Quotes from The Shadow Throne

“Nobody gives you respect in this life. You must take it, you must earn it, and then you must hold it sacred, because no matter how hard respect is to attain, it can be lost in an instant.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“Villains and plots and enemies are simple things to me. But friendships are complicated, and love is harder still. It has wounded me deeper than a sword ever could.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“One of the greatest kings?” My smile widened. “That’s it? Why not the greatest?”

“This will only make your arrogance worse, I’m sure.”

“Really? Do you think that’s possible?”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“Avenia thinks they're battling a king. I doubt they're prepared to fight a boy who thinks childish pranks are practical strategies for war."

"Aren't they?”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“The last thing I needed was rational thought.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“I follow my orders without question, as a good soldier would. You ask the same from your soldiers.'
'No, I ask them to be good people. That way if they follow my orders, I will know I am doing the right thing.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“It would take entire lifetimes for the men of Carthya to deserve their women.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“Let the winds blow, lad
Let fall the deep snow.
Let the stars fall, lad
We'll answer the call.

Let the dark come, lad
Ask not where it's from.
After the fight, lad
We'll see morning's light”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“Don't make this a fight."

"I won't, but you make everything a fight.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“It's your storm, and the future of us all depends on you now. So who are you? Sage, an orphan boy who cares only for himself? Or the undisciplined, rebellious prince your father sent away? Life has tested your resilience and strength and willpower, and you have succeeded in ways nobody ever thought possible. But the storm has never been worse, and it will either destroy you, or define you. When everything is taken from you, can you still stand before us as Jaron, the Ascendant King of Carthya?”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“if you hurt deeply, then it means you love deeply too. love is powerful thing, Jaron. In the end, love will help you win this war."
I chuckled, "that'd be a fine new strategy, I think. When the enemy wields a sword against me, I'll simply express my love for them. They'll be so shocked, they'll collapse on the spot and the victory will be mine."
"I daresay you will be the first to claim victory that way”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“He’s no king,” I said. “Rulers aren’t made just because they sit on the throne. A true king serves his people, protects them, and sees to their happiness if he can.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“Kippenger suppressed a grin -- I could've sworn he did. Without looking at anyone, he said, "Jargon wrote, 'You'll get nothing from me, ever, you dog-breath, rotted corpse of a king.'"
Vargas flowered at me. In return, I smiled and looked around the room, rather proud of myself for that.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“Once we were alone, Imogen unfolded her hand. In it, she held the key to the chains. I had passed it to her while we were in the embrace. Roden noticed it and scowled. "You gave her the key and not me? I could be free already."
I smiled at him. "Yes, but I wasn't going to kiss you."
"Fair enough”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“You made the right choice," Roden whispered. "Though you did choose his name rather quickly.
"He has a skinny neck. He'd have died faster." (Jaron)
"That's why you chose me? Because it'll take me longer to die?"
"Yes, Roden, that's exactly why."
"Enough bickering!" (Vargan)”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“You were wrong, commander. Whatever chains you try to place on me, I will always, always, rise from them. I'm not buying my freedom, because you never owned it. But I am taking it back, for me, and for my country.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“With a grin, I told her, "I'll have more than ten minutes' notice that this battle is coming. In that way, this might be the most prepared I've ever been.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“I risked my life for you. So don’t you ever again disrespect the risks I took by claiming you weren’t worth it!”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“... but eventually I nudged the old bandages in the corner toward me. Once I had them in my hands, I unwound them to their full length.
"What are you doing with those?" Roden asked, "You're not injured."
"The vigils are forbidden from harming me tonight. Vargan was very clear that I wasn't to come out tomorrow looking like a martyr." My grin widened." But don't worry, Avenia already fell for this trick once before. They love it."
"That's your trick?" Roden asked. "Can't you take this seriously?"
"If you understood what Vargan's men did to me, you'd know exactly how serious I am."
"Hush now," I said. "Imogen needs to sleep, I need to think and you need to... let me think.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“I realized that I couldn't expect them to think better of me that I thought of myself. So if I believed I was too young or stupid or inexperienced to be a captain, then that's all I would ever be.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“I can’t follow behind Terrowic’s horse,” I protested. “The smell will be unbearable.” “All horses smell the same,” Kippenger replied. But I eyed Terrowic. “I wasn’t talking about the horse.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“Roden wasn't convinced. "How big of a fuss will this require?"
[Jaron] grinned. "Catastrophic levels of bad behavior Trust me, it'll be fun."
"You have a sick idea of fun." Roden's cool expression seemed less than enthusiastic. "When we do this, will they hurt us?"
That made me sigh. "You're the captain of my guard, aren't you? Surely you can take a few hits by now. Besides, the pain will be forgotten once the ropes go around our necks"
"I don't want a rope going around my neck, Jaron! That's the part you need to figure out.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“I never denied being a fool, that's the difference between us.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“I can't remember a minute since we met when I haven't been in love with you.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“Vargan grabbed the treaty and squinted to read it. While he worked at it, I sat on the desk, crushing a corner of the papers beneath me and said, “I wouldn’t sign so much as my toenail clippings over to you.” Kippenger pushed his way forward and scanned the treaty. “What did he write?” Vargan asked. Kippenger suppressed a grin – I could’ve sworn he did. Without looking at anyone, he said, “Jaron wrote, ‘You’ll get nothing from me, ever, you dog-breath, rotted corpse of a king.’” Vargan glowered at me. In return, I smiled and looked around the room, rather proud of myself for that.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“Nobody gives you respect in this life. You must take it, you must earn it, and then you must hold it sacred, because no matter how hard respect is to attain, it can be lost in an instant." I nodded my head toward the garrison. "Go get it, Roden. People won't follow a leader who doesn't know where he's going. Show them what you do.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

“He talked whenever he was nervous, or excited, or bored, or for that matter, awake.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, quote from The Shadow Throne

About the author

Popular quotes

“And I couldn't help but think about the time during the operation when there was nothing in my check: when they removed my heart, and before they put the other hear tin. When I was connected to the heart and lunch machine. When I was technically dead....

But I wasn't dead now...”
― Loretta Ellsworth, quote from In a Heartbeat

“At the door, Audrey called, "Are you coming?"
"No, just breathing hard, love." He glanced at her and was rewarded by an outraged glare, followed by, "Oh, my God!”
― Ilona Andrews, quote from Fate's Edge

“Thomas (his middle name) is a fifth-grader at the highly competitive P.S. 334, the Anderson School on West 84th in New York City. Slim as they get, Thomas recently had his long sandy-blond hair cut short to look like the new James Bond (he took a photo of Daniel Craig to the barber). Unlike Bond, he prefers a uniform of cargo pants and a T-shirt emblazoned with a photo of one of his heroes: Frank Zappa. Thomas hangs out with five friends from the Anderson School. They are “the smart kids.” Thomas is one of them, and he likes belonging. Since Thomas could walk, he has constantly heard that he’s smart. Not just from his parents but from any adult who has come in contact with this precocious child. When he applied to Anderson for kindergarten, his intelligence was statistically confirmed. The school is reserved for the top 1 percent of all applicants, and an IQ test is required. Thomas didn’t just score in the top 1 percent. He scored in the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent. But as Thomas has progressed through school, this self-awareness that he’s smart hasn’t always translated into fearless confidence when attacking his schoolwork. In fact, Thomas’s father noticed just the opposite. “Thomas didn’t want to try things he wouldn’t be successful at,” his father says. “Some things came very quickly to him, but when they didn’t, he gave up almost immediately, concluding, ‘I’m not good at this.’ ” With no more than a glance, Thomas was dividing the world into two—things he was naturally good at and things he wasn’t. For instance, in the early grades, Thomas wasn’t very good at spelling, so he simply demurred from spelling out loud. When Thomas took his first look at fractions, he balked. The biggest hurdle came in third grade. He was supposed to learn cursive penmanship, but he wouldn’t even try for weeks. By then, his teacher was demanding homework be completed in cursive. Rather than play catch-up on his penmanship, Thomas refused outright. Thomas’s father tried to reason with him. “Look, just because you’re smart doesn’t mean you don’t have to put out some effort.” (Eventually, Thomas mastered cursive, but not without a lot of cajoling from his father.) Why does this child, who is measurably at the very top of the charts, lack confidence about his ability to tackle routine school challenges? Thomas is not alone. For a few decades, it’s been noted that a large percentage of all gifted students (those who score in the top 10 percent on aptitude tests) severely underestimate their own abilities. Those afflicted with this lack of perceived competence adopt lower standards for success and expect less of themselves. They underrate the importance of effort, and they overrate how much help they need from a parent.”
― Po Bronson, quote from NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children

“These belief systems have to be dropped. Then understanding arises; then readiness to explore, then innocence, arises. Then you are surrounded by a sense of mystery, awe, wonder. Then life is no longer a known thing, it is an adventure. It is so mysterious that you can go on exploring; there is no end to it. And you never create any belief, you remain in a state of not-knowing. On that not-knowing state Sufis insist very much, and so do Zen masters.”
― Osho, quote from Intuition: Knowing Beyond Logic

“This wasn’t about who liked who; this was a human being who did not deserve what happened to him.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from Dead of Night

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.