“People were messy. They were defined not only by what they'd done, but by what they would have done, under different circumstances, molded as much by their regrets as their actions, choices they stood by and those they wished they could undo. Of course, there was no going back - time only moved forward - but people could change.
For worse.
And for better.
It wasn't easy. The world was complicated. Life was hard. And so often, living hurt.
So make it worth the pain.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“There were two kinds of monsters, the kind that hunted the streets and the kind that lived in your head. She could fight the first, but the second was more dangerous. It was always, always, always a step ahead.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“I know it hurts," she said. "So make it worth the pain.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“Mourning was its own kind of music—the sound of so many hearts, of so many breaths, of so many standing together.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“I didn't stop fighting," he said, the words so low he worried Kate wouldn't hear them, but she did. "I just got tired of losing. It's easier this way."
"Of course it's easier," said Kate. "that doesn't mean it's right.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“I know it hurts," she said. "So make it worth the pain."
"How?"
"By not letting go," she said softly. "By holding on, to anger, to hope, or whatever it is that keeps you fighting."
You, he thought.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“I’m willing to walk in darkness if it keeps humans in the light.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“I spent a long time playing that game,” she said. “Pretending there were other versions of this world, where other versions of me got to live, and be happy, even if I didn’t, and you know what? It’s lonely as hell. Maybe there are other versions, other lives, but this one’s ours. It’s all we’ve got.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“August stared at her, aghast. "Did I know that kissing you would bring your soul to surface? That - THAT - would have the same effect as pain or music? No, I must have missed that lesson."
She stared at him, agape. "August, was that sarcasm?”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“Do you ever wonder why music brings a soul to surface? What makes beauty work as well as pain?”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“I am a man, not a movement,” he said. “But if a movement is what it takes to end this war, then I will play my part.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“We do it, Jackson, because compassion must be louder than pride.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“Every weakness is a place to slide a knife.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“Are you afraid of your own shadow?”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“There was a strange place, between knowing and not knowing. A place where things could live in the back of your head without weighing down your heart.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“Monsters,” he said slowly, “all want the same thing: to feed. They are united by that common goal, while you are all divided by your morals and your pride. What do I think? I think that if you cannot come together, you cannot win.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“I don’t know who I am, and who I’m not, I don’t know who I’m supposed to be, and I miss who I was; I miss it every day, Kate, but there’s no place for that August anymore. No place for the version of me who wanted to go to school, and have a life, and feel human, because this world doesn’t need that August. It needs someone else.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“A Corsai, a Malchai, and a Sunai walk into a bar—
Everyone groaned, including August.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“Kate wondered who was more addicted to their high, serial killers or coffee addicts.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“Sight is an important thing, August. Without it, our minds invent, and the things they invent are almost always worse than the truth. It’s important that they see us. See you. It’s important that they know you’re on their side.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“If Verity's sins were knives, quick and vicious, then Prosperity's were poison. Slow, insidious, but just as deadly.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“Oh, the perks of being perpetually underestimated.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“She looked almost bored, but he knew it was an act, because everything about Kate had always been an act— the bravado, the cold air, all the aspects of her father arranged into a shield, a mask.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“...something more than the sum of its parts-”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” she whispered. “Nice juicy human heart.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“As she taped up her latest cuts, she wondered if, somewhere, there was a version of herself having fun. Feet up on the back of a theater seat while movie monsters slunk out of the shadows, and people in the audience screamed because it was fun to be afraid when you knew you were safe.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“Come out, little Katherine, he’d say. Let’s play a game.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“Everyone was made of sounds, and August had learned hers the first day they met.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“Funny, how simple things became when you didn’t have a choice.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
“And Alice drove her hand into Kate’s chest.”
― Victoria Schwab, quote from Our Dark Duet
Victoria Schwab
See more on GoodReads
“Before I built a wall I’d ask to know what I was walling in, or walling out.”
― Blake Crouch, quote from Wayward
“The key point is that these patterns, while mostly stable, are not permanent: certain environmental experiences can add or subtract methyls and acetyls, changing those patterns. In effect this etches a memory of what the organism was doing or experiencing into its cells—a crucial first step for any Lamarck-like inheritance. Unfortunately, bad experiences can be etched into cells as easily as good experiences. Intense emotional pain can sometimes flood the mammal brain with neurochemicals that tack methyl groups where they shouldn’t be. Mice that are (however contradictory this sounds) bullied by other mice when they’re pups often have these funny methyl patterns in their brains. As do baby mice (both foster and biological) raised by neglectful mothers, mothers who refuse to lick and cuddle and nurse. These neglected mice fall apart in stressful situations as adults, and their meltdowns can’t be the result of poor genes, since biological and foster children end up equally histrionic. Instead the aberrant methyl patterns were imprinted early on, and as neurons kept dividing and the brain kept growing, these patterns perpetuated themselves. The events of September 11, 2001, might have scarred the brains of unborn humans in similar ways. Some pregnant women in Manhattan developed post-traumatic stress disorder, which can epigenetically activate and deactivate at least a dozen genes, including brain genes. These women, especially the ones affected during the third trimester, ended up having children who felt more anxiety and acute distress than other children when confronted with strange stimuli. Notice that these DNA changes aren’t genetic, because the A-C-G-T string remains the same throughout. But epigenetic changes are de facto mutations; genes might as well not function. And just like mutations, epigenetic changes live on in cells and their descendants. Indeed, each of us accumulates more and more unique epigenetic changes as we age. This explains why the personalities and even physiognomies of identical twins, despite identical DNA, grow more distinct each year. It also means that that detective-story trope of one twin committing a murder and both getting away with it—because DNA tests can’t tell them apart—might not hold up forever. Their epigenomes could condemn them. Of course, all this evidence proves only that body cells can record environmental cues and pass them on to other body cells, a limited form of inheritance. Normally when sperm and egg unite, embryos erase this epigenetic information—allowing you to become you, unencumbered by what your parents did. But other evidence suggests that some epigenetic changes, through mistakes or subterfuge, sometimes get smuggled along to new generations of pups, cubs, chicks, or children—close enough to bona fide Lamarckism to make Cuvier and Darwin grind their molars.”
― Sam Kean, quote from The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code
“…only in the few universes that are like ours would intelligent beings develop and ask the question: “Why is the universe the way we see it?” The answer is then simple: If it had been any different, we would not be here!”
― Stephen Hawking, quote from A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes
“I’d like to quote the lyrics of Rodgers and Hammerstein—something that’s extremely easy to do when you’re in a library near 782.14 and all those magnificent Broadway show tunes—‘I flit, I float, I fleetly flee, I fly!’ ”
― Chris Grabenstein, quote from Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics
“Asa-zisa „psihologie pentru mase” bate intr-una moneda pe „asumarea responsabilitatii”, dar nu sunt decat vorbe goale: este extraordinar de greu, ba chiar terifiant, sa accepti ideea ca tu si numai tu esti acela care iti construiesti viata, felul in care o traiesti. Ca urmare, problema in psihoterapie consta intotdeauna in a sti cum sa treci de la o apreciere in plan intelectual, care se dovedeste ineficace, a unui adevar despre tine insuti la un mod saul altul de a-l simti in plan emotional. Abia din clipa in care terapia mobilizeaza emotii profunde, incepe sa devina o forta redutabila in favoarea schimbarii.”
― Irvin D. Yalom, quote from Love's Executioner: & Other Tales of Psychotherapy
Wildwood Imperium
Puddle Jumping
Howl, Kaddish and Ot...
White Bird in a Bliz...
The One Plus One
Dystopia Boy: The Un...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.
