β
The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy that loves you.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH', the paint wouldn't even have time to dry.
β
β
Terry Pratchett (Thief of Time (Discworld, #26; Death, #5))
β
Deadlines just aren't real to me until I'm staring one in the face.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
How did you die?"
"We er....drowned in a bathtub."
"All three of you?"
"It was a big bathtub.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
No thief, however skillful, can rob one of knowledge, and that is why knowledge is the best and safest treasure to acquire.
β
β
L. Frank Baum (The Lost Princess of Oz (Oz, #11))
β
Even death has a heart.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
He does something to me, that boy. Every time. Itβs his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
It's funny how humans can wrap their mind around things and fit them into their version of reality.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
A DEFINITION NOT FOUND
IN THE DICTIONARY
Not leaving: an act of trust and love,
often deciphered by children
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
Even strength must bow to wisdom sometimes.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
Go on with what your heart tells you, or you will lose all.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
Knowing too much of your future is never a good thing.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
I'm a business man," he'd told her. "No more, no less."
"You're a thief, Kaz."
"Isn't that what I just said?
β
β
Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1))
β
What if it lines up like it did in the Trojan War ... Athena versus Poseidon?"
"I don't know. But I just know that I'll be fighting next to you."
"Why?"
"Because you're my friend, Seaweed Brain. Any more stupid questions?
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
It kills me sometimes, how people die.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
A small but noteworthy note. I've seen so many young men over the years who think they're running at other young men. They are not. They are running at me.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
I am haunted by humans.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
The real world is where the monsters are.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
Humans see what they want to see.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
If only she could be so oblivious again, to feel such love without knowing it, mistaking it for laughter.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
Why can't you place a blessing like that on us?" I asked.
"It only works on wild animals."
"So it would only affect Percy," Annabeth reasoned.
"Hey!" I protested.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
Where's the glory in repeating what others have done?
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
She'd also called me brave...unless she was talking to the catfish.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
The consequence of this is that I'm always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both. (Death)
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
Braccas meas vescimini!"
I wasn't sure where the Latin came from. I think it meant 'Eat my pants!
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
He was the crazy one who had painted himself black and defeated the world.
She was the book thief without the words.
Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like rain.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
Usually we walk around constantly believing ourselves. "I'm okay" we say. "I'm alright". But sometimes the truth arrives on you and you can't get it off. That's when you realize that sometimes it isn't even an answer--it's a question. Even now, I wonder how much of my life is convinced.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
A small fact:
You are going to die....does this worry you?
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
I have to say that although it broke my heart, I was, and still am, glad I was there.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
One was a book thief. The other stole the sky.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
Somewhere, far down, there was an itch in his heart, but he made it a point not to scratch it. He was afraid of what might come leaking out.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and they would smile at the beauty of destruction.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
My name is Percy Jackson.
I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.
Am I a troubled kid?
Yeah. You could say that.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
His soul sat up. It met me. Those kinds of souls always do - the best ones. The ones who rise up and say "I know who you are and I am ready. Not that I want to go, of course, but I will come." Those souls are always light because more of them have been put out. More of them have already found their way to other places.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
Grover didn't say anything for awhile. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
She leaned down and looked at his lifeless face and Leisel kissed her best friend, Rudy Steiner, soft and true on his lips. He tasted dusty and sweet. He tasted like regret in the shadows of trees and in the glow of the anarchist's suit collection. She kissed him long and soft, and when she pulled herself away, she touched his mouth with her fingers...She did not say goodbye. She was incapable, and after a few more minutes at his side, she was able to tear herself from the ground. It amazes me what humans can do, even when streams are flowing down their faces and they stagger on...
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
I said hello to the poodle.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
The sea does not like to be restrained.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
I guess humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that's where they begin. Their great skills is their capacity to escalate.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
Nothing like watching your relatives fight, I always say.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
Hades raised an eyebrow. When he sat forward in his throne, shadowy faces appeared in the folds of his black robes, faces of torment,as if the garment was stitched of trapped souls from the Fields of Punishment, trying to get out. The ADHD part of me wondered, off-task, whether the rest of his clothes were made the same way. What horrible things would you have to do in your life to get woven into Hades' underwear?
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.
β
β
Charles Dickens (David Copperfield)
β
I'd love to tell you I had some deep revelation on my way down, that I came to terms with my own mortality, laughed in the face of death, et cetera.
The truth? My only thought was: Aaaaggghhhhh!
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
Can you surf really well, then?"
I looked at Grover, who was trying hard not to laugh.
"Jeez, Nico," I said. "I've never really tried."
He went on asking questions. Did I fight a lot with Thalia, since she was a daughter of Zeus? (I didn't answer that one.) If Annabeth's mother was Athena, the goddess of wisdom, then why didn't Annabeth know better than to fall off a cliff? (I tried not to strangle Nico for asking that one.) Was Annabeth my girlfriend? (At this point, I was ready to stick the kid in a meat-flavored sack and throw him to the wolves.)
β
β
Rick Riordan
β
I want words at my funeral. But I guess that means you need life in your life.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
Suspecting and knowing are not the same.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
Destiny is usually just around the corner. Like a thief, a hooker, or a lottery vendor: its three most common personifications. But what destiny does not do is home visits. You have to go for it.
β
β
Carlos Ruiz ZafΓ³n (The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1))
β
She was saying goodbye and she didn't even know it.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
My heart is so tired
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
You have nice manners for a thief and a liar," said the dragon.
β
β
J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit, or There and Back Again (The Lord of the Rings, #0))
β
Often I wish this would all be over, Liesel, but then somehow you do something like walk down the basement steps with a snowman in your hands.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
How about a kiss, Saumensch?"
He stood waist-deep in the water for a few moments longer before climbing out and handing her the book. His pants clung to him, and he did not stop walking. In truth, I think he was afraid. Rudy Steiner was scared of the book thief's kiss. He must have longed for it so much. He must have loved her so incredibly hard. So hard that he would never ask for her lips again and would go to his grave without them.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
You can't eat books, sweetheart.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
Itβs a small story really, about, among other things:
* A girl
* Some words
* An accordionist
* Some fanatical Germans
* A Jewish fist fighter
* And quite a lot of thievery
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn't be any of this.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
She wanted none of those days to end, and it was always with disappointment that she watched the darkness stride forward.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
Sometimes, if you want to change a man's mind, you have to change the mind of the man next to him first.
β
β
Megan Whalen Turner (The King of Attolia (The Queen's Thief, #3))
β
People observe the colors of a day only at its beginnings and ends, but to me it's quite clear that a day merges through a multitude of shades and intonations with each passing moment. A single hour can consist of thousands of different colors. Waxy yellows, cloud-spot blues. Murky darkness. In my line of work, I make it a point to notice them.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
It was a Monday and they walked on a tightrope to the sun.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
Safety from what? Who's after me?"
Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorms room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my Essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
So Iβm your huntress and thief?β His hands slid down to cup the backs of my knees as he said with a roguish grin, βYou are my salvation, Feyre.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2))
β
You're Dionysus," I said. "The god of wine."
Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do they say these days, Grover? Do the children say 'Well duh!'?"
Y-yes, Mr. D."
Then, well, duh! Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?"
You're a god."
Yes, child."
A god. You.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
I carried [Rudy] softly through the broken street...with him I tried a little harder [at comforting]. I watched the contents of his soul for a moment and saw a black-painted boy calling the name Jesse Owens as he ran through an imaginary tape. I saw him hip-deep in some icy water, chasing a book, and I saw a boy lying in bed, imagining how a kiss would taste from his glorious next-door neighbor. He does something to me, that boy. Every time. It's his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
You drool when you sleep.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
The words were on their way, and when they arrived, she would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like the rain.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
So much good, so much evil. Just add water.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
Grover murmured, "Well, Percy, what have we learned today?"
That three-headed dogs prefer red rubber balls over sticks?"
No," Grover told me. "We've learned that your plans really, really bite!
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
I gave her my deluxe I'll-Kill-You-Later stare.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
What I did next was so impulsive and dangerous I should've been named ADHD poster child of the year.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
Punctuality is the thief of time
β
β
Oscar Wilde
β
...one opportunity leads directly to another, just as risk leads to more risk, life to more life, and death to more death.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
She took a step and didn't want to take any more, but she did.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
Meat!" he said scornfully. "I'm a vegetarian."
You eat cheese enchiladas and aluminum cans," I reminded him.
Those are vegetables.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
Time's the thief of memory
β
β
Stephen King (The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1))
β
I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race - that rarely do I even simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant...I AM HAUNTED BY HUMANS.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed,
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn,
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1))
β
I don't deserve a soul, yet I still have one. I know because it hurts.
β
β
Douglas Coupland (The Gum Thief)
β
It's useless to lecture a human.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
A SMALL PIECE OF TRUTH
I do not carry a sickle or scythe.
I only wear a hooded black robe when it's cold.
And I don't have those skull-like facial features you seem to enjoy pinning on me from a distance. You want to know what I truly look like? I'll help you out. Find yourself a mirror while I continue.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
Once I got over the fact that my Latin teacher was a horse, we had a nice tour, though I was careful not to walk behind him. I'd done pooper-scooper patrol in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a few times, and, I'm sorry, I did not trust Chiron's back the the way I trusted his front.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
Remind me again-why do you hate me so much?"
I don't hate you."
Could've fooled me."
She folded her cap of invisibility. "Look...we're just not supposed to get along, okay? Our parents are rivals."
Why?"
She sighed. "How many reasons do you want? One time my mom caught Poseidon with his girlfriend in Athena's temple, which is hugely disrespectful. Another time, Athena and Poseidon competed to be the patron god for the city of Athens. Your dad created some stupid saltwater spring for his gift. My mom created the olive tree. The people saw that her gift was better, so they named the city after her."
They must really like olives."
Oh, forget it."
Now, if she'd invented pizza-that I could understand.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
Hair the color of lemons,'" Rudy read. His fingers touched the words. "You told him about me?"
At first, Liesel could not talk. Perhaps it was the sudden bumpiness of love she felt for him. Or had she always loved him? It's likely. Restricted as she was from speaking, she wanted him to kiss her. She wanted him to drag her hand across and pull her over. It didn't matter where. Her mouth, her neck, her cheek. Her skin was empty for it, waiting.
Years ago, when they'd raced on a muddy field, Rudy was a hastily assembled set of bones, with a jagged, rocky smile. In the trees this afternoon, he was a giver of bread and teddy bears. He was a triple Hitler Youth athletics champion. He was her best friend. And he was a month from his death.
Of course I told him about you," Liesel said.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
Names have power.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
As always, one of her books was next to her.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
I like that every page in every book can have a gem on it. It's probably what I love most about writingβthat words can be used in a way that's like a child playing in a sandpit, rearranging things, swapping them around. They're the best moments in a day of writingβwhen an image appears that you didn't know would be there when you started work in the morning.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
When in doubt, choose to live.
β
β
Terry Pratchett (Thief of Time (Discworld, #26; Death, #5))
β
Dear parents, Jasmine was in a relationship with a dirty homeless boy named Aladdin. Snow White lived alone with 7 men. Pinnochio was a liar. Robin Hood was a thief. Tarzan walked around without clothes on. A stranger kissed sleeping beauty and she married him. Cinderella lied and snuck out at night to attend a party. You can't blame us. We were taught to rebel since a young age.
β
β
Walt Disney Company
β
Of course, I'm being rude. I'm spoiling the ending, not only of the entire book, but of this particular piece of it. I have given you two events in advance, because I don't have much interest in building mystery. Mystery bores me. It chores me. I know what happens and so do you. It's the machinations that wheel us there that aggravate, perplex, interest, and astound me. There are many things to think of. There is much story.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
On many counts, taking a boy like Rudy Steiner was robbery--so much life, so much to live for--yet somehow, I'm certain he would have loved to see the frightening rubble and the swelling of the sky on the night he passed away. He'd have cried and turned and smiled if only he could have seen the book thief on her hands and knees, next to his decimated body. He'd have been glad to witness her kissing his dusty, bomb-hit lips.
Yes, I know it.
In the darkness of my dark-beating heart, I know. He'd have loved it all right.
You see?
Even death has a heart.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
I will love you as a thief loves a gallery and as a crow loves a murder, as a cloud loves bats and as a range loves braes. I will love you as misfortune loves orphans, as fire loves innocence and as justice loves to sit and watch while everything goes wrong. I will love you as a battlefield loves young men and as peppermints love your allergies, and I will love you as the banana peel loves the shoe of a man who was just struck by a shingle falling off a house. I will love you as a volunteer fire department loves rushing into burning buildings and as burning buildings love to chase them back out, and as a parachute loves to leave a blimp and as a blimp operator loves to chase after it.
I will love you as a dagger loves a certain personβs back, and as a certain person loves to wear dagger proof tunics, and as a dagger proof tunic loves to go to a certain dry cleaning facility, and how a certain employee of a dry cleaning facility loves to stay up late with a pair of binoculars, watching a dagger factory for hours in the hopes of catching a burglar, and as a burglar loves sneaking up behind people with binoculars, suddenly realizing that she has left her dagger at home. I will love you as a drawer loves a secret compartment, and as a secret compartment loves a secret, and as a secret loves to make a person gasp, and as a gasping person loves a glass of brandy to calm their nerves, and as a glass of brandy loves to shatter on the floor, and as the noise of glass shattering loves to make someone else gasp, and as someone else gasping loves a nearby desk to lean against, even if leaning against it presses a lever that loves to open a drawer and reveal a secret compartment. I will love you until all such compartments are discovered and opened, and until all the secrets have gone gasping into the world. I will love you until all the codes and hearts have been broken and until every anagram and egg has been unscrambled.
I will love you until every fire is extinguised and until every home is rebuilt from the handsomest and most susceptible of woods, and until every criminal is handcuffed by the laziest of policemen. I will love until M. hates snakes and J. hates grammar, and I will love you until C. realizes S. is not worthy of his love and N. realizes he is not worthy of the V. I will love you until the bird hates a nest and the worm hates an apple, and until the apple hates a tree and the tree hates a nest, and until a bird hates a tree and an apple hates a nest, although honestly I cannot imagine that last occurrence no matter how hard I try. I will love you as we grow older, which has just happened, and has happened again, and happened several days ago, continuously, and then several years before that, and will continue to happen as the spinning hands of every clock and the flipping pages of every calendar mark the passage of time, except for the clocks that people have forgotten to wind and the calendars that people have forgotten to place in a highly visible area. I will love you as we find ourselves farther and farther from one another, where we once we were so close that we could slip the curved straw, and the long, slender spoon, between our lips and fingers respectively.
I will love you until the chances of us running into one another slip from slim to zero, and until your face is fogged by distant memory, and your memory faced by distant fog, and your fog memorized by a distant face, and your distance distanced by the memorized memory of a foggy fog. I will love you no matter where you go and who you see, no matter where you avoid and who you donβt see, and no matter who sees you avoiding where you go. I will love you no matter what happens to you, and no matter how I discover what happens to you, and no matter what happens to me as I discover this, and now matter how I am discovered after what happens to me as I am discovering this.
β
β
Lemony Snicket