The Kingdom of Gods Quotes

“Inevitable is not the same as immediate, Sieh--and love does not mandate forgiveness.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“It had not been all suffering and horror. Life is never only one thing.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“I would savor every moment of my life that remained, suck its marrow, crunch its bones. And when the end came... well, I would not be alone. That was a precious and holy thing.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“Just because you're the god of vengeance doesn't mean you have to be some brooding cliché, forever cackling to yourself and totting up what you owe to whom. Choose how your nature shapes you. Embrace it. Find the strength in it. Or fight yourself and remain forever incomplete.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“The opposite of liking is not disliking, after all. The opposite of liking is apathy.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“Fear was like poison to mortals; it killed their rationality.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“Funny thing, employment. If you keep doing it, you keep getting paid.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“It takes great strength to compromise, Shahar. More than it does to threaten and destroy, since you must fight your own pride as well as the enemy.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“Only learning oneself better, and understanding one’s place in the world, made the touch of another mundane.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“Is tact simply not in your nature, or are you this offensive on purpose?”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“It was the oldest of tricks, to sow dissension between groups that had common interests. Good for deflecting attention from greater mischief, too.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“It was simply that I knew, or had known, precisely why he did not love all his children equally. Differentiation, variation, appreciation of the unique: this was part of what he was. His children were not the same, so his feelings toward each were not the same. He loved us all, but differently. And because he did this, because he did not pretend that love was fair or equal, mortals could mate for an afternoon or for the rest of their lives. Mothers could tell their twins or triplets apart. Children could have crushes and outgrow them; elders could remain devoted to their spouses long after beauty had gone. The mortal heart was fickle. Naha made it so. And because of this, they were free to love as they wished, and not solely by the dictates of instinct or power or tradition.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“An experiment," she said ... "I am leaving Nahadoth and Itempas alone together for a while. If the universe starts coming apart again, I'll know I made a mistake.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“Take a nautilus shell; cut it cross section. Gently elevate its swirling, chambered tiers as they approach the tight-bound center, culminating at last in a pinnacle on which we all stood. Note its asymmetrical order, its chaotic repetition, the grace of its linkages. Contemplate the ephemerality of its existence. Such is the beauty that is mortal life.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“I considered several lies — then decided the truth was so outrageous that she might believe it more readily. "I'm a godling, sent by an organization of godlings based in Shadow. We think you might be trying to destroy the world. Could you, perhaps, stop?”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“The way I see it, a stranger feels like a stranger; a friend feels like a friend. Simple.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“Still ... I was glad for her naïveté. That was always the nicest thing about having a newborn god around. They were willing to try things the rest of us were too jaded to even consider.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“any heartbreak that I felt in that moment was purely my own damned fault for wanting what I could not have.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“This new one—who has always and only been male—named himself Bright Itempas, because he was an arrogant, self-absorbed son of a demon even then.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“Peace is meaningless without freedom.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“Friendships can transcend childhood," I said softly when Shahar took the knife. She paused, looking at me in surprise. "They can. If the friends continue to trust each other as they grow older and change.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“Gods notice, but we learn to ignore these things early on, the same way mortal newborns eventually ignore the lonely silence of a world without heartbeats.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“Choose how your nature shapes you. Embrace it. Find the strength in it. Or fight yourself and remain forever incomplete.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“It was like life without breathing, or friendship without love; what was the point?”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“love does not mandate forgiveness.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“So many of Nahadoth’s children were like her, just a little mad but beautiful in their madness.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“Crushes: like butterfly wings against the soul.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“In fact, EXISTENCE became the universe, and the beings soon became a family, because it was Enefa’s nature to give meaning to anything she touched. I was the first of their many, many children.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“So this being—whom we shall call Nahadoth because that is a pretty name, and whom we shall label male for the sake of convenience if not completeness—promptly set out to create an existence, which he did by going mad and tearing himself apart.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods

“She looked at him and he gazed back. Unconditional love: childhood´s greatest magic.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods