"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."
— J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)

"If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all."
— Oscar Wilde

"Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you've never been hurt and live like it's heaven on Earth."
— Mark Twain

"It's not the length of the word; it's how well you use it!"
— Rachel Vincent

"Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. 'Pooh?' he whispered.
'Yes, Piglet?'
'Nothing,' said Piglet, taking Pooh's hand. 'I just wanted to be sure of you.'"
— A.A. Milne (Winnie-the-Pooh)

"Youth can not know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young."
— J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

"The major problem- one of the major problems, for there are several- one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of whom manages to get people to let them do it to them.
To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."
— Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.""
— Charles Dickens

"Believe me, I know all about bottle acoustics. I spent much of the sixth century in an old sesame oil jar, corked with wax, bobbing about in the Red Sea. No one heard my hollers. In the end an old fisherman set me free, by which time I was desperate enough to grant him several wishes. I erupted in the form of a smoking giant, did a few lightning bolts, and bent to ask him his desire. Poor old boy had dropped dead of a heart attack. There should be a moral there, but for the life of me I can't see one."
— Jonathan Stroud

"If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders - What would you tell him?"

"I…don't know. What…could he do? What would you tell him?"

"To shrug."
— Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged)

"A dozen more questions occured to me. Not to mention twenty-two possible solutions to each one, sixteen resulting hypotheses and counter-theorems, eight abstract speculations, a quadrilateral equation, two axioms, and a limerick. That's raw intelligence for you."
— Jonathan Stroud (The Bartimaeus Trilogy Boxed Set)

"I don't like it when I outweigh my men."
— Patricia Briggs (Moon Called)

"Screw this. He’d blown his shot at nice-and-easy, which only left quick-and-brutal—my favorite way to play."
— Rachel Vincent (Rogue)

"Most aspects of my training didn’t agree with me. There wasn’t as much bossing around as I’d hoped for, and there was way too much following orders."
— Rachel Vincent (Rogue)

"Damn, Claire. Warn a guy before you do a face-plant on the floor next time. I could have looked all heroic and caught you or something -Shane"
— Rachel Caine (Glass Houses)

"Perv."
He pointed to himself. "Male and eighteen. What's your point?"
— Rachel Caine (Midnight Alley)

"Want to play baseball?’” she asked. Shane’s eyes opened, and he stopped stroking her hair. “What?’” “First base,’” she said. “You’re already there.’” “I’m not running the bases.’” “Well, you could at least steal second.’” “Jeez, Claire. I used to distract myself with sports stats at times like these, but now you’ve gone and ruined it.’”"
— Rachel Caine (The Dead Girls' Dance)

"life is a work in progress."
— Rachel Caine

""what's your name?"
"what?" i asked, squinting at the light.
"your name." I reconized Dr. Olendzki peering over me.
"you know my name."
"I want you to tell me."
"Rose. Rose Hathaway."
"Do you know your birthday?"
"Of course I do. Why are you asking me such stupid things? Did you lose my records?"
Dr. Olendzki gave an exasperated sigh and walked off, taking the annoying light with her. "I think she's fine," "
— Richelle Mead (Frostbite (Vampire Academy, #2))

"Remember, we're madly in love, so it's all right to kiss me anytime you feel like it."
— Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games)

"Sometimes, when I clean a kill, I feed Buttercup the entrails. He has stopped hissing at me.

Entrails. No hissing. This is the closest we will ever come to love."
— Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games)

""Well, I knew that goat would be a little gold mine," I say.
"Yes, of course I was referring to that, not the lasting joy you gave your sister you love so much you took her place in the reaping," says Peeta drily."
— Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games)

"You don’t forget the face of the person who was your last hope."
— Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games)

"I’m coming back into focus when Caesar asks him if he has a girlfriend back home.
Peeta hesitates, then gives an unconvincing shake of his head.
“Handsome lad like you. There must be some special girl. Come on, what’s her name?” says Caesar.
Peeta sighs. “Well, there is this one girl. I’ve had a crush on her ever since I can remember. But I’m pretty sure she didn’t know I was alive until the reaping.”
Sounds of sympathy from the crowd. Unrequited love they can relate to.
“She have another fellow?” asks Caesar.
“I don’t know, but a lot of boys like her,” says Peeta.
“So, here’s what you do. You win, you go home. She can’t turn you down then, eh?” says Caesar encouraging-ly.
“I don’t think it’s going to work out. Winning . . . won’t help in my case,” says Peeta.
“Why ever not?” says Caesar, mystified.
Peeta blushes beet red and stammers out. “Because . . . because . . . she came here with me.”
"
— Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games)

""Nerrissa? You believe her? Well, you at least have to credit her with a certain instability! Remember when she told you that I was going to take over the Fount with and army of Lobsters?" said Ripred.

"You did try to take over the Fount with an army of Lobsters." said Vikus.

"Yes, yes, but it was years before she was born. My point is, she flip-flops in and out of time like a fish in shallow waters." answered Ripred."
— Suzanne Collins (Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods)

"I am not pretty. I am not beautiful. I am as radiant as the sun."
— Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games)

""One more time? For the audience?" he says. His voice isn't angry. It's hollow, which is worse. Already the boy with the bread is slipping away from me.
I take his hand, holding on tightly, preparing for the cameras, and dreading the moment when I will finally have to let go.""
— Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games)

"I don't want to lose the boy with the bread."
— Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games)

"Ripred sighed. 'I suppose so. You and I seem to end up doing everything. Shall we say four members for each delegation?'
'Why not?' Luxa said. 'Four can be as stupid as ten. No need to crowd the room.'
Ripred laughed. 'You know, I think you an I are going to get on famously.'
"
— Suzanne Collins (Gregor and the Code of Claw)

"You’ve got about as much charm as a dead slug."
— Suzanne Collins

"The War Has Been Declared.
Your Ally Been Ensnared.
It Is Now Or it Is Never.
Break The Code Or Die Forever.


Time Is Running Out
Running out
Running out


To the Warrior give my blade
By his hand your fate is made
But do not forget the ticking
Or the clicking, clicking, clicking
While a rat's toung may be flicking
With its feet it does the tricking
For the paw and not the jaw
Makes the Code of Claw


Time is stamding still
Standing still
Standing still


Since the princess is the key
To unlock the treachery
She cannot avoid the matching or the scratching, scratching, scratching
When a secret plot is hatching
In the naming is the catching
What she saw, it is the flaw
Of the Code of Claw


Time is turning back
Turning back
Turning back


When the monster's blood is Spilled
When the Warrior has been Killed
You must not ingore the rapping
Or the tapping, tapping, tapping
If the Gnawers find you napping
You will rot while they are mapping
Out the law of thouse who gnaw
In the Code of Claw"
— Suzanne Collins (Gregor the Overlander, Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane, Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods, and Gregor and the Marks of Secret)

"It crosses my mind that Cinna's calm and normal demeanor masks a complete madman."
— Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games)

"“All right, so give me some idea of what you can do,” says Haymitch.
“I can’t do anything,” says Peeta. “Unless you count baking bread.”
“Sorry, I don’t. Katniss. I already know you’re handy with a knife,” says Haymitch.
“Not really. But I can hunt,” I say. “With a bow and ar-row.”
“And you’re good?” asks Haymitch.
I have to think about it. I’ve been putting food on the table for four years. That’s no small task. I’m not as good as my father was, but he’d had more practice. I’ve better aim than Gale, but I’ve had more practice. He’s a genius with traps and snares. “I’m all right,” I say.
“She’s excellent,” says Peeta. “My father buys her squirrels. He always comments on how the arrows never pierce the body. She hits every one in the eye. It’s the same with the rabbits she sells the butcher. She can even bring down deer.”
This assessment of my skills from Peeta takes me totally by surprise. First, that he ever noticed. Second, that he’s talking me up. “What are you doing?” I ask him suspiciously.
“What are you doing? If he’s going to help you, he has to know what you’re capable of. Don’t underrate your-self,” says Peeta.
I don’t know why, but this rubs me the wrong way. “What about you? I’ve seen you in the market. You can lift hundred-pound bags of flour,” I snap at him. “Tell him that. That’s not nothing.”
“Yes, and I’m sure the arena will be full of bags of flour for me to chuck at people. It’s not like being able to use a weapon. You know it isn’t,” he shoots back.
“He can wrestle,” I tell Haymitch. “He came in second in our school competition last year, only after his broth-er.”
“What use is that? How many times have you seen someone wrestle someone to death?” says Peeta in dis-gust.
“There’s always hand-to-hand combat. All you need is to come up with a knife, and you’ll at least stand a chance. If I get jumped, I’m dead!” I can hear my voice rising in anger.
“But you won’t! You’ll be living up in some tree eating raw squirrels and picking off people with arrows. You know what my mother said to me when she came to say good-bye, as if to cheer me up, she says maybe District Twelve will finally have a winner. Then I realized, she didn’t mean me, she meant you!” bursts out Peeta.
"
— Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games)

"turn and turn and turn again
you see the what, but not the when
remedy and wrong entwine
and so they form a single vine"
— Suzanne Collins (Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods)

"One magician demanded I show him an image of the love of his life. I rustled up a mirror."
— Jonathan Stroud (The Amulet of Samarkand)

"Hey, we've all got problems, chum. I'm overly talkative. You look like a field of buttercups in a suit."
— Jonathan Stroud (The Golem's Eye)

"Freedom is an illusion. It always comes at a price."
— Jonathan Stroud (The Bartimaeus Trilogy Boxed Set)

"According to some, heroic deaths are admirable things. I've never been convinced by this argument, mainly because, no matter how cool, stylish, composed, unflappable, manly, or defiant you are, at the end of the day you're also dead. Which is a little too permanent for my liking."
— Jonathan Stroud (Ptolemy's Gate)

"The column hung above the middle of the pentacle, bubbling ever upward against the ceiling like the cloud of an erupting volcanoe. There was a barely perceptible pause. Then two yellow staring eyes materialized in the heart of the smoke.
Hey, it was his first time. I wanted to scare him. And it did, too."
— Jonathan Stroud (The Amulet of Samarkand)

"Vampires should never say Uh-Oh!!"
— Charlaine Harris

"That's why I want you there, he said. You're unpredictable, and that can be the difference between success and failure. Most people make decisions in anger, fear, love, or obligation. You make decisions to irritate people."
— Kim Harrison

"The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me."
— Ayn Rand

"Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swaps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is real.. it is possible.. it's yours."
— Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged)

"A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others."
— Ayn Rand

"I started my life with a single absolute: that the world was mine to shape in the image of my highest values and never to be given up to a lesser standard, no matter how long or hard the struggle."
— Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged)

"Why do they always teach us that it's easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves? It's the hardest thing in the world--to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage. I mean, what we really want."
— Ayn Rand

"To say "I love you" one must know first how to say the "I"."
— Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead)

"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
— Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged)

"Who is John Galt?"
— Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged)

"A government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims."
— Ayn Rand