Quotes From "The Dovekeepers" By Alice Hoffman

But what we are given is taken as well, so that we know God's glory comes to us from His will alone. Alice Hoffman

He wanted pain, I saw that in him, and what a man wants he will often manage to find. Alice Hoffman

Pain was something to get used to, to inure yourself against. I would rather hurt myself than be hurt by someone else, and so I took up this practice with a sense of purpose and without remorse. Alice Hoffman

Every man engaged in war tells himself he can alter what has been written, that it is he, not God, who is the maker of destiny, free to change what is meant to be. Alice Hoffman

But now I understood that, although words were God's first creation, silence was closer to His divine spirit, and that prayers given in silence were infinitely greater than the thousands of words men might offer up to heaven. Alice Hoffman

The stars are reflected from within the black water in the cistern. I find comfort in the omen I glean from this: light in the darkness, truth when it seems there is none. Alice Hoffman

That was the sorrow of it. He saw the light but never expected the darkness. Alice Hoffman

I loved him even now, as he took a knife to my throat, as I drowned in blood, as I whispered "Cousin, you were wrong. We were born to live. Alice Hoffman

I knew what it was to yearn for a life so distant it seemed that it had never been anything more than a dream. Alice Hoffman

We can offer women what they want most of all, cures for the most common ailments of this world.. When children are ailing or babies refuse to be born, when men are unfaithful, when the sky is empty of rain, when the amulets buried beneath holy wall upon instructions of the minim offer not solace and all entreaties to the priests for guidance fail, when the rituals they offer bring no comfort and no consolation, they come to us. Alice Hoffman

I must keep my head and not give in to desire, for desire is what causes women to drown. Alice Hoffman

I understood that fate could not be eluded forever; it came on leathery wings, swooping through the darkness like the bats in the orchards. Alice Hoffman

Perhaps it is possible to discover more in silence than in speech. Or perhaps it is only that those who are silent among us learn to listen. Alice Hoffman

The voice that arises out of the silence is something no one can imagine until it is heard. It roars when it speaks, it lies to you and convinces you, it steals from you and leaves you without a single word of comfort. Alice Hoffman

Even as a small child, I understood that woman had secrets, and that some of these were only to be told to daughters. In this way we were bound together for eternity. Alice Hoffman

Stone should last forever, but on that night I came to understand that a stone was only another form of dust. Streams of holy dust loomed in the air, and every breath included remnants of the Temple, so that we inhaled that which was meant to stand through eternity. Alice Hoffman