Quotes from Life Before Legend: Stories of the Criminal and the Prodigy

“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

About the author

Popular quotes

“I like that kind of thing. I like warmth and uncalled-for kindness, the small unnoticed generosities that speckle the meanness of the world.”
― Roland Merullo, quote from A Little Love Story

“So very Russian," people around were murmuring. That they did meant this was an audience pretty low down on the scale of sophistication, otherwise they would be saying, "Just like us, isn't it?”
― Doris Lessing, quote from The Summer Before the Dark

“Nuestro espía de El Cairo es el más grande de todos los héroes.   ERWIN ROMMEL, septiembre de 1942”
― Ken Follett, quote from The Key to Rebecca

“They needed each other.
Two lost souls, he thought, taking a moment to walk to the tall windows that looked out on part of the world he’d built for himself out of will, desire, sweat, and dubiously accumulated funds. Two lost souls whose miserable beginnings had forged them into what appeared to be polar opposites.
Love had narrowed the distance, then had all but eradicated it.
She’d saved him. The night his life had hung in her furious and unbreakable grip. She’d saved him, he mused, the first moment he’d locked eyes with her. As impossible as it should have been, she was his answer. He was hers.
He had a need to give her things. The tangible things wealth could command. Though he knew the gifts most often puzzled and flustered her. Maybe because they did, he corrected with a grin. But underlying that overt giving was the fierce foundation to give her comfort, security, trust, love. All the things they’d both lived without most of their lives.
He wondered that a woman who was so skilled in observation, in studying the human condition, couldn’t see that what he felt for her was often as baffling and as frightening to him as it was to her.
Nothing had been the same for him since she’d walked into his life wearing an ugly suit and cool-eyed suspicion. He thanked God for it.
Feeling sentimental, he realized. He supposed it was the Irish that popped out of him at unexpected moments.”
― J.D. Robb, quote from Witness in Death

“Je buvais à pleins verres les étoiles”
― Guillaume Apollinaire, quote from Alcools

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.