Quotes from Monsters of Men

Patrick Ness ·  603 pages

Rating: (52.8K votes)


“To say you have no choice is to relieve yourself of responsibility.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men


“It's not how we fall. It's how we get back up again.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men


“His noise is getting quieter, but I can still see it there still-
See how he feels the skin of my hand against his, see how he wants to take it and press it against his mouth, how he wants to breathe in the smell of me and how beautiful I look to him, how strong after all that illness, and how he wants to just lightly touch my neck, just there, and how he wants to take me in his arms and-
"Oh, God," he says, looking away suddenly. "Viola, I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"
But I just put my hand to the back of his neck-
And he says, "Viola-?"
And I pull myself towards him-
And I kiss him.
And it feels like, finally.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men


“Choices may be unbelievably hard but they're never impossible. To say you have no choice is to release yourself from responsibility and that's not how a person with integrity acts.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men


“I’ll find you—

Keep calling for me, Viola—

Cuz here I come.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men



“Do we hate paradise so much we need to make sure it becomes a trash heap?”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men


“It's not the mistakes I made but how I responded to them”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men


“Worst is the one who knows better and does nothing.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men


“You're never more alive than in battle."
"Never more dead after," I say.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men


“A monster, I think, remembering what Ben told me once. War makes Monsters of Men.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men



“Viola?" he says.
And I turn to look at him -
And when I do, I can hear everything he's thinking.
Everything.
Clearer than before, clearer than seems possible -
And I'm not even sure I'm supposed to, but I look him in the eyes and I see it -
In the middle of everything he's feeling -
Even after we fought -
Even after I doubted him -
Even after I hurt him -
I see how much he loves me.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men


“Usually when a man calls a woman a bitch," a voice calls over from a cart pulling up near us at the edge of camp,"its because she's doing something right.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men


“Who will remember Todd?
Who will remember what he did?
Todd -
Todd -
And my heart breaks even more -

Breaks forever -

And I fall to my knees in the snow and sand -
And I yell out, wordless and empty -

And I drop the weapon.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men


“And you," he says, "you need to talk to your boy." He lifts my chin. "And if he needs saving, then you save him. Isn't that what you told me you did for each other?"
I let go a few more tears but then I nod. "Over and over again.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men


“War makes monsters of men, you once said to me Todd. Well, so does too much knowledge. Too much knowledge of your fellow man, too much knowledge of his weakness, his pathetic greed and vanity, and how laughably easy it is to control him.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men



“You went up a girl and came down a woman.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men


“Cuz that's it -
That's the nasty, nasty secret of war -
When yer winning -
When yer winning, it's effing thrilling -”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men


“Viola?
Keep calling for me–

And I’ll keep searching for you–

And I’ll find you–

You bet yer life on it–

I’ll find you–

Keep calling for me, Viola–

Cuz here I come.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men


“It's always darkest before the dawn, Todd.”

I look at him, baffled. “No, it ain't! What kinda stupid saying is that? It's always lightest before the dawn!”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men


“What a sad thing men are. Can’t do nothing good without being so weak we have to mess it up. Can’t build something up without tearing it
down.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men



“No," I say firmly. "If you ever doubt anything here, if you ever not know what to think or who to trust, you trust Todd, okay? You remember that.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men


“Because even the one you hate leaves an absence when they go.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men


“You are keeping the possibility [of peace] open. No wise leader would do anything less”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men


“I'll do it, Todd," I whisper. "I'll come with you."
And he doesn't say anything, just squeezes my hand harder and brings it up to his face like he wants to breathe me in.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men


Submit! Juliet's Joy screeches underneath him at no one in particular.
"I've got to get a new horse," the Mayor mutters.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men



“This is what war does. Right here, in my hands. This is war.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men


“Todd!” she says again but this time in a way that asks me to look at her and I do and she stops Angharrad at the edge of the square and she’s looking at me, looking right into my eyes–

And I read her–

And I know exactly what she’s thinking–

And my Noise and my heart and my head fill up fit to burst, fill up like I’m gonna explode–

Cuz she’s saying–

She’s saying with her eyes and her face and her whole self–

“I know,” I say back to her, my voice husky. “Me, too.”

And then I turn to the Mayor and I’m filled with her, with her love for me and my love for her–

And it makes me big as an effing mountain–

And I take it and I slam all of it into the Mayor–”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Monsters of Men


Video

About the author

Patrick Ness
Born place: in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, The United States
Born date January 1, 1971
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Life is hard enough as it is without choosing someone difficult to share it with”
― Greg Behrendt, quote from He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys


“She was terrified of everything, and terrified to show it.”
― David Foster Wallace, quote from Brief Interviews with Hideous Men


“Dogs can never speak the language of humans, and humans can never speak the language of dogs. But many dogs can understand almost every word humans say, while humans seldom learn to recognize more than half a dozen barks, if that. And barks are only a small part of the dog language. A wagging tail can mean so many things. Humans know that it means a dog is pleased, but not what a dog is saying about his pleasedness. (Really, it is very clever of humans to understand a wagging tail at all, as they have no tails of their own.) Then there are the snufflings and sniffings, the pricking of ears—all meaning different things. And many, many words are expressed by a dog’s eyes.”
― Dodie Smith, quote from The 101 Dalmatians


“This is a labyrinth of wickedness and destruction and pleasure and, above all, love, because in the end it's all just one big, mind-bending love story, isn't it?”
― Ted Dekker, quote from White: The Great Pursuit


“Why don’t you focus on where you’re going and less on where you came from?”
― Amy Harmon, quote from A Different Blue


Interesting books

The Country of the Pointed Firs
(2.3K)
The Country of the P...
by Sarah Orne Jewett
Stray
(2.3K)
The Everlasting Man
(5.6K)
The Everlasting Man
by G.K. Chesterton
Babylon's Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo
(2.3K)
Babylon's Ark: The I...
by Lawrence Anthony
Twice Born
(3.9K)
Twice Born
by Margaret Mazzantini
The Death of the Heart
(5.3K)
The Death of the Hea...
by Elizabeth Bowen

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.