Marie Lu · 38 pages
Rating: (15K votes)
“Keep at it, Junebug—someday, you’ll shake the Republic to its very core. You’ll be absolutely unforgettable. I know it.”
― Marie Lu, quote from Life Before Legend: Stories of the Criminal and the Prodigy
“When you’ve been poor all your life, you never really think it could be any other way. And sometimes you’re even happy, because at least you’ve got your family and your health and your arms and legs and a roof over your head.”
― Marie Lu, quote from Life Before Legend: Stories of the Criminal and the Prodigy
“The things that make you special will give you all kinds of advantages in life, but they will also hold you back and expose your weaknesses.”
― Marie Lu, quote from Life Before Legend: Stories of the Criminal and the Prodigy
“Everything good about me, I learned from you,” I whisper. “You’re giving me too much credit. We got it from our parents.” Metias chuckles a little. It’s a sad sound. There’s another long, ten-second pause before he goes on. “You’ll find your tribe,” he says. “We all do. Someday, someone out there will see you for the girl you really are. Someday, you’ll find someone who understands you.”
― Marie Lu, quote from Life Before Legend: Stories of the Criminal and the Prodigy
“At least you understand me.” He raises an eyebrow again. “Sometimes.”
― Marie Lu, quote from Life Before Legend: Stories of the Criminal and the Prodigy
“I bet the Republic hasn't seen the last of you.”
― Marie Lu, quote from Life Before Legend: Stories of the Criminal and the Prodigy
“Someday, someone out there will see you for the girl you really are. Someday, you’ll find someone who understands you.”
― Marie Lu, quote from Life Before Legend: Stories of the Criminal and the Prodigy
“Poor Metias. He’s not supposed to be a father. He’s supposed to be out on his own, independent and free to concentrate on his job as a young captain. But somebody has to take care of me, and I make his life so much harder than it needs to be. I wonder what things must have been like for him back when our parents were still alive, when I was a toddler and Metias was a teenager and he could focus on growing up instead of helping someone else grow up. Still, Metias hasn’t complained once. Not a single time. And even though I wish our parents were here, sometimes I’m really happy that this is our little family unit, just me and my brother, each watching out for no one but the other. We do the best we can.”
― Marie Lu, quote from Life Before Legend: Stories of the Criminal and the Prodigy
“My brother reaches out and taps my forehead gently. "Behind that brain of yours is a good heart, Junebug. I see it every day.”
― Marie Lu, quote from Life Before Legend: Stories of the Criminal and the Prodigy
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the great Republic of America, to our Elector Primo, to our glorious states, to unity against the Colonies, to our impending victory!”
― Marie Lu, quote from Life Before Legend: Stories of the Criminal and the Prodigy
“Ugh,” I snort in disgust. No doubt that girl’s some goddy rich trot living the sweet life farther inland, in one of LA’s upper-class sectors. Who cares what she scored on her Trial? The whole test is rigged in favor of the wealthy kids, anyway, and she’s probably just someone with average smarts who bought her high score.”
― Marie Lu, quote from Life Before Legend: Stories of the Criminal and the Prodigy
“Thank you,” she says. “You’re a good kid. I bet the Republic hasn’t seen the last of you.”
― Marie Lu, quote from Life Before Legend: Stories of the Criminal and the Prodigy
“Love you too. Keep at it, Junebug—someday, you’ll shake the Republic to its very core. You’ll be absolutely unforgettable. I know it.”
― Marie Lu, quote from Life Before Legend: Stories of the Criminal and the Prodigy
“TWELVE-YEAR-OLD TRIAL PRODIGY JUNE IPARIS BECOMES YOUNGEST STUDENT EVER ADMITTED TO DRAKE UNIVERSITY, TO BE OFFICIALLY INDUCTED NEXT WEEK.”
― Marie Lu, quote from Life Before Legend: Stories of the Criminal and the Prodigy
“Your strengths might make you hard to approach, and might make your words sound uglier than what you actually mean, but they also make people look up to you.”
― Marie Lu, quote from Life Before Legend: Stories of the Criminal and the Prodigy
“WHAT’S WITH ALL THIS TRAFFIC?” I ASK MY BROTHER. Metias leans forward in the driver’s seat and cranes his neck.”
― Marie Lu, quote from Life Before Legend: Stories of the Criminal and the Prodigy
Marie Lu
Born place: in Wuxi, China
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“Let us suppose that the great empire of China, with all its myriads of inhabitants, was suddenly swallowed up by an earthquake, and let us consider how a man of humanity in Europe, who had no sort of connection with that part of the world, would be affected upon receiving intelligence of this dreadful calamity. He would, I imagine, first of all, express very strongly his sorrow for the misfortune of that unhappy people, he would make many melancholy reflections upon the precariousness of human life, and the vanity of all the labours of man, which could thus be annihilated in a moment. He would too, perhaps, if he was a man of speculation, enter into many reasonings concerning the effects which this disaster might produce upon the commerce of Europe, and the trade and business of the world in general. And when all this fine philosophy was over, when all these humane sentiments had been once fairly expressed, he would pursue his business or his pleasure, take his repose or his diversion, with the same ease and tranquillity, as if no such accident had happened. The most frivolous disaster which could befall himself would occasion a more real disturbance. If he was to lose his little finger to-morrow, he would not sleep to-night; but, provided he never saw them, he will snore with the most profound security over the ruin of a hundred millions of his brethren, and the destruction of that immense multitude seems plainly an object less interesting to him, than this paltry misfortune of his own. To prevent, therefore, this paltry misfortune to himself, would a man of humanity be willing to sacrifice the lives of a hundred millions of his brethren, provided he had never seen them? Human nature startles with horror at the thought, and the world, in its greatest depravity and corruption, never produced such a villain as could be capable of entertaining it. But what makes this difference? When our passive feelings are almost always so sordid and so selfish, how comes it that our active principles should often be so generous and so noble? When we are always so much more deeply affected by whatever concerns ourselves, than by whatever concerns other men; what is it which prompts the generous, upon all occasions, and the mean upon many, to sacrifice their own interests to the greater interests of others? It is not the soft power of humanity, it is not that feeble spark of benevolence which Nature has lighted up in the human heart, that is thus capable of counteracting the strongest impulses of self-love. It is a stronger power, a more forcible motive, which exerts itself upon such occasions. It is reason, principle, conscience, the inhabitant of the breast, the man within, the great judge and arbiter of our conduct.”
― Adam Smith, quote from The Theory of Moral Sentiments
“Our own attitude is that we are charged with discovering the best way of doing everything.”
― Mark Graban, quote from Lean Hospitals: Improving Quality, Patient Safety, and Employee Satisfaction
“The death of an illusion tends to disconcert.”
― Roger Zelazny, quote from This Immortal
“One of Harvey’s guiding lights in terms of strategies was simplicity; all things being equal, Harvey preferred the course of action that let him get into the middle of things and then just buckle down.”
― John Scalzi, quote from The Ghost Brigades
“Never, until these last few days, had I understood the meaning of existence. I was like the others…I said with them: The ocean is green, that white speck up there is a seagull, but I didn’t feel that it existed…And then suddenly existence had unveiled itself.”
― Colin Wilson, quote from The Outsider
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