled window.
"Claudia, you're the bravest person I know. And no one will change you. You will rule here, though it won't be easy...”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“We forbid growth and therefore decay. Ambition, and therefore despair. Because each is only the warped relection of the other.”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“And the poets?'
'Lost in dreams of other worlds.'...
'And the wise, who made this world?'
The swan lowered its black neck sadly.
'Dwindled to crones and sorcerers in towers.”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“In great ceremony they entered the prison.
They were never to be seen again.”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“Shut up!" Finn turned, furious. "Look at you both! The only friends I have in this hell and all you can do is fight over me. Do either of you care about me? Not the seer, the fighter, the fool who takes all the risks, but me, Finn?”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“. . . or is it that man contains within himself the seeds of evil? That even if he is placed in a paradise perfectly formed for him he will poison it, slowly, with his own jealousies and desires?”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“They came out. They were children. They wore rags and their skin was livid with sores. Their veins were tubes, their hair wire. Sapphique reached out and touched them.
'You are the ones who will save us,' he said.”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“Down the endless halls of quilt
My silver thread of tears is split.
My fingerbone the key that broke
My blood the oil that smooth the lock.”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“You are my father, Incarceron.
I was born from your pain.
Bone of steel; circuits for veins.
My heart a vault of iron.”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“Do you seek the key to Incarceron?
Look inside yourself. It has always been hidden there.
- The mirror of dreams to Sapphique”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“You will spend years in hopeless traveling, searching, and all for nothing! Find a place to live, learn peace instead. Forget the stars.”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“Only the man who knows freedom can define his prison.”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“It had silenced Jormanric in mid-fury, had made the hairs on his own skin prickle with terror. The Prison was alive. It was cruel and careless, and he was Inside it.”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

“She wanted to lift it. But first she ran Jared’s disc cautiously over its surface. Nothing. She glanced around once. Everything was quiet. So she picked up the key. The room crashed. Alarms howled; rays of laserfire shot up from the floor, ringing her in a cage of red light. A metal grille slammed over the door; hidden lights burst on and she stood frozen in the uproar in terror, her heart slamming in her chest, and in that instant the disc jabbed a pepperpoint of red pain urgently into her thumb. She glanced down at it. Jared’s message was breathless with terror.”
― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron