M > M's Quotes

“We may not get to choose how we die, but we can choose how we live.
The universe may forget us, but it doesn't matter. Because we are the ants, and we'll keep marching on.”
― Shaun David Hutchinson, We Are the Ants

“Depression isn't a war you win. It's a battle you fight every day. You never stop, never get to rest. It's one bloody fray after another.”
― Shaun David Hutchinson, We Are the Ants

“I saw the world from the stars' point of view, and it looked unbearably lonely.”
― Shaun David Hutchinson, We Are the Ants

“You spend your life hoarding memories against the day you'll lack the energy to go out and make new ones, because that's the comfort of the old age. The ability to look back at your life and know that you left your mark on the world. But I'm losing my memories, it's like someone's broken into my piggy bank and is robbing me one penny at a time. It's happening so slowly, I can hardly tell what's missing.”
― Shaun David Hutchinson, We Are the Ants

“I was surrounded by heaven. The sun, the moon, the earth, and all those living stars. They wen't static like in pictures taken from impossibly far away- they breathed, they glowed. They were future and past, possibility and memory. They were beautiful.
"I never knew there were so many," I whispered. We are merely pieces of a grander design, even more insignificant than I imagined. When the earth ceases to be, all those stars will shine on. Out deaths will mean nothing to them.
"I feel so small." No one replied. I wondered as I watched the stars, really seeing them for the fist time, whether they could see me, too.”
― Shaun David Hutchinson, We Are the Ants

“He didn’t kill himself because of a single overwhelming problem; he died from a thousand tiny wounds.”
― Shaun David Hutchinson, We Are the Ants

“We're not words...we're people. Words are how others define us, but we can define ourselves any way we choose.”
― Shaun David Hutchinson, We Are the Ants

“That’s how life is; it just goes on”
― Shaun David Hutchinson, We Are the Ants

“It seems silly to worry about the arbitrary moment some person long dead declared to be the end of one year and the beginning of another, as if our attempts to divide time into meaningful chunks actually mean anything. People wait for the countdown to tell them it's okay to believe in themselves again. They end each year with failure, but hope that when the clock strikes twelve, they can begin the new year with a clean slate. They tell themselves that this is the year things will happen, never realizing that things are always happening; they're just happening without them.”
― Shaun David Hutchinson, We Are the Ants

“The farther we are from one another, the further we live in each other’s pasts”
― Shaun David Hutchinson, We Are the Ants

“Sometimes, Henry, remembering hurts too much.”
― Shaun David Hutchinson, We Are the Ants

“The girl wore her scars the way some women wore their finest jewelry.”
― Sarah J. Maas, The Assassin and the Healer

“It’s easy for someone to joke about scars if they’ve never been cut.”
― William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

“Why do you look?” I mutter.

I half expect Magiano to tease me, spitting back one of his sarcastic phrases. But he doesn’t smile. “We are drawn to stories," he says in a soft voice, “and every scar carries one.” He lifts a hand and places his palm gently against the ruined side of my face, covering the scar.

I look down, embarrassed now. Instinctively, I reach up to brush some of my hair over my face—only to remember that I no longer have long locks.

“Hiding it makes you more beautiful,” Magiano says. Then he takes his hand away, exposing my scar again. “But revealing it makes you you.” He nods at me. “So wear it proudly.”
― Marie Lu, The Rose Society

“It is better to have an enemy who will fight you in an open field then a lover who will kill you in your sleep.”
― Marie Lu, The Rose Society

“Fear motivates, more than love or ambition or joy. Fear is more powerful than anything else in the world. I have spent so long yearning for things—for love, for acceptance—that I do not really need. I need nothing except the submission that comes with fear. I do not know why it took me so long to learn this.”
― Marie Lu, The Rose Society

“Why feel guilty for something that isn't your fault?
Because I loved him. And now he is gone.”
― Marie Lu, The Rose Society

“Why so surprised, White Wolf?” he murmurs, smiling a little. There is something in the way he says my Elite name, a secret sweetness.
Why so surprised that you are worthy?”
― Marie Lu, The Rose Society

“Why can’t I be like that? Why can’t I be the father who just shrugs off the love of his daughter? Why can’t I be the Lead Inquisitor who enjoys watching his pleading victims burn at the stake? Why can’t I be the one who befriends a lonely, lost girl and then casts her out? Why can’t I be the one to strike first, to hit so early and with such fury that my enemies cower before they can ever think of turning on me? What is so great about being good?”
― Marie Lu, The Rose Society

“They were the flash of light in a stormy sky, the fleeting darkness before dawn. Never have they existed before, nor shall they ever exist again.”
― Marie Lu, The Rose Society

“I have always done the best I could, and yet, somehow, it has never been enough. No one cared what I did. They always turned their backs on me.”
― Marie Lu, The Rose Society

“A cruel queen does not mean an unsuccessful one. Under her guidance, Kenettra changed from a glittering gem into a clouded stone, and her empire became one to rule all others, a darkness that stretched from sun, to sea, to sky.

- The Empire of the Wolf, translation by Tarsa Mehani”
― Marie Lu, The Rose Society

“The world’s deadliest mercenaries choose to serve you, the whispers say, because they have yet to meet me.”
― Marie Lu, The Rose Society

“He is not Enzo, I remind myself. But I don't want him to be. With Enzo, my energy yearned for his power and ambition, all too happy to let him take me into the darkness. But with Magiano... I am able to smile, even to laugh. I am able to sit here and lean back and point out the constellations.”
― Marie Lu, The Rose Society

“Now, are you happy? Have you finally achieved all you set out to do? What will you do next, little assassin, with no one left to see you?"

- One Thousand Journeys of Al Akhar, various authors”
― Marie Lu, The Rose Society

“Hiding it makes you more beautiful," Magiano says. Then he takes his hand away, exposing my scar again. "But revealing it makes you you." He nods at me. "So wear it proudly.”
― Marie Lu, The Rose Society

“And?” he murmurs.

“And . . . sapphire.” My voice fades into a whisper.

“For the angel of Joy.”

“Joy?” Magiano smiles, gently this time.

“Yes.” I look down, overwhelmed by sudden sadness.
“Because I can see so much of it in you.”
― Marie Lu, The Rose Society

“Do I frighten you?" I ask softly.

He seems to think about that. After a while, he leans back and looks skyward. "I don't know," he replies. "But I do know that I may never meet another like you again.”
― Marie Lu, The Rose Society

“No. I'm not broken easily. I will never break”
― Marie Lu, The Rose Society

“And I'm not horrified. I look at it, indulging in the darkness around me, feeding me, strengthening me, and I realize that I'm happy I killed him. Truly happy.”
― Marie Lu, The Rose Society