“Let me tell you something that I learned from my youth, from a sage called the Road Runner. You can walk off a cliff and the air will hold you. Only, don't look down.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“Did you know, the man who invented the atomic bomb once said that keeping peace through deterrence was like keeping two scorpions in one bottle? You can picture that, right? They know they can't sting without getting stung. They can't kill without getting killed. And you'd think that would stop them." He gave the book another boot, and it flipped closed with a snick. "But it doesn't." He looked up and his eyes were the color of Cherenkov radiation, the color of an orbital weapon. "You've got a bit of nerve, little scorpion. All I did was invent the bottle.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“No, blowing up cities doesn't work, not in the long term. You've got to find something that the people in charge aren't willing to give up. A price they aren't willing to pay.
Which leads us to Talis's first rule for stopping wars: make it personal.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“I'm not a cruel man. I mean, technically I'm not a man at all.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“There was a space inside me, cupped and still. It was small as cupped hands; it was large as the sky. It was untouched and it was touch itself. It was empty and it was full. I held love there, like a treasure. I held my own name.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“You made tools of us. Have you never considered: the thing of a tool is that anyone may use it.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“The root of holiness, it turns out, is to do things deliberately.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“I wished for impossible things. It was never going to have been a fairy tale for us. There are no fairy tales about two princesses.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“and of course people started shooting, because that’s what passes for problem-solving among humans. See, guys, this is why you can’t have nice things. It”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“It's a strange word, "twilight." It makes me think of endings, of things done or left undone, of things over, of evening. But there are two twilights in every day, and one of them does not foretell darkness, but dawn.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“My mother wanted out of politics. And I'll tell you, she got as far out as she could. Down nigh the Licking River."
"The Licking—" said Da-Xia, as if she couldn't believe her luck.
Elián scrubbed a hand over his face. "The south fork."
"Have you at this point heard all the jokes about that?" asked Grego.
"I'll bet there are more," said Thandi.
"Shut up," said Elián, majestically.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“Then he said: "Y'all really took that Socratic method shit to heart."
"The benefits," I intoned, "of a Precepture education ."
"Yes," deadpanned Grego. "We were raised on Latin and Greek instead of love.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“Elián, of course, missed it. "How advanced do you need your murders to be? Because I saw Grego die. It didn't look all that hard."
Talis smiled. "Keep snarling at me, Elián Palnik, and we'll see how hard I can make it.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“He was going to die. He deserved a chance to do it on his terms. No matter what it cost us.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“How useless are guns against those who are fearless. How foolish, to set force against innocence. Their own strength made them small. And”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“It was strange. We were from opposing nations that were at the brink of war. We were days away from dying for that war. And yet I would have done almost anything for Elián.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“Stop the press," said Talis. "Ha! I haven't heard that in centuries. 'Stop the presses!' But do." The smile was sharp-edged. "Or I'll have your head on pikes.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“I- I. Sorry. This is what my father would call a fucking unfortunate image.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“Cranes traditionally represent a wish for peace. I closed my eyes and wished. Uselessly. Hard.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“Even as the nannies came into heat—one could tell because they grew louder than roosters and started to sexually assault the water barrels—I”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“Why would I come back to you?”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“It was once thought that if you died in your dreams you died in life. Thanks to dreamlock, we know this is not true. Most people can die at least six times before something them gives way.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“Creemos estúpidamente que, por alguna razón, un acto criminal debe ser más premeditado y deliberado que un acto inocuo. En realidad no hay diferencia. Los actos poseen una elasticidad de la que los juicios éticos carecen.”
― Roberto Saviano, quote from Gomorrah
“Trent’s expression became empty, and I pulled away, hating myself.
“Please don’t close up,” I begged, but his hands had fallen away, and I took them in my own. “Talk to me.”
― Kim Harrison, quote from The Undead Pool
“Because I kissed you? Seriously? You only like me because I’m a good kisser? That’s it. We’re not doing this. I’m not letting you risk your life just
because you can’t think with your upstairs brain.”
“No, you twit.” Ryan laughed. “Because you kissed me that day. I expected the ice queen and got a funny, go-with-the-flow girl that didn’t care what
anyone thought about her. A girl willing to stir up gossip just so that I could win a date with someone else.
“You didn’t have to help me. In fact, you probably should have been insulted, but you weren’t.
You kissed me, you smiled, and then you wished me good luck. No one’s ever surprised me like that. I couldn’t figure out why you did it, and I just
had to get to know you after that.” I had no idea that stupid kiss had that kind of effect on him. Charged him up like a battery, sure, but do all that? All
this time I really thought it was just the superkissing that kept him coming back. I looked down at my lunch, feeling a little ashamed of my lack of faith
in him, but Ryan couldn’t stop there.
Oh, no, not Ryan Miller.
“After that day, every time I was with you I got brief glimpses of the real Jamie, the one who is dying to break out, and she was this fun, relaxed,
smart, funny, caring girl. Finding out the truth about you only made you that much more incredible. You’re so strong. You’ve gone through so much,
you’re going through so much, but you never stop trying. You’re amazing.” I was surprised when I felt Ryan’s hand lift my chin up. I didn’t want to look
at him, I knew what would happen to my heart if I did, but I couldn’t stop myself. I craved him too much.
When we made eye contact, his face lit up and he whispered, “I love you, Jamie Baker.” It came out of nowhere, and it stole the breath from me,
leaving me speechless. Ryan stared at me, just waiting for some kind of reaction, and then I was the one who broke the no-kissing rule.
It wasn’t my fault. He totally cheated! Like anyone could resist Ryan Miller when he’s touching your face and saying he loves you?
I threw myself at him so fast that I startled him for a change, and he was the one who had to pull me off him when his hair started to stick up.
“Sorry,” I breathed as he pulled away.
“Don’t be sorry,” he teased. “Just stop.”
“Sorry,” I said again when I noticed that his leg was now bouncing under the table.
“Yeah. Looks like I don’t get to sleep through economics today.”
“On the bright side, Coach could make you run laps all practice long and you’d be fine.”
― Kelly Oram, quote from Being Jamie Baker
“We will have to repent, in this generation, not merely for the hateful words and actions of bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good,’ King said,”
― Ken Follett, quote from Edge of Eternity
“Bacamarte evidenced neither vanity nor modesty; he listened in silence, as impassive as a stone god.”
― Machado de Assis, quote from O Alienista
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.