Dark Age (Red Rising Saga #5)

by Pierce Brown

“The old rage in colder ways, for they alone decide how to spend the young.”

A moving mind is always fed. At rest, mine eats itself.

I once thought the greatest sin of war was violence. It isn’t. The greatest sin is it requires good men to become practical.

“Fear those who seek your company for their own vanity. As soon as you eclipse them in the mirror, it won’t be the mirror they break.”

“These are not injurious queries, Diomedes. If I don’t know how strong you are, why would I choose you for a dancing partner, young man?” “Because all others are taken, and the song creeps upon crescendo.”

Is a man a coward if he realizes that bravery is just a myth the old tell the young so they line up for the meatgrinder?

Only humanity could grasp the stars and then let them slip through its fingers for the pettiness in its heart.

“The tragedy of the gifted is the belief they are entitled to greatness, Lysander. As a human, you are entitled only to death.”

I fear you think your strength lies in your darkness. But the measure of a man is not the fear he sows in his enemies. It is the hope he gives his friends.

I wish I knew that the eyes of his spirit looked upon his Vale. That his ancestors were waiting for him in their cool highland valley. But I know it is not so, because I know the Vale was created and cultivated by the Board of Quality Control in order to provide an important sociological prerequisite for obedience: a carrot at the end of a hard life.

She smiles down at me. “Thank you for helping me. I have never had a friend so small be so big.” She kisses me on the forehead and steps forward.