Red Rising Saga Quotes

"I fought in the Rat War. It was my least favorite theater. Ever."

"when it comes to breaking a planet, it takes tonnage, Newtons, manpower, and a strong stomach—most of your men will die. Why do you think Darrow and I are the only assholes who take planets?"

"what’s more dangerous than a man who believes his cause is just?"

"Drown with laughter that which you cannot retort, how gauche"

"When I was a child, I was asked by my Sovereign what the Society meant to me. I answered then as I would answer now. The Society is a light in the darkness. My Sovereign then asked me what Gold means to me. Knowing my own opinion meant very little, I echoed the words of our greatest hero, Silenius the Lightbringer. I told her that we are those who tend the flame and shepherd the human flock. But the more I look around, I wonder: where have all the shepherds gone? In their place, I see only wolves and sheep."

"Let us call out our great worry: that it is only our enemy who unites us. But what then when our enemy is vanquished? That is the question that haunts us, is it not?” I fling my hand at Dido. “That is what the Rim consul wonders. That is why our Dictator withholds our forces. Why we all look past this war. Because we know the next one hangs over our heads, like the Sword of Damocles, restrained by a single thread.” I look up at Atlas, and so do many others. “If we cannot find common ground today, in two years it will not be the Rising against the Society. It will be Core against Rim. Perhaps even sooner than that."

"If looks could kill, the maggots would already own my flesh."

"My conscience demands better from me than self-interest. My Color demands more from me than silence. Mars must fall!"

"Don’t let Glirastes’s death haunt you, Lysander. Now that you’re in the game, he won’t be the last friend you sacrifice."

"Go, daughters of Mars, and be our wrath."

"My son is lost. He will come home. But he is not here today. The enemy is. So today, we are not mothers. We are not fathers. We are not brothers or sons. They come to make us slaves again. So today we are not dreamers. We are not Colors. We are swords. We are wrath. We are reapers."

"You’re the bookish one. Was it a man who said ‘hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’?” A lancer brings her gauntlets. “It must have been—to imagine something so petty as scorn to be the utmost misery a woman could suffer. What, I wonder, would he make of a mother who has seen her husband sold like meat and her babe nailed to a tree?” She dons her gauntlets. “Perhaps: wrath, I am thee? They come for our children, Virginia.” She turns to me and cups my face with one hand. “Do not fear for me. Instead, pity them."

"Praetorians are an uppity breed."

"She killed your parents.” His voice deepens with raw emotion. “I saw it in her eyes. She orphaned you. That is unforgivable. Family does not do that to each other. So, we are family now. You and I. And family sticks together. Come ruin or victory.” He bumps my forehead with his own. “See you in hell, little brother."

"I am Iron. I am Death. I am Gold."

"War requires monstrous deeds! If you cannot be a monster, then get out of the way!"

"amputations on the field are best done without consulting the patient."

"War, the mortal hallelujah.” He makes the sound of a man receiving a foot massage. “Lionheart. I have broken your champion. Now, I come for you."

"We are a pride. We kill together, we work together, we survive together. They came for a hunt, but they forgot: hic sunt leones.”"

"Sefi once told me fruit is never sweeter than after you’ve eaten shit.” He peels a tangerine and eats it before spitting it out. “Not ripe yet.” He considers his braves. “They will mourn later. For now it is enough they know their brothers would smile to see them living. So they smile for their brothers, for they had a good death. Later they will miss them. Later they will mourn."

"The edge of glory cuts both ways."

"Lysander may promise a new age, but he’ll sacrifice a generation to get it."

"Golds are a faithless breed, founded in the gross sobriety of atheism, but the rest of the Colors are willing to believe."

"gifts. Cicero au Votum.” She thrusts forward Cicero on the end of a leash and holds up a rotted head. “And Ajax au Grimmus. The rest of him couldn’t make it."

"I doubt you had Darrow’s full attention. You must wonder what will happen when you do. Will you measure up?"