Red Rising Saga Quotes

"Alas, the frailty of words. Steel, be thou my tongue."

"I love Sevro to death, and he is fundamentally a good friend, but he feels no need to be a good person when dealing with enemies."

"We’re Pixies. You had Atlas and you let him live. We had Lysander and we let him live. We had Apollonius and we let him live.” He snorts. “It’s like we want to lose."

"They did smell like bacon, Darrow. The Howlers. I lost them all."

"It’s a pretty dream. But your mother was the dreamer, boyo. I’m not. I’m just a savage who can’t let things go. Something tells me you might be the same. I know the path I walk might leave you alone. I’m a bastard for that. I know. It eats me up knowing you’ll probably hate me for it. But fortune ain’t kind to those who conceive revolution. The generation that lights the fuse usually gets buried in the rubble. My only hope is you’ll build something of the rubble, son. Maybe a monument, eh? I’d like that. A big one on the Lion Steps for me and your mum. And a family for yourself. A whole brood to climb on our statue and be amazed at what big toes their grandparents had."

"We have a fleet. We have weapons, but we do not have a general. It is time for you to fill your father’s helm. Come be our god of war."

"the Raa have entered your war. They have proven to my council what I have long argued, there is no Rim. No Core. Only the high and the low. The oppressors and the oppressed. The high have united. If the low do not, I believe the dream of Ares and Eo, our dream, will die."

"Guilt makes men do very rash things."

"We achieve perfection first by acknowledging our failures. We increase understanding first by recognizing our ignorance."

"I was used as a bus driver for a spy I’m in love with who I thought rescued me because she thought I was a hero, whose protégé chose to become a tyrant and shoot my best friend’s protégé in the head—whom I find out was the paragon of honor.” He smiles. “I’m over the moon, goodman."

"Of all the people to clone, it had to be the creepiest."

"If you wish to be repaired, you must first be broken"

"Nightmares can be such beastly refrains,” he says. I grunt. “I had nightmares as a child, and then I woke into one every single day. Such is the life of a Pink. I never could tell which I dreaded more, the nightmares or the reality. I suppose it was the waking hours. In the dreams, there was always the hope it’d be a pleasant one. That’s why I admire Reds so much. They dread dreams more. At least in the waking hours they can struggle instead of merely suffer."

"The hardest thing about being a Pink must be knowing that you can never be trusted. You are made to lie so well that the rest of us can never be sure."

"The worlds are very big. The people in them…and the systems…well they are very cold and very uncaring. I know what it is to be small. To be…stepped on. There’s dignity in holding up your hands against the boot. But it crushes all the same."

"I love my husband, but even I fear a world where we rely on the benevolence of a person with so much individual power. If I had that power, even I would become a tyrant. How could I not? There is so much evil to make right."

"When she saw what she built, Agala wept. But unlike Oppenheimer, who opened Pandora’s box and unleashed destruction, she opened the box and slammed down the lid as soon as she saw the gods creeping out. Well, she tried to, at least."

"Sarcasm never inspired anyone."

"if the gods have taught us anything, it is that prescience always comes with a price. Odin gave up one of his eyes in exchange for wisdom."

"Daughter, you are my heart,” he replies. “I trust you like I trust the vaulting sky. I look up, and there it is. Different shades, perhaps, but always there. Always true."

"All hope is true until it is proven false. And even then with ingenuity it may be not"

"Mother, your inheritance was guilt. Father’s was surrender. Because of you, because of Father, mine is struggle. That is better than guilt. It is better than surrender. I do not blame you. I thank you. You never pretended the world wasn’t broken, even when a broken world favored you.“ He takes my hands. “I think…if love is anything, it is truth. If life is anything, it is struggle. You taught me that. Father taught me my life is not my own, not unless we win. So, do not come back here. Do not think of me. Fix your gaze on our enemies. Fix your heart on the struggle. And win."

"As a rule, I don’t accept invitations to parties from men I’ve tried and failed to kill,” Ajax replies. “Nothing personal."

"Go fuck yourself, Lysander."

"One of these days, when the war is won, Atalantia won’t need you anymore. We’ll have a talk then. Son to father."