If you’ve read Cassandra Clare, you’ll know what I mean when I say she has mastered the love triangle. She has written romances into existence that would have readers signing up to fight demons if it gave them a chance at a love like her main characters’. We have no notes. Let’s dive into some of the juiciest, most touching, and angst-filled quotes from The Infernal Devices, plus a sneak peek from The Mortal Instruments I just had to include. We’ll start with the sweetest and work our way to the most gut-wrenching. Caution: Spoilers Ahead!
Clockwork Angel
Like any truly riveting read, The Infernal Devices ups the ante — and the romance — as it progresses. Our list will start at the beginning with some inspiration and reflection.
If you have the soul of a warrior, you are a warrior. All those other things, they are the glass that contains the lamp, but you are the light inside.
Jem Carstairs, Clockwork Angel
“One must always be careful of books,” said Tessa, “and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.”
Tessa Gray, Clockwork Angel
If no one in the entire world cared about you, did you really exist at all?
Tessa Gray, Clockwork Angel
Clockwork Prince
The romance is getting juicy, and the tangled web begins to weave itself in Clockwork Prince. Read on for some perfectly sappy, heart-wrenching sentiments.
“I’ve never minded it,“ he went on. “Being lost, that is. I had always thought one could not truly be lost if one knew one’s own heart. But I fear I may be lost without knowing yours.”
Jem Carstairs, Clockwork Prince
Tessa. Tessa, Tessa, Tessa. Her name rang in Will’s mind like the chime of a bell; he wondered if any other name on Earth had such an inescapable resonance to it.
Will Herondale, Clockwork Prince
We live and breathe words. …. It was books that made me feel that perhaps I was not completely alone. They could be honest with me, and I with them. Reading your words, what you wrote, how you were lonely sometimes and afraid, but always brave; the way you saw the world, its colors and textures and sounds, I felt—I felt the way you thought, hoped, felt, dreamt. I felt I was dreaming and thinking and feeling with you. I dreamed what you dreamed, wanted what you wanted—and then I realized that truly I just wanted you.
Will Herondale, Clockwork Prince
You are not the last dream of my soul. You are the first dream, the only dream I ever was unable to stop myself from dreaming. You are the first dream of my soul, and from that dream I hope will come all other dreams, a lifetime’s worth. With hope at last, Will Herondale.
Will Herondale’s letter to Tessa Gray, Clockwork Prince
Clockwork Princess
Here’s where things really get angsty. Even if you’ve read the series a million times (I hope you’ve read it at least once if you’re reading this far. Reminder: Spoilers!), these quotes will hit like a fresh punch in the chest. On that note, let’s not delay!
They say you cannot love two people equally at once, and perhaps for others that is so. But you and Will—you are not like two ordinary people, two people who might have been jealous of each other, or who would have imagined my love for one of them diminished by my love of the other. You merged your souls when you were both children. I could not have loved Will so much if I had not loved you as well. And I could not love you as I do if I had not loved Will as I did.
Tessa Gray to Jem Carstairs, Clockwork Princess
We were once going to be married,” he said. “And I have loved you all this time–a century and a half. And I know that you loved Will. I saw you together over the years. Ans I know that the love was so great that it must have made other loves, even the one we had when we were both so young, seem small and unimportant. You had a whole lifetime of love with him, Tessa. So many years. Children. Memories I cannot hope to–
Jem Carstairs to Tessa Gray, Clockwork Princess
If there is a life after this one, let me meet you in it, James Carstairs.
Will Herondale, Clockwork Princess
If Jem dies, I cannot be with Tessa, because it will be as if I were waiting for him to die, or took some joy in his death, if it let me have her. And I will not be that person. I will not profit from his death. So he must live. It is the only way any of this can ever mean anything.
Will Herondale to Magnus Bane, Clockwork Princess
She remembered when Will had died, her agony, the long nights alone, reaching across the bed every morning when she woke up, for eighty years expecting to find him there, and only slowly growing accustomed to the fact that that side of the bed would always be empty. The moments when she had found something funny and turned to share the joke with him, only to be shocked anew that he was not there.
Tessa Gray about Will Herondale, Clockwork Princess
And now I need you to do for me what I cannot do for myself. For you to be my eyes when I do not have them. For you to be my hands when I cannot use my own. For you to be my heart when mine is done beating.
Jem Carstairs to Will Herondale, Clockwork Princess
I told you before, Jem, that you would not leave me, and you are still with me. When I breathe, I will think of you, for without you I would have been dead years ago. When I wake up and when I sleep, when I lift up my hands to defend myself or when I lie down to die, you will be with you me.
Will Herondale, Clockwork Princess
City of Heavenly Fire
Now I know this isn’t part of The Infernal Devices, but the quote — plus, the Brother Zachariah feature — is just too good not to include.
We are all the pieces of what we remember. We hold in ourselves the hopes and fears of those who love us. As long as there is love and memory, there is no true loss.
Brother Zachariah, City of Heavenly Fire
Well, if you’re anything like me, you’ll be picking up Clockwork Angel for a reread right about now. Hopefully, this compilation made you feel something and maybe even made you redefine your standards for love — and friendship.
Can’t get enough of the Cassandra Clare literary universe? Neither can we! Click here to read about our seven favorite characters from the shadowhunting world.
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