ACL > ACL's Quotes

“Outside the rain finally began to fall, surging in fits and starts. “I love the way it rains here,” he told her. “It reminds me that some forces of nature can never be entirely subdued. They are eternal, which is a far better thing to be than immortal.”
― Neal Shusterman, Scythe

“Before this war is over,' [Walter] said - or something said through his lips - 'every man and woman and child in Canada will feel it - you, Mary, will feel it - feel it to your heart's core. You will weep tears of blood over it. The Piper has come - and he will pipe until every corner of the world has heard his awful and irresistible music. It will be years before the dance of death is over - years, Mary. And in those years millions of hearts will break.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Rilla of Ingleside

“Rilla's heart skipped a beat - or, if that be a pysiological impossibility, she thought it did.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Rilla of Ingleside

“But I have to confess, I'm glad you two had at least a few months of happiness together."
I'm not glad," says Peeta. "I wish we had waited until the whole thing was done officially."
This takes even Caesar aback. "Surely even a brief time is better than no time?"
Maybe I'd think that, too, Caesar," says Peeta bitterly, "If it weren't for the baby.”
― Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire

“I think all young women are cursed with a streak of unrelenting foolishness, and all young men are cursed with a streak of absolute stupidity.”
― Neal Shusterman, Scythe

“Everyone is guilty of something, and everyone still harbors a memory of childhood innocence, no matter how many layers of life wrap around it. Humanity is innocent; humanity is guilty, and both states are undeniably true.”
― Neal Shusterman, Scythe

“Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! - I have as much soul as you, - and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you!”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Good-night, my-" He stopped, bit his lip, and abruptly left me.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I could not unlove him now, merely because I found that he had ceased to notice me.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
― Oscar Wilde

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein

“My greatest wish for humanity is not for peace or comfort or joy. It is that we all still die a little inside every time we witness the death of another. For only the pain of empathy will keep us human. There’s no version of God that can help us if we ever lose that.”
― Neal Shusterman, Scythe

“Hope in the shadow of fear is the world's most powerful motivator.”
― Neal Shusterman, Scythe

“Death must exist for life to have meaning.”
― Neal Shusterman, Thunderhead

“Without the threat of suffering, we can’t experience true joy.”
― Neal Shusterman, Scythe

“The greatest achievement of the human race was not conquering death. It was ending government.”
― Neal Shusterman, Scythe

“if we were judged by the things we most regret, no human being would be worthy to sweep the floor.”
― Neal Shusterman, Thunderhead

“If you’ve ever studied mortal age cartoons, you’ll remember this one. A coyote was always plotting the demise of a smirking long-necked bird. The coyote never succeeded; instead, his plans always backfired. He would blow up, or get shot, or splat from a ridiculous height.

And it was funny.

Because no matter how deadly his failure, he was always back in the next scene, as if there were a revival center just beyond the edge of the animation cell.

I’ve seen human foibles that have resulted in temporary maiming or momentary loss of life. People stumble into manholes, are hit by falling objects, trip into the paths of speeding vehicles.

And when it happens, people laugh, because no matter how gruesome the event, that person, just like the coyote, will be back in a day or two, as good as new, and no worse—or wiser—for the wear.

Immortality has turned us all into cartoons.”
― Neal Shusterman, Scythe

“Because rain is the closest thing I have to tears.”
― Neal Shusterman, Thunderhead

“Mortals fantasied that love was eternal and its loss unimaginable. Now we know neither is true. Love remained mortal, while we became eternal.”
― Neal Shusterman, Scythe

“Human nature is both predictable and mysterious; prone to great and sudden advances, yet still mired in despicable self-interest.”
― Neal Shusterman, Scythe

“Well, she could learn self control tomorrow. Today she wanted pizza.”
― Neal Shusterman, Scythe

“Guilt is the idiot cousin of remorse,”
― Neal Shusterman, Scythe

“But remember that good intentions pave many roads. Not all of them lead to hell.”
― Neal Shusterman, Scythe

“I wonder what life will be like a millennium from now, when the average age will be nearer to one thousand. Will we all be renaissance children, skilled at every art and science, because we’ve had time to master them? Or will boredom and slavish routine plague us even more than it does today, giving us less of a reason to live limitless lives? I dream of the former, but I suspect the latter.”
― Neal Shusterman, Scythe

“It’s my pleasure to be your displeasure.”
― Neal Shusterman, Thunderhead

“The end doesn't always justify the means. But sometimes it does. Wisdom is knowing the difference.”
― Neal Shusterman, Thunderhead

“To deny humanity the lesson of consequences would be a mistake.
And I do not make mistakes.”
― Neal Shusterman, Thunderhead

“I choose to be known as scythe Anastasia
after the youngest member of the family Romanov
she was the product of a corrupt system, and because of that, was denied her very life—as I almost was
had she lived who knows what she might have done. perhaps she could have changed the world and redeemed her family name. choose to be scythe Anastasia. I vow to become the change that night have been”
― Neal Shusterman, Scythe

“While freedom gives rise to growth and enlightenment, permission allows evil to flourish in a light of day that would otherwise destroy it.”
― Neal Shusterman, Thunderhead