SF > SF's Quotes

“I know your brother’s past. And I know that he can still find happiness even in the darkest of circumstances, because his faith sustains him. What sustains you?”
“The blood of my enemies.”
― Kiersten White, Bright We Burn

“Be strong. He whispered. Be kind. Be hopeful. He bent down and kissed her forehead.

And be fierce.”
― Kiersten White, Bright We Burn

“Lada had always known exactly what shape she would take. She had never let it be determined by the people around her. But Radu could not escape the need for love, the need for people in his life to help him see what he should—and could—be. Lada shaped herself in spite of her environment. Radu shaped himself because of it.”
― Kiersten White, Bright We Burn

“She would walk into that tent, and she would stab her first friend, her first lover, her only true equal through the heart. She did not want to, she found. But she would do it anyway. It was what Wallachia needed, what it demanded, and Wallachia came before Mehmed. It always would. It had to.”
― Kiersten White, Bright We Burn

“And that was why she would win in the end. Because she would offer up everything on the altar of sacrifice, so long as she kept her country.”
― Kiersten White, Bright We Burn

“Because Bogdan wanted more than she could ever give him. Because she mistrusted Stefan. Because Nicolae’s questions festered under her skin. Because Petru, young and thickheaded but hers, was dead, killed by the boyars she had then eliminated in the dining room of this very castle. Because even after all this, she knew in the blood that flowed through her veins that she could trust Radu. And because…Nicolae had been right. Lada was trying to pick a fight with Mehmed, even if she had not realized it before. She was not doing it for Wallachia. She did it for herself. For everything he had been to her. For all the ways he had failed her. She had Wallachia, and she would do everything she could to protect it, but she wanted to punish Mehmed. Kidnapping Radu—taking back the first, and the last, thing Mehmed had taken from her—might be enough to make him come to her when tens of thousands of bodies had not. Just three bodies mattered. The same three that had always mattered. Radu’s. Lada’s. And Mehmed’s.”
― Kiersten White, Bright We Burn

“So the question becomes, Daughter of the Dragon, what will you sacrifice? What will you let be taken away so that you, too, can have power?”
― Kiersten White, And I Darken

“As the baby latched on with surprising fierceness, the nurse offered her own prayer.
Let her be strong.
Let her be sly.
And let her be ugly.”
― Kiersten White, And I Darken

“Souls and thrones are irreconcilable.”
― Kiersten White, And I Darken

“If you are too weak to stand being hit and too stupid to avoid it, then you deserve more pain.”
― Kiersten White, And I Darken

“Mercy is the one thing I cannot afford. Not yet. When Wallachia is stable, when we have rebuilt, then yes. What we do now, we do so that someday mercy will be able to survive here.”
― Kiersten White, Now I Rise

“I have met your sister, and I have met Mehmed. They love themselves and their ambition above all else. They love what feeds their ambition, and when it stops feeding that, the love will turn to hate with more passion than either could ever love with. You love with all your heart, Radu, and deserve someone who can answer that with all of theirs.”
― Kiersten White, Now I Rise

“I do not take orders from women.”
“My men do not have a similar problem.” Lada lifted a hand. The man fell, a crossbow bolt sticking out of his chest.”
― Kiersten White, Now I Rise

“English did not just borrow words from other languages; it was stuffed to the brim with foreign influences, a Frankenstein vernacular. And Robin found it incredible, how this country, whose citizens prided themselves so much on being better than the rest of the world, could not make it through an afternoon tea without borrowed goods.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“This is how colonialism works. It convinces us that the fallout from resistance is entirely our fault, that the immoral choice is resistance itself rather than the circumstances that demanded it.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“Betrayal. Translation means doing violence upon the original, means warping and distorting it for foreign, unintended eyes. So then where does that leave us? How can we conclude, except by acknowledging that an act of translation is then necessarily always an act of betrayal?”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“If we push in the right spots - then we've moved things to the breaking point. The the future becomes fluid, and change is possible. History isn't a premed tapestry that we've got to suffer, a closed world with no exit. We can form it. Make it. We just have to choose to make it.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“But that’s the great contradiction of colonialism.’ Cathy uttered this like a simple matter of fact. ‘It’s built to destroy that which it prizes most.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“Power did not lie in the tip of a pen. Power did not work against its own interests. Power could only be brought to heel by acts of defiance it could not ignore. With brute, unflinching force. With violence.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“It is astounding, in truth, how much of academia’s perceived resource scarcity is artificially constructed.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“Amantes sunt amentes.” Before I can work out the meaning, he smiles. “Lovers are lunatics.”
― Adriana Mather, Killing November

“Damn Kihgl. That wasn’t his fault. It was Knaaren’s fault for eating him.”
― Sara King, Forging Zero

“Joe, you idiot, his mind ranted at him.  You just declared a staring contest with something that doesn’t blink.”
― Sara King, Forging Zero

“God hates a coward.”
― Sara King, Forging Zero

“Who is working for you at headquarters, Commander?”

“Huh?”

“Who told you I was coming?  Last night.  With the stool.”

“Are you kidding?” Joe snorted.  “I haven’t spoken to anyone but Jim Beam since some prick broke my nose in Nevada.”

...

“Considering your history, I didn’t want to take the chance.”  When the Human offered nothing, Jer’ait leaned closer to his target.  “Now tell me about this Jim Beam you’ve been speaking to.”

“Ask the bartender.  He’ll know.”
― Sara King, Zero Recall

“So tell me,” Rri’jan said.  “Why do you put so much faith in this Human?”

“He’s like me,” Forgotten said.

Rri’jan laughed.  “Oh? An immobile blob of mucous?”
― Sara King

“Flea, get over here.” ‘Flea’ was an earth name that the Human had attached to the Baga the moment it returned from medical.  The Baga had liked the sound of it, especially after Jer’ait had explained that a flea was a nuisance insect from Earth. Jer’ait wondered if the Baga was quite sane.”
― Sara King, Zero Recall

“A Jreet, a Grekkon, an Ooreiki, a Baga, led by a Human.”

“What the hairy fuck is a Human?”
― Sara King, Zero Recall

“So!” Daviin said, shoving him toward Rat. “You two discussed sex, yes? You can do it while we
eat.”

Joe’s jaw dropped and he twisted, throwing Daviin’s huge hand off his shoulder. “What?!”

“On Neskfaat, before the last assignment.  You spoke of sex.”

“Yeah, but—”

“Not public enough? We can go to the celebration in Dayut.”
― Sara King, Zero Recall

“That’s not going to happen, Syuri thought suddenly, tearing himself out of his thoughts.

He would not let it happen. Forgotten would not end up like the other Geuji. Syuri could not allow it.

He knew what he had to do.

Come Peacemakers, Jreet hells, or Dhasha jaws, Syuri was going to save his friend.”
― Sara King