The Giver Quartet Quotes

“Take pride in your pain,” her mother had always told her. “You are stronger than those who have none.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver Quartet Omnibus Deluxe Collector's Edition

“The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver Quartet Omnibus Deluxe Collector's Edition

“He saw Forest and understood what Seer had meant. It was an illusion. It was a tangled knot of fears and deceits and dark struggles for power that had disguised itself and almost destroyed everything.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver Quartet Omnibus Deluxe Collector's Edition

“JONAS DID NOT want to go back. He didn’t want the memories, didn’t want the honor, didn’t want the wisdom, didn’t want the pain. He wanted his childhood again, his scraped knees and ball games.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver Quartet Omnibus Deluxe Collector's Edition

“He might make wrong choices.” “Oh.” Jonas was silent for a minute. “Oh, I see what you mean. It wouldn’t matter for a newchild’s toy. But later it does matter, doesn’t it? We don’t dare to let people make choices of their own.” “Not safe?” The Giver suggested. “Definitely not safe,” Jonas said with certainty. “What if they were allowed to choose their own mate? And chose wrong? “Or what if,” he went on, almost laughing at the absurdity, “they chose their own jobs?” “Frightening, isn’t it?” The Giver said. Jonas chuckled. “Very frightening. I can’t even imagine it. We really have to protect people from wrong choices.” “It’s safer.” “Yes,” Jonas agreed. “Much safer.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver Quartet Omnibus Deluxe Collector's Edition

“unidentified”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver Quartet Omnibus Deluxe Collector's Edition

“frightened.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver Quartet Omnibus Deluxe Collector's Edition

“They spoke of the history of Village, how each of them there had fled poverty and cruelty and been welcomed at this new place that had taken them in.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver Quartet Omnibus Deluxe Collector's Edition

“In the new light, Gabe could see that the weapons had changed. They were broken toys, bits of rusted tin, as if a careless child had left them out in the rain.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver Quartet Omnibus Deluxe Collector's Edition

“I cooked for him like a wife and washed his clothes and was a wife in other ways too terrible to mention.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver Quartet Omnibus Deluxe Collector's Edition

“No. But why would I go back? I had found a home here, the way everyone has. That’s why we have the Museum, Matty, to remind us of how we came, and why: to start fresh, and begin a new place from what we had learned and carried from the old.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver Quartet Omnibus Deluxe Collector's Edition

“Some say it eases pain to lay a knife beneath the bed.” “Is it true?” Alsy shrugged. “Likely not. But if the person thinks it, then the thinking eases the pain.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver Quartet Omnibus Deluxe Collector's Edition

“Selected for what?” Claire had never heard of such a thing before. Rolf raised an eyebrow and shrugged. “I don’t know.” “Didn’t she say?” “Yes, but I didn’t understand what she was talking about. Did any of you?” He looked around at his coworkers at the table. “Not really,” Edith said. “It was important, though. It had to do with the Giver and the Receiver.” “Whoever they are,” someone murmured. “Yes, it sounded really important,” Eric agreed.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver Quartet Omnibus Deluxe Collector's Edition

“The cold rain continued to fall. He remembered, suddenly, how Jean’s hair curled and framed her face when it was damp. In contrast to the horrible stench that was growing stronger by the minute, he remembered the fragrance of her when she had kissed him goodbye. It seemed so long ago.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver Quartet Omnibus Deluxe Collector's Edition

“He’s changing, isn’t he?” Matty replied, startling himself, because he had not spelled it out in his mind before, had not said it aloud yet, yet here it was, and he was saying it to Jean. He felt an odd sense of relief. Jean began to cry softly. “Yes,” she said. “He has traded his deepest self.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver Quartet Omnibus Deluxe Collector's Edition

“There were more than usual this time. “It’s a big group,” Matty whispered to the blind man. “Yes, I can hear that it is. I wonder if somehow they have begun to hear rumors that we may close.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver Quartet Omnibus Deluxe Collector's Edition

“Actually,” the chief guardian said in a calm voice, “you have no rights at all. But I am going to tell you the decision so that there will be no misunderstanding. “The orphan girl Kira will stay. She will have a new role.” He gestured toward the Singer’s robe, still spread out on the table. “Kira,” he said, looking at her, “you will continue your mother’s work. You will go beyond her work, actually, since your skill is far greater than hers was. First, you will repair the robe, as your mother always did. Next, you will restore it. Then your true work will begin. You will complete the robe.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver Quartet Omnibus Deluxe Collector's Edition

“But suddenly Jonas had noticed, following the path of the apple through the air with his eyes, that the piece of fruit had—well, this was the part that he couldn’t adequately understand—the apple had changed. Just for an instant. It had changed in mid-air, he remembered. Then it was in his hand, and he looked at it carefully, but it was the same apple. Unchanged. The same size and shape: a perfect sphere. The same nondescript shade, about the same shade as his own tunic. There was absolutely nothing remarkable about that apple. He had tossed it back and forth between his hands a few times, then thrown it again to Asher. And again—in the air, for an instant only—it had changed.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver Quartet Omnibus Deluxe Collector's Edition