The Song Rising Quotes

“You have risen from the ashes before. The only way to survive, " he said, "is to believe you always will.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“Never allow yourself to believe you should be silent.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“When you dream of change, it shines bright, like fire, and burns away all the rot that came before it. It's swift and inexorable. You cry for justice, and justice is done. The world stands with you in your fight. But if there was one thing I had learned in these last few weeks, it was that change had never been that simple. That kind of revolution existed only in daydreams.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“We like to think we’re brave, but in the end, we’re only human.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“The only way to survive is to believe you always will.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“What I will tell you is that you cannot force yourself to mourn. Sometimes, the best way to honour the dead is to simply keep living.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“I imagined, too. And so imagination became my nemesis; my mind created monsters out of nothing.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“She was adamant that any organisation that labelled one group of people as evil would eventually do the same to others. That to treat any one person as less than human was to cheapen the very substance of humanity.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“Permission to disregard your orders, Underqueen."
"Permission not granted. Permission categorically denied.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“War has often been called a game, with good reason. Both have combatants. Both have sides. Both carry the risk of losing.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“Perhaps this is for the best,' Warden said. 'You already dwell too deep in shadows.'
'I would have gone into the shadows for you.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“The wonderful thing about living in a morally bankrupt world is that every human being can be bought in one way or another. Everyone accepts a currency. Money, mercy, the illusion of power – there are always ways to purchase loyalty.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“We canna grieve for those who’ve gone. Not before we’ve fought to change the world that took them.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“Some people believe that if they keep their heads down and stick to their safe routine and trust that nothing bad will befall them, then it won’t. They see things happening to others, but they think they’re different; they’re special; it could never happen to them. They believe that nothing can get better, but also that nothing can get worse. They’re cowards, in one way, because they won’t fight, but they’re also brave, because they’re willing to accept their lot in life. Glupava smelost, we called it. Foolish courage.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“How did you get here, then?'
'We walked,' Maria said, 'hence the "dejected snowman" look we're all modelling.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“Just going outside put me at risk of winding up dead or captured. If I let that daunt me, I'd never do anything.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“The room was an hourglass that hadn't yet turned.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“We sat with our arms around each other, holding too tightly and not tightly enough.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“That to treat any one person as less than human was to cheapen the very substance of humanity.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“And I waited for the sun to rise - as it always had, like a song from the night.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“You can convince yourself that you are nothing like me. Tell yourself that you are the black to my white, the queen that stood on the right side of the board. But one day, you will be faced with a choice, as we all are. One day you will have to choose between your own desires, your own darkest impulses, and what you know to be right...and it will harden you. You will understand that all of us are devils in the skins of men. You will become the monster that lives inside us all.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“But I missed talking to him. I missed just being near him. I wanted him - but what I wanted might be an illusion.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“Every revolution begins with breakfast,’ I quoted as they left. ‘Is this your revolution, Jaxon?”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“I consider your company worth the risk,’ he said into my hair, ‘but the choice is always yours.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“Goodnight, little dreamer.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“He was as much a part of me as my own bones, and now he would be gone. I cried as I hadn't since I was a child. In the shadow of that merchant vessel, we clung to each other like we were ten years younger, the Pale Dreamer and the Red Vision, the last two Seals to break apart.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“I was small and I was endless. I was hope and I was fading. I would not show fear.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“Bloody, sh*tting f*ck!'
'It sounds as if she is alive' said Warden”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“When do I ever do anything reckless?”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising

“It lasted far too long for a farewell. A moment. A choice. A mirror of the first time we had touched this way, behind the red drapes in the nest of the enemy – when danger had been everywhere, but a song had still been rising in us both. A song I wasn’t sure that anything could silence.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Song Rising