Quotes from Rot & Ruin

Jonathan Maberry ·  458 pages

Rating: (29.6K votes)


“There are moments that define a person's whole life. Moments in which everything they are and everything they may possibly become balance on a single decision. Life and death, hope and despair, victory and failure teeter precariously on the decision made at that moment. These are moments ungoverned by happenstance, untroubled by luck. These are the moments in which a person earns the right to live, or not.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin


“Often it was the most unlikely people who found within themselves a spark of something greater. It was probably always there, but most people are never tested, and they go through their whole lives without ever knowing that when things are at their worst, they are at their best.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin


“Closure isn't closure until someone's ready to close the door.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin


“There are moments that define a person's whole life. MOMENTS in which everything they are and everything they may possibly become hinge on a single decision.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin


“Revenge is an infection of the spirit.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin



“They won the war but lost the peace,”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin


“The truth is the truth. What changes is what we know about it and what we're willing to believe.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin


“Everyone carries around his own monsters.---Richard Pryor”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin


“Chong said, 'Do yourself a favor, Morg. Next time you're staring at a girl's boobs, look up. You'll be shocked to learn it, but there's going to be a face up there. Nose, mouth, eyes. And behind the eyes is an actual person.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin


“I don't ever want to live in a world where something like mercy...or maybe it's compassion...is the wrong choice.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin



“Suffering is easier to endure when shared.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin


“You have to keep your mind as wide-open as your eyes, because almost nothing is what it seems.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin


“There was a sliver of moon and a splash of stars, and the light outlined her face and glistened on the tears that ran like mercury down her cheeks.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin


“Is he nuts?"
"I think the expression used to be 'touched by God'."
"So that would be a yes.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin


“This one looks good,” said Chong over breakfast the next morning.
Benny read out loud from the paper. “‘Pit Thrower.’ What’s that?”
“I don’t know,” Chong said with a mouth full of toast. “I think it has something to do with barbecuing.”
It didn’t.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin



“Point is, people lie a lot. Sometimes out of habit. Not many people are good at telling the truth.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin


“It's just that I'm fifteen, and I have this crazy idea I might actually have a life in front of me. I don't see how it's going to do me much good to believe that the world is over and this is just an epilogue.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin


“Things said and done innocently should never be used as weapons.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin


“She wept for the hurt that he owned, a hurt she could never hope to remove.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin


“They held each other and wept as the night closed its fist around their tiny shelter, and the world below them seethed with killers both living and dead.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin



“The world is bigger and harder to understand than you think... You have to keep your mind as wide-open as your eyes, because almost nothing is what it seems.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin


“Boy, there are people who conquered half the world, slaughtered whole populations, wiped cultures off the face of the planet, and you know what history calls them? Heroes! Kings, presidents, champions, explorers. You think America was settled by white men because the Indians invited us her? No, we took this land because we were stronger, and that's how every page of human history is written. It's just our nature. We're a predator species, top of the food chain. Survival of the fittest is written in our blood, it's stenciled on every gene of our DNA. The strong take and the strong make, and the weak are there only to help them do it. End of story.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin


“We had the whole 'when you assume you make an ass out of you and me' speech in school.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin


“You see the fence as something keeping the zoms out. I don't. I see it as the thing that pens us in. We're trapped here. Trapped isn't "alive." Trapped isn't "safe." And it isn't "free.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin


“We let fear rule us and guide us, and that's never the way to win. Never. A long time ago a great man once said that "we have nothing to fear but fear itself." That was never truer than during First Night. It was fear that caused people to panic and abandon defenses. It was fear that made them squabble instead of working together. It was fear that inspired them to take actions they would never have taken if they'd given it a minute's more cool thought.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin



“He knew that these creatures were dead, that they were reanimated echoes who wore the disguise of the people they had once been, but Tom's words rang in his mind. They used to be people. How could he strike them? How could he hurt them? Children, women, old people. Lost souls.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin


“Even though a lot of people died, a lot of heroes were born. Often it was the most unlikely of people who found within themselves a spark of something greater. It was probably always there, but most people are never tested, and they go through their whole lives without ever knowing that when things are at their worst, they are at their best.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin


“What could I do? I was afraid he'd point at me and say 'Him!,' and then lightning bolts would hit me or something"
-Chong”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Rot & Ruin


Video

About the author

Jonathan Maberry
Born place: in Philadelphia
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“When you resort to violence to prove a point, you’ve just experienced a profound failure of imagination.”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from The Toughest Indian in the World


“For it is given that no man can do it all, that each must carry the future forward a few years and then pass the message on to him who follows.”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from Jubal Sackett


“This power of choice means that we are not merely a product of our past or of our genes; we are not a product of how other people treat us. They unquestionably influence us, but they do not determine us. We are self-determining through our choices. If we have given away our present to the past, do we need to give away our future also?”
― Stephen R. Covey, quote from The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness


“Another sign of those with an “elder brother” spirit is joyless, fear-based compliance. The older son boasts of his obedience to his father, but lets his underlying motivation and attitude slip out when he says, “All these years I’ve been slaving for you.” To be sure, being faithful to any commitment involves a certain amount of dutifulness. Often we don’t feel like doing what we ought to do, but we do it anyway, for the sake of integrity. But the elder brother shows that his obedience to his father is nothing but duty all the way down. There is no joy or love, no reward in just seeing his father pleased. In the same way, elder brothers are fastidious in their compliance to ethical norms, and in fulfillment of all traditional family, community, and civic responsibilities. But it is a slavish, joyless drudgery. The word “slave” has strong overtones of being forced or pushed rather than drawn or attracted. A slave works out of fear—fear of consequences imposed by force. This gets to the root of what drives an elder brother. Ultimately, elder brothers live good lives out of fear, not out of joy and love.”
― Timothy J. Keller, quote from The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith


“Scott: I don't think I'm ready to be a grown-up.
Kim: I don't think you are either, buddy. But hey, you'll get it. It just takes practice.”
― Bryan Lee O'Malley, quote from Scott Pilgrim, Volume 6: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour


Interesting books

Genome: the Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters
(20.3K)
Genome: the Autobiog...
by Matt Ridley
From the Corner of His Eye
(26.1K)
From the Corner of H...
by Dean Koontz
The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence
(20.9K)
The Gift of Fear: Su...
by Gavin de Becker
Gateway
(33.9K)
Gateway
by Frederik Pohl
Ferdydurke
(7.8K)
Ferdydurke
by Witold Gombrowicz
Theatre
(5.1K)
Theatre
by W. Somerset Maugham

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.