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I do need to remind you there is no point in being fair to others if you've forgotten to be fair to yourself.

A man is measured not by the answers he finds but the questions he asks. Find an answer and you stand still. Stop asking questions and you die.

Nani’s allegiance is to her anger and anger runs deeper than blood and skin. It’s set in bone and bone, once broken, never heals the same.

Do not let anger over the past become the fuel that fire your future

Obedience is fickle that way. It's a virtue to its master but a vice to its slaves.

I want a future. a choice. a place other than here.

We girls watch from our boxes like orchids in a greehouse. Sheltered from the past. Blinded to the future.

...you see what you want and you want what you see, but if I have anything to say about it, that will never be me.

No, we cannot change the mistakes we’ve left behind. But there’s one thing we can do— one thing I must do— we can choose not to repeat them.

This was the part the president left out of her speech this morning. She said that everyone in the old country got rid of their baby girls, but this is a lie. The rich could afford to pay the steep fines and the poor weren't afraid to hide them in places the officials didn't want to look. The president doesn't want to remind people of this. She wants them to believe that obedience is the only option. Like all leaders, her reign depends on it.

You can only give away that which is yours to lose.

They will tell her I won't fit in. Then, they will remind her of her duty as a girl. They will think for her as they always do because that's the point of these tests. If they could trust the girls to choose wisely on their own, we wouldn't have to be here. Would we? Or is it the opposite? Perhaps the families have always chosen for them and the key is to let the girls decide for themselves?

We're told to plug our noses to escape the smells. Manure. Rot. Poverty? Reality.

Instead of fixing things, of making changes, of making improvements, all they'e done has been to break them in reverse.

Power of a stallion, and the innocence of a foal...

You can't make a zebra by painting stripes on a horse.

They've been promised a full stomach for their success, a noose for their failure...

Mummy gasps. Papa laughs. I suck in my lips, trapping a smile in my cheeks like a firefly in a jar.

She wants them to believe that obedience is the only option. As is the case with all leaders, her reign depends on it.

Better to play fair for a life of hate than cheat for a life of love

Piercing my eyes with a look so convincing he could tell me to jump off Agnimar Cliff and my only question would be Should I go head- or feetfirst?

Some of the families starve themselves so they can fatten up their sons before their tests. This is like the market vendors who display their fruit shiny side up.

this is neither a game of choice nor a life of choice. It's one of influence: Hers. And one of acceptance: Mine.

My words are like Mummy: butterflies trapped inside a net.

We open our desire for a bright future to your hearts

Have to wait my turn. Have to follow the rules. Have to smile like I agree. Have to Have to Have to Have to Choose him.