The Scorpion Rules Quotes

“Let me tell you something that I learned from my youth, from a sage called the Road Runner. You can walk off a cliff and the air will hold you. Only, don't look down.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“Did you know, the man who invented the atomic bomb once said that keeping peace through deterrence was like keeping two scorpions in one bottle? You can picture that, right? They know they can't sting without getting stung. They can't kill without getting killed. And you'd think that would stop them." He gave the book another boot, and it flipped closed with a snick. "But it doesn't." He looked up and his eyes were the color of Cherenkov radiation, the color of an orbital weapon. "You've got a bit of nerve, little scorpion. All I did was invent the bottle.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“No, blowing up cities doesn't work, not in the long term. You've got to find something that the people in charge aren't willing to give up. A price they aren't willing to pay.

Which leads us to Talis's first rule for stopping wars: make it personal.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“I'm not a cruel man. I mean, technically I'm not a man at all.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“There was a space inside me, cupped and still. It was small as cupped hands; it was large as the sky. It was untouched and it was touch itself. It was empty and it was full. I held love there, like a treasure. I held my own name.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“You made tools of us. Have you never considered: the thing of a tool is that anyone may use it.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“It's a strange word, "twilight." It makes me think of endings, of things done or left undone, of things over, of evening. But there are two twilights in every day, and one of them does not foretell darkness, but dawn.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“I wished for impossible things. It was never going to have been a fairy tale for us. There are no fairy tales about two princesses.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“The root of holiness, it turns out, is to do things deliberately.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“We are likened to two scorpions in a bottle. Both capable of killing the other. But at risk of our own life.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“The world needs its monsters.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“Stop the press," said Talis. "Ha! I haven't heard that in centuries. 'Stop the presses!' But do." The smile was sharp-edged. "Or I'll have your head on pikes.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“Elián, of course, missed it. "How advanced do you need your murders to be? Because I saw Grego die. It didn't look all that hard."
Talis smiled. "Keep snarling at me, Elián Palnik, and we'll see how hard I can make it.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“My mother wanted out of politics. And I'll tell you, she got as far out as she could. Down nigh the Licking River."
"The Licking—" said Da-Xia, as if she couldn't believe her luck.
Elián scrubbed a hand over his face. "The south fork."
"Have you at this point heard all the jokes about that?" asked Grego.
"I'll bet there are more," said Thandi.
"Shut up," said Elián, majestically.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“Even as the nannies came into heat—one could tell because they grew louder than roosters and started to sexually assault the water barrels—I”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“Then he said: "Y'all really took that Socratic method shit to heart."
"The benefits," I intoned, "of a Precepture education ."
"Yes," deadpanned Grego. "We were raised on Latin and Greek instead of love.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“He was going to die. He deserved a chance to do it on his terms. No matter what it cost us.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“It was strange. We were from opposing nations that were at the brink of war. We were days away from dying for that war. And yet I would have done almost anything for Elián.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“To hold love in one’s hands, and then let it go—that was the cruelest thing anyone had ever done to me, and I had done it to myself.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“Cranes traditionally represent a wish for peace. I closed my eyes and wished. Uselessly. Hard.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“I- I. Sorry. This is what my father would call a fucking unfortunate image.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“It was once thought that if you died in your dreams you died in life. Thanks to dreamlock, we know this is not true. Most people can die at least six times before something them gives way.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“Why would I come back to you?”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules