Marie Lu

Quotes by Marie Lu

• In the mirror, I look the same. But I am a different person inside.I am a prodigy who knows the truth. I know exactly what I'm going to do.

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• Your strengths might make you hard to approach, and might make your words sound uglier than what you actually mean, but they also make people look up to you.

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• So, when I thought June might take you away, I didn't know what to do. I felt like she was taking everything that mattered to me. I felt like she was taking away from you all the things that I didn't have. That's why I'm sorry. I'm sorry because you shouldn't have to be everything to me. I had you, but I'd forgotten that I had myself too.

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• I laugh at him, and behind us, several Inquisitors stir in surprise at the sound. Only Magiano can coax joy out of me so easily.

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• Few people ever kill for the right reasons.

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• Through the whirlwind, I hear my father's harsh whi

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• I laugh with him. I imagine mixing poison into his tea, then watching his face turn purple and anguished; I picture myself leaning over him, looking on patiently, with my chin resting in my hands, admiring his dying, writhing body as I count out the minutes.

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• No. I cannot let him control me.You are mine, Adelina, Enzo growls. Turn your powers against your own fleet.

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• Enzo inherited a throne. Giulietta relied on her royal blood. Queen Maeve rules Beldain because she was born to it. But true rulers are not born. We are made.

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• I have spent my entire life thinking of the Inquisitors as things, soulless creatures. But they are just men. Men can be swayed, and I have the power to do it.

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• I belong to no one. On this night, I swear to you that I will rise above everything you've ever taught me. I will become a force that this world has never known. I will come into such power that none will dare hurt me again.

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• You have goodness in your heart, but your darkness overwhelms it all; your desire to hurt, destroy, and avenge is more powerful than your desire to love, help, and light the way.

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• The king is dead. Long live the queen.

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• You cannot harden your heart to the future just because of your past. You cannot use cruelty against yourself to justify cruelty to others.

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• My heart's been torn wide open, just like I feared it would be, and I have no willpower to close it back up.

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• Why can't I be like that? Why can't I be the father who just shrugs off the love of his daughter? Why can't I be the Lead Inquisitor who enjoys watching his pleading victims burn at the stake? Why can't I be the one who befriends a lonely, lost girl and then casts her out? Why can't I be the one to strike first, to hit so early and with such fury that my enemies cower before they can ever think of turning on me? What is so great about being good?

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• June has never looked more beautiful than she does now, unadorned and honest, vulnerable yet invincible.

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• We might not return from this voyage. None of us. We might all lay down our lives when we reach the end, and not ever know whether our sacrifice changed anything for the better.—"It will be for the better," Magiano replies. "We cannot just die, not without trying. Not without fighting.""Do you really believe that?" I ask. "Why are we doing this, anyway? To preserve my own life, and yours" but what has the world ever done for us in order to deserve our sacrifice?"Magiano's brows furrow for a moment, then he leans in closer. "We exist because this world exists. It's a responsibility of ours, whether or not anyone will remember it.— He nods at me. —And they will. Because we will return and make sure of it.

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• If you want to rebel, rebel from inside the system.That's much more powerful than rebelling outside the system.

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• Don't be afraid,— he says with a half smile. "You're with me." His hand tightens around my wrist, tugging me down again playfully. And this time, I feel safe enough to take a deep breath of my own and do as he says.

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