Ariel Quotes

“He pulled her close. “Someday, I will win your trust, and you will be the one to set me free. I know it.”
“I won’t.” Bertie recoiled from both him and the assertion she would do such a thing. “Not ever.”
Ariel made no move to touch her again, though his words were a caress. “Don’t make promises you won’t be able to keep.”
― Lisa Mantchev, Eyes Like Stars

“At first she was overjoyed that he would be with her, but then she recalled that human people could not live under the water, and he could only visit her father's palace as a dead man.”
― Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid

“The collar had restrained his winds but not killed them. They uncoiled from behind the shadows, ready to surround her, to lift her up, to carry her away with only Ariel’s silk-clad arms wrapped about her to keep her from falling.

Spirare, they whispered to her like an incantation. Breathe us in.

Bertie didn’t mean to, but she inhaled, and everything inside her was a spring morning, a rose opening its petals to the sun, the light coming through the wavering glass of an old, diamond-paned window.

Tendrils of wind reached for Bertie with a coaxing hand. Release him, and he will love you.”
― Lisa Mantchev, Eyes Like Stars

“I'd be your sky.”
― Leah Bobet, Above

“You've become a queen, a woman with a complicated personality. You have hidden depths and a wisdom and intelligence that all went unnoticed before by an idiot prince whose heart couldn't listen to anything his ears couldn't hear."
Ariel felt a little giddy. "I control storms and the heart of a prince. I like that." If she were in the sea she would have been swooning, thrashing her tail and spinning in circles until she was dizzy.”
― Liz Braswell, Part of Your World

“Not every fairy tale story that begins with 'Once upon a time,' has a 'Happily ever after'....”
― Khalia Hades, Ariel's Demise

“Ariel: “Eric!”
Eric: “Do not sing me back to shore! Not until you are standing on two feet!”
― Khalia Hades, Ariel's Demise

“A wave formed, swelling around Ariel's body. It lifted her up higher and higher- or maybe she herself was growing: it was hard to tell. She held the trident aloft. Storm clouds raced to her from all directions like a lost school of cichlid babies flicking to their father's mouth for protection. Lightning coursed through the sky and danced between the trident's tines.
Ariel sang a song of rage.
Notes rose and fell discordantly, her voice screeching at times like a banshee from the far north.
She sang, and the wind sang with her. It whipped her hair out of its braids and pulled tresses into tentacles that billowed around her head. She sang of the unfairness of Eric's fate and her own, of her father's torture as a polyp, even of Scuttle's mortal life, slowly but visibly slipping away.
Mostly she sang about Ursula.
She sang about everyone whose lives had been touched and destroyed by evil like coral being killed and bleached, like dead spots in the ocean from algae blooms, like scale rot. She sang about what she would do to anyone who threatened those she loved and protected.
And then, with her final note, she made a quick thrust as if to throw the trident toward the boats in the bay, pulling it back at the last moment.
A clap louder than thunder echoed across the ocean. A wave even larger than the one she rode roared up from the depths of the open sea. It smashed through and around her, leaving her hair and body white with foam. She grinned fiercely at the power of the moment. The tsunami continued on, making straight for Tirulia.
But... despite her rage... underneath it all the queen was still Ariel. Her momentary urge to destroy everything came and went like a single flash of summer lightning.”
― Liz Braswell, Part of Your World

“For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge”
― Sylvia Plath, Ariel

“As Ariel recounted the events of her dream, two magnificent, batlike wings grew from the backs of her shoulders, stretched as if preparing to fly, then retreated back into their host. The sound heard when the wings disappear is the giggling of Alanna, who watched the event much the same way I did, in rapt wonder.”
― Don A. Martinez, Dinétah Dragon

“She was beautiful.
Before, she had been pretty and gorgeous, lively and smiley, all red hair and perfect skin and quick movements. Now her eyes were deeper. He could fall into her face forever and happily drown there, pulled into her depths. There were worlds in her mind that were only just forming before.”
― Liz Braswell, Part of Your World

“Are you telling me that if you had a daughter, you would just- let her go?"
"If I had a daughter I would make sure she had every opportunity to do what she wanted to enrich her life. Sometimes being a good parent means knowing when to let go.”
― Liz Braswell, Part of Your World

“Hey, Ariel," Flounder called shyly. "Before you go... could you... could you sing that lullaby? The one you used to sing to me after I lost my mother?"
Her eyes widened. "Flounder, you haven't asked me that in years... even before I lost my voice."
"And I won't ask again! It's just that" - he looked around. Jona politely pretended to watch something out in the sea, over by the far rocks- "we're alone here. No one from Atlantica is going to hear us. I don't know when you're going to have another chance."
And Ariel, who lost her voice for years and had mixed feelings about singing for others, sang more sweetly than she ever had before, or ever would again. And no one heard but one fish, one seagull, the sand and the water and the evening breeze coming over the waves, and the rising moon.”
― Liz Braswell, Part of Your World

“You are so strange," Attina whispered with something like awe.
"I'm not-"
"You are. Don't you get that? You always have been. As a girl you never liked anything the rest of us liked. We looked for shells, you looked for ship garbage. We swooned over mermen, you lusted after statues of creepy two-legged Dry Worlders. You had this beautiful voice that everyone envied- and you gave it away. You don't like being queen, but you do it willingly and honestly as some sort of penance for what happened to our father. You've never tried to abdicate, though it's pretty obvious you hate it.
"You don't want to be here. You never wanted to be here.”
― Liz Braswell, Part of Your World

“¡El infierno está vacío y todos los demonios se hallan aquí!".”
― William Shakespeare, The Tempest

“Of these am I, who thy protection claim, A watchful sprite, and Ariel is my name.
Late, as I rang'd the crystal wilds of air,
In the clear mirror of thy ruling star
I saw, alas! some dread event impend,
Ere to the main this morning sun descend,
But Heav'n reveals not what, or how, or where: Warn'd by the Sylph, oh pious maid, beware!”
― Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock

“This fear of needing a man to make us happy is a product of our bullshit Disney princess culture that also taught us a man can fall in love even if a sea witch stole the woman's voice. She was pretty damn awesome as a mermaid first!”
― Ali Rosen, Recipe for Second Chances

“That was beautiful," she breathed aloud. Of course she had sung duets with the greatest mer singers, male and female, ones who were hundreds of years older than she with voices trained for as long. Somehow what she had just done with Eric was far more powerful and beautiful. All with no audience except for the sea grass, the water, and the wind.”
― Liz Braswell, Part of Your World

“I would suggest you and whomever you love stay off the ocean for the next tide," she said as calmly as she could.
"What...?"
Argent searched Ariel's eyes, huge and aquamarine, clear as the seas in Hyperborea. She must have found something there. Blue anger? Or perhaps it was just Ariel's confidence: the calm assumption that she could back up insane statements with an even more insane reality.
The eyes of a queen.”
― Liz Braswell, Part of Your World

“This is the Canyon of Dendros. This is the Field of Akeyareh, where ancient mer warriors fell in the battles against the Titans. Their bodies drifted to the seafloor and their bones turned the sand white. This is the Cleft of Neptune's... uh... 'Back,' a valley with hot geysers and occasional magma flows. This is the Mound of Sartops, where our priests and artisans tend to live; it looks out into the great depths of the ocean- some say to infinity. I know this map like the ribs in my tailfin."
If she had her tail right now, it would be tipping and thwapping the water in consternation. Kicking her foot didn't seem the same somehow.”
― Liz Braswell, Part of Your World

“Her thoughts spun. There were objects in the window of a shop that she couldn't quite fathom: possibly candy, possibly gems and crystals. There were so many alien things about this world she still didn't know. There were so many more things in the rest of the world, both above and below the sea, that were yet to be discovered....
"You okay, Ariel? You seem a little, I dunno, worried or spacey or something," Scuttle said.
"I just... I was just thinking about past choices and future possibilities."
"Huh. Deep stuff. Well, the world's your oyster after today.”
― Liz Braswell, Part of Your World

“Father, I've ruled, and while I might be good at it, I don't like it. I want to do what I've always wanted to do." She pointed out at the dark ocean. "Explore. Meet new people. Learn new languages. Discover new things and the artists who make them. I want to find out what happened to the Hyperboreans. I want to reengage trade with the Tsangalu. I want to know if there's anyone else out there like Ursula..."
Triton- and Sebastian, and Flounder- shuddered.
"Maybe they're not all like her," she said quickly. "Father, the world of the mer has been getting smaller and smaller, consumed with ourselves and our own arts, thoughts, and philosophies for far too long. Humans have conquered most of the Dry World- we need to unite the World Under the Sea, for survival if nothing else.”
― Liz Braswell, Part of Your World

“Hey, check this out," Eric said, pulling up his sleeve and holding out his arm.
The name Ariel was written out- in mer runes! It circled his arm like the sort of band a warrior would wear, and glistened with oil he had rubbed into it.
"Eric! What did you do?"
"What? Don't you like it?"
"I love it, but..."
"Until we have wedding rings, I thought it was a nice permanent commitment. Argent did it! Sebastian helped me with the letters."
"It... must have hurt."
"You have no idea. That's how much I love you," he said, kissing her on the forehead.”
― Liz Braswell, Part of Your World

“Kingdom? Or queendom?"
"What?" Flounder asked, exasperated.
"The mer are ruled by a queen. Shouldn't it be queendom?”
― Liz Braswell, Part of Your World

“The sisters had come to expect her absence and no longer even showed disappointment
when she declined.
It hurt a little, Ariel realized.”
― Liz Braswell, Part of Your World

“She had been sad. She had been melancholy. She had cursed her fate as a voiceless monarch, railing against her lot quietly. Once in a while she had a burst of temper when she wanted to be heard and no one would listen, when people were shouting over her and ignoring her hands, as if because she had no voice she had nothing to say.”
― Liz Braswell, Part of Your World

“If I had a daughter I would make sure she had every opportunity to do what she wanted to enrich her life. Sometimes being a good parent means knowing when to let go.”
― Liz Braswell, Part of Your World

“Back in Atlantica, Ariel couldn't contain the whirlwind of emotions that coursed through her. She had saved a human! The most beautiful and kind and wonderful human she had ever seen. And she'd spoken to him.
"Eric," she whispered, her stomach fluttering like butterfly fish. "When am I going to see you again?"
She plucked a flower from one of the reef beds and rolled onto her back as she giggled to herself.”
― Elizabeth Lim, A Twisted Tale Anthology

“I can think of no one better than Ariel to find a bridge between our two worlds."
Ariel smiled back at him shyly.
"It'll be a cultural exchange, too." Sebastian raised his claws in delight. "There's nothing that shows off Atlantica better than our music. Shall we have a concert to introduce this young merman to our kingdom?"
"You can play your snarfblatt," said Ariel, still smiling. Then she took Eric's hand, and together they dove--- two worlds meeting, just as the sky meets the sea.”
― Elizabeth Lim, A Twisted Tale Anthology

“(Ursula) She was a boss babe running a business, and doing it in style.”
― Lily Hart, Black Magic: How to Be a Bad Witch